N.Y. Education Law § 215-c: Promoting cost-effectiveness in public elementary and secondary schools

§ 215-c. Promoting cost-effectiveness in public elementary and

secondary schools. 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section,

the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) "cost-effectiveness" shall mean one or more measures of the

efficient use of school district resources relative to school

performance in accordance with state educational standards, as

determined by the department.

(b) "cost-effective practices" shall mean those practices which most

efficiently use limited resources to produce a particular outcome or set

of outcomes in accordance with state educational standards.

(c) "board" shall mean the board of regents of the state of New York.

2. The board and the commissioner shall wherever practicable promote

cost-effectiveness and cost-effective practices in the public elementary

and secondary schools and boards of cooperative educational services of

the state. As part of the effort pursuant to this section, by January

first, nineteen hundred ninety-eight and periodically thereafter, the

commissioner shall (a) identify current structures, policies, laws and

regulations which hinder cost-effectiveness in schools and school

districts; (b) identify cost-effective districts by determining which

schools or school districts have demonstrated significant achievement or

improvement relative to resource allocation in such areas as student

performance, instruction, management, business administration, early

childhood education and such other areas as the board deems appropriate;

(c) identify cost-effective action, policies, practices and programs

which may be successfully replicated in other school districts; and (d)

recommend or, to the extent feasible, develop specific cost-effective

ways in which to encourage, recognize and reward academic improvement

and success in school districts, and remove existing penalties and

fiscal disincentives to such improvement or success.

3. The commissioner shall consult with school district administrators,

district superintendents and superintendents of schools, teachers,

school board members, parents, students, non-pedagogical school support

personnel, representatives from post-secondary institutions and other

pertinent groups and individuals in determining cost-effective programs

pursuant to subdivision two of this section.

4. The commissioner shall disseminate information to school district

administrators, school board members and other interested parties on how

cost-effective practices can be used and applied in school districts,

individual schools and the classroom. Such information shall include a

summary of exemplary cost-effective practices among school districts

receiving apportionments pursuant to subparagraph one of paragraph h of

subdivision fourteen of section thirty-six hundred two of this chapter.