(1) The operation allocation shall be calculated using the following factors:
(a) The combined student count of basic program students;
(b) The combined student count of special program students;
(c) The district's prorated average distance;
(d) The district's total land area;
(e) The district's total number of roadway miles;
(f) The district's prorated number of destinations served by home to school routes;
(g) The district's number of kindergarten routes operated during ten consecutive school days that include the count period and are all within the report period; and
(h) If the school district is a nonhigh district, the answer to the following question: Does the district provide transportation service for the high school students residing in the district?
For each district, an expected allocation is determined using the coefficients resulting from a regression analysis of (a) through (h) of this subsection, evaluated statewide against the prior school year's total to and from transportation expenditures. If a data element is determined not to be statistically significant, it shall not be included in the calculation of the allocation. For the 2011-12 school year, the coefficients will be calculated based on the fall 2011 report and the 2010-11 school year transportation expenditures. In the 2012-13 school year and thereafter, the coefficients will be determined using the prior school year fall, winter, and spring reports and prior school year expenditures.
(2) For the calculation of the regression analysis coefficients, the allowable transportation expenditures for each district shall be reduced by the total amount of transportation employee compensation costs in excess of the rate provided in the Omnibus Appropriations Act, including base salary or hourly wage rate, fringe benefit rates, and applicable health care rates.
(3) The adjusted allocation is the result of modifying the expected allocation by:
(a) Adding any district car mileage reimbursement; and
(b) Adding any adjustment resulting from the alternate funding systems identified in WAC
392-141-380; and
(c) Making any deduction resulting from an alternate school year calendar approved by the state board of education under the provisions of RCW
28A.305.141.
(4) Each district's actual allocation for student transportation operations is the lesser of the prior school year's total allowable student transportation expenditures or the adjusted allocation. School districts contracting for student transportation operations shall have any payments in lieu of depreciation under the provisions of WAC
392-142-245 deducted from the district's allowable transportation expenditures.
(5) The funding assumption for the transportation operation allocation is that kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12, or whatever grades are enrolled in district schools) school transportation services are provided by the district five days per week, to and from school, before and after the regular school day and operating one hundred eighty days per school year. K-12 service being provided on any other basis is subject to corresponding proration of the operation allocation.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 28A.150.290. 11-15-007, § 392-141-360, filed 7/7/11, effective 8/7/11.]