School District Transparency Act

The “School District Transparency Act”, which is an expansion of the 2007 Taxpayer Transparency Act, is designed to show taxpayers how the state spends public funds via a website hosted by the State Department of Education.

Background

The School District Transparency Act, which was signed into law in November 2010, requires the State Department of Education to maintain a database of school district expenditures that the public may download. The database will include information such as per pupil expenditures as well as budgeted and audited expenditures for each fiscal year. The information must be made available within 120 days after school districts provide it. School districts that maintain websites must also make such data available on those sites via a link to the State Department of Education's website.

The Bond Transparency Act of 2017 became effective November 1, 2017, and requires school districts and other local government entities to publish on their respective website a description of (1) projects or assets to be acquired, improved, or repaired with bond-issued proceeds; (2) any unpaid or unfinished bond approved by the voters; and (3) the use of the previous bond proceeds.

Status of Bond Issues

not applicable