A school district’s MAEP allocation is determined by multiplying the state’s portion of the base student cost by the district’s average daily attendance. The average daily attendance figures that are used are those from the fall semester preceding the legislative session in which the appropriation is decided. The high growth formula was established to address the fact that school districts in which enrollment had increased from one year to the next had received no funding for those new students.
A school district is considered a “high growth district” if it has had any increase in enrollment for 3 consecutive years. The formula predicts the district’s likely growth for the following year by averaging the growth for the 3 consecutive prior years, and that average growth is funded according to the base student cost that is determined by the MAEP formula.
