A. It is hereby the intent of the Oklahoma Legislature to provide funding to urban school districts to hire school counselors at the elementary level. Preference for funding shall be given to those urban school districts that have the highest number of elementary students at-risk and in need of alternative education. For purposes of this section, “urban school district” means a school district with an average daily membership of thirty thousand (30,000) or more.
B. Implementation of this section shall be contingent upon the appropriation by the Legislature of state funds for the specific purpose of implementing this section. Nothing in this section shall prevent the State Board of Education or a school district board of education from utilizing private, local, or federal funds to implement this section.
C. Implementation of this section shall be delayed until the current expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance in public elementary and secondary schools in unadjusted dollars for the 1998-99 school year or any school year thereafter for Oklahoma, as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics annually in the Digest of Education Statistics, reaches at least ninety percent (90%) of the regional average expenditure for that same year, and funds are provided. For purposes of this section, the regional average expenditure shall consist of the current expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance in public elementary and secondary schools in unadjusted dollars for each of the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, averaged together. By January 1 of each year, the State Board of Education shall report whether or not the ninety-percent expenditure level has been reached based on information reported annually in the Digest of Education Statistics by the National Center for Education Statistics. This section shall be implemented on July 1 after the first January 1 report verifies that the ninety-percent expenditure level has been reached and funds have been provided for the specific purposes of this section.
Added by Laws 1999, c. 320, § 51, eff. July 1, 1999. Amended by Laws 2001, c. 201, § 11; Laws 2003, c. 434, § 28.