Section 135.714

Title X TAXATION AND REVENUE

Chapter 135

Effective - 28 Aug 2024, 2 histories   

  135.714.  Educational assistance organization duties — annual audit — duties of state treasurer — information to be posted on state treasurer's website. — 1.  Each educational assistance organization shall:

  (1)  Notify the state treasurer of such organization's intent to provide scholarship accounts to qualified students;

  (2)  Demonstrate to the state treasurer that such organization is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended;

  (3)  Provide a state treasurer-approved receipt to taxpayers for contributions made to the organization;

  (4)  Ensure that grants are distributed to scholarship accounts of qualified students in the following order:

  (a)  Qualified students who received a scholarship grant in the previous school year;

  (b)  Qualified students who are siblings of qualified students who will receive a scholarship grant in the current school year;

  (c)  Qualified students that have an approved "individualized education plan" (IEP) developed under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. Section 1400, et seq., as amended, or who have been diagnosed with dyslexia, as the term "dyslexia" is defined in section 633.420;

  (d)  Qualified students who are eligible for free lunch as approved by the department of elementary and secondary education in accordance with federal regulations and who reside in an unaccredited or provisionally accredited school district;

  (e)  Qualified students who are eligible for reduced price lunch as approved by the department of elementary and secondary education in accordance with federal regulations and who reside in an unaccredited or provisionally accredited school district;

  (f)  Qualified students who are eligible for free lunch as approved by the department of elementary and secondary education in accordance with federal regulations;

  (g)  Qualified students who are eligible for reduced price lunch as approved by the department of elementary and secondary education in accordance with federal regulations;

  (h)  Qualified students who are active duty military dependents who have relocated to Missouri and are enrolling in a school in the state for the first time; and

  (i)  All other qualified students;

  (5)  Ensure that:

  (a)  One hundred percent of such organization's revenues from interest or investments is spent on scholarship accounts;

  (b)  At least ninety percent of such organization's revenues from qualifying contributions is spent on scholarship accounts; and

  (c)  Marketing and administrative expenses do not exceed the following limits of such organization's remaining revenue from contributions:

  a.  Ten percent for the first two hundred fifty thousand dollars;

  b.  Eight percent for the next five hundred thousand dollars; and

  c.  Three percent thereafter;

  (6)  (a)  Distribute scholarship account payments either four times per year or in a single lump sum at the beginning of the year as requested by the parent of a qualified student, based on the state adequacy target as defined in section 163.011 and calculated by the department of elementary and secondary education, subject to the following total grant amount limits:

  a.  For a qualified student who meets the criteria to be included in a school district's limited English proficiency pupil count as set forth in subdivision (8) of section 163.011, not more than one hundred sixty percent of the state adequacy target;

  b.  For a qualified student who is eligible for free or reduced price lunch as approved by the department of elementary and secondary education in accordance with federal regulations, not more than one hundred twenty-five percent of the state adequacy target;

  c.  For a qualified student who has an approved individualized education plan developed under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. Section 1400, et seq., as amended, not more than one hundred seventy-five percent of the state adequacy target; and

  d.  For all other qualified students, not more than the state adequacy target;

  (b)  Scholarship account payments distributed under this subdivision shall be in the form of a deposit into the scholarship account of the qualified student;

  (7)  Provide the state treasurer, upon request, with criminal background checks on all such organization's employees and board members and exclude from employment or governance any individual who might reasonably pose a risk to the appropriate use of contributed funds;

  (8)  Demonstrate such organization's financial accountability by:

  (a)  Submitting to the state treasurer annual audit financial statements by a certified public accountant within six months of the end of the educational assistance organization's fiscal year; and

  (b)  Having an auditor certify that the report is free of material misstatements; and

  (9)  Ensure that participating students take the state achievement tests or nationally norm-referenced tests that measure learning gains in math and English language arts, and provide for value-added assessment, in grades that require testing under the statewide assessment system set forth in section 160.518;

  (10)  Allow costs of the testing requirements to be covered by the scholarships distributed by the educational assistance organization;

  (11)  Provide the parents of each student who was tested with a copy of the results of the tests on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;

  (12)  Provide the test results to the state treasurer, the department of elementary and secondary education, and the board established in section 135.715 on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;

  (13)  Report student information that would allow the state treasurer, the department of elementary and secondary education, and the board established in section 135.715 to aggregate data by grade level, gender, family income level, and race;

  (14)  Provide rates of high school graduation, college attendance, and college graduation for participating students to the state treasurer, the department of elementary and secondary education, and the board established in section 135.715 in a manner consistent with nationally recognized standards;

  (15)  Provide to the state treasurer, the department of elementary and secondary education, and the board established in section 135.715 the results from an annual parental satisfaction survey, including information about the number of years that the parent's child has participated in the scholarship program.  The annual satisfaction survey shall ask parents of scholarship students to express:

  (a)  Their level of satisfaction with the child's academic achievement, including academic achievement at the schools the child attends through the scholarship program versus academic achievement at the school previously attended;

  (b)  Their level of satisfaction with school safety at the schools the child attends through the scholarship program versus safety at the schools previously attended;

  (16)  Demonstrate such organization's financial viability, if such organization is to receive donations of fifty thousand dollars or more during the school year, by filing with the state treasurer before the start of the school year a surety bond payable to the state in an amount equal to the aggregate amount of contributions expected to be received during the school year or other financial information that demonstrates the financial viability of the educational assistance organization.

  2.  The annual audit required under this section shall include:

  (1)  The name and address of the educational assistance organization;

  (2)  The name and address of each qualified student for whom a parent opened a scholarship account with the organization;

  (3)  The total number and total dollar amount of contributions received during the previous calendar year; and

  (4)  The total number and total dollar amount of scholarship accounts opened during the previous calendar year.

  3.  The state treasurer shall:

  (1)  Ensure compliance with all student privacy laws for data in the state treasurer's possession;

  (2)  Collect all test results;

  (3)  Provide the test results and associated learning gains to the public via a state website after the third year of test and test-related data collection.  The findings shall be aggregated by the students' grade level, gender, family income level, number of years of participation in the scholarship program, and race; and

  (4)  Provide graduation rates to the public via a state website after the third year of test and test-related data collection.

  4.  The state treasurer shall cause the following information to be posted on the state treasurer's website annually, provided that no personally identifiable information of any student is released:

  (1)  The number of students who have been awarded a scholarship to date and the number of students who have been awarded a scholarship in the current school year;

  (2)  The number of scholarship recipients enrolled in each qualified school, along with the number of recipients who qualify for free and reduced price lunch and the number of recipients who receive special education services and the type of special education services received.  Such information shall be broken down by school year and the total to date;

  (3)  The total number of scholarship recipients who are eligible for free and reduced price lunch as approved by the department of elementary and secondary education in accordance with federal guidelines, broken down by school year and the total to date;

  (4)  The total number of scholarship recipients who have an individualized education plan (IEP) developed under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. Section 1400, et seq., as amended, broken down by school year and the total to date;

  (5)  The number of scholarship recipients who have received a grant from each educational assistance organization, broken down by school year and the total to date;

  (6)  The student test scores required to be posted online pursuant to subdivision (3) of subsection 3 of this section;

  (7)  The results of the parent satisfaction survey required annually pursuant to subdivision (15) of subsection 1 of this section;

  (8)  The average dollar amount of a scholarship grant for all students who participate in the program;

  (9)  The average dollar amount of a scholarship grant for all students who participate in the program and who have an IEP;

  (10)  The average duration of a student's participation in the program;

  (11)  The number of students who are in their first year of participation in the program;

  (12)  A list of the educational assistance organizations that make contributions to the empowerment scholarship accounts of students enrolled in each qualified school; and

  (13)  The total amount of money that has been remitted from qualified students' empowerment scholarship accounts to each qualified school, broken down by school year and the total aggregate amount.

  5.  An educational assistance organization may contract with private financial management firms to manage scholarship accounts with the supervision of the state treasurer, provided that all laws and regulations that apply to employees of such educational assistance organization shall also apply to the actions of any employees of the management firm while they are conducting work relating to the direct decision-making of the operation of such educational assistance organization.

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(L. 2021 H.B. 349, A.L. 2024 S.B. 727)