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Foundation Law
Funding Public Education
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code to get your state legislators' contact information.
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On July 7, 1995, the Foundation Program was signed in law by then Governor Fob James, Jr. Over 100 statutes were either repealed or amended and replaced with Act 95-314. This act has since been codified into the overall statutes of the State of Alabama covering education law (Title 16).
The Act was to assist in providing at least a minimum of a 175-day school term for students (the same as under the Minimum Program). In 2006 the instructional day school term was raised to a minimum of 180 days. Further, the law was “to assist in the promotion of educational opportunity for all children in the public schools.” In order to participate in the Foundation Program (to receive state funds), each local system had to pledge a portion of its local revenues to be folded into the funding requirements of this program. All systems have participated. In the first year (1995-96) the local system had to pledge 5 mils of local taxes (or its equivalent) – the second year this rose to 7.5 mils, and on the final year the minimum requirement was 10 mils where it currently rests. This local involvement was to assure that each local system was structurally and financially committed to the various components of the Foundation Program.
The program is clearly driven by local school and classroom needs – in fact, no provisions of the program directly address central administration funding. This is emphasized in statutory language: “The local board of education shall allocate state and local foundation program funds to each school in an equitable manner, based on the needs of the students and the schools, as reflected in the current year’s actual student populations, including at risk students, students receiving special education services, and students enrolled in vocational/technical educational programs.”
The major center piece of the funding process is to provide state funds to cover salaries and fringe benefits for “foundation units.” These are defined as classroom teachers, principals, assistant principals, librarians, and counselors. State funding is provided for principals, assistant principals, librarians, and counselors on the basis of SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) standards which is driven by the number of students enrolled in a school and by the grade levels (elementary, middle, or high school). Every school is funded for a principal. Any additional placement of staff in these categories is to be supported by local (non-foundation) funding. Many school systems hire above the state allocation for assistant principals. Classroom teacher foundation units are set by a “divisor” which is prescribed in the annual state budget for K-12. Over the course of the implementation of the Foundation Program law, the divisors have dropped (increasing the number of funded teacher units) to a current level of:
| K through 3rd Grade | Each 13.8 students earns one funded teacher unit |
| 4th Grade through 6th Grade | Each 21.4 students earns one funded teacher unit |
| 7th Grade through 8th Grade | Each 20.4 students earns one funded teacher unit |
| 9th Grade through 12th Grade | Each 18 students earns one funded teacher unit |
These divisors were NOT interpreted as setting student enrollment standards (see discussion of class size caps later). The divisors are set as a mathematical derivation for all students with special weighting factors for Special Education and Vocational students. As outlined in the statute: “…the grade level divisors include for special education 5% full time equivalent across all grades weighted 2.5 times the regular student weight.” For Vocational student calculations, “…the grade level divisors include for vocational/technical education 7.4% full time equivalent in grades 7-8 weighted 1.4 times the regular student weight, and 16.5% full time equivalent in grades 9-12 weight 2.0 times the regular student weight.” The weights may be changed from year to year upon recommendation to the governor by the State Board of Education.
Originally, in 1995, many systems employed “local teacher units” – teachers above the number funded by the Foundation Program. As the divisors were lowered and greater numbers of teachers were funded by the Foundation Program, the local systems were able to obligate less of their local funds to teacher employment but were yet able to meet staffing needs for classroom teachers (this process became important in the evolution of the State Salary Matrix or State Salary Schedule – see later discussion on this topic).
In order to calculate the number of Foundation units to be funded for a particular fiscal year (October 1st through September 30th), each system is required to accurately report student enrollment during the first 20 days after Labor Day.* Such constitutes the Average Daily Membership (ADM) report. Funding is now based on enrollment rather than attendance, as was the case in the Minimum Program. For funding purposes local superintendents should strive to have students enrolled on the very first day of school. If a student enrolled on the 10th day after Labor Day, he/she would only count as a “half student” for funding purposes. Students enrolling or dropping after the 20th day after Labor Day have no effect on the state foundation funding process for the succeeding year. ADM figures for one year form the basis of the funding calculations for the next school year. The law and the state budget provide some additional funding for systems that are in high (student) growth areas to accommodate student counts and foundation unit allocations being out of synchronization for a year.
ADM counts are done grade by grade and school by school making it possible to determine teacher distribution needs from one school year to the next.
*Act 05-309, passed during the 2005 legislative session, changed the requirement to encompass the first 20 days after Labor Day rather than the first 40 days of school mandated in the original legislation.