New bill would reimburse school districts for costs of migrant students

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)--A New York State Senator has introduced legislation to reimburse school districts for costs associated with teaching migrant students.

Since the beginning of the school year, Mohonasen Central School District has had between 60 to 70 migrant students. Superintendent Shannon Shine was asked about the costs associated with having more kids.

"A rough estimate is about $300,000," said Shine. I know it’s gonna end up being more. The way I come up with that figure is I say, okay, we are hiring two new English as a second language teachers, we hired a couple bilingual TA’s, we have additional support services that are being taken up. So, Human Resources are really the biggest thing."

He said things like chrome books and new reading material are other additional costs.

"We are spending funds that weren’t really in the budget but that we have available to cover the costs of educating asylum seeker, migrant students," explained Shine. "But I’m hoping at some point we will be made whole on that."

It’s something Senator Jim Tedisco hopes will happen too and is now sponsoring a bill to do just that. Back in August, he wrote a letter to Governor Hochul, calling on her to aid school districts like Mohonasen.

"I want to make sure she makes school district whole," explained Tedisco. "It would probably be in the new budget coming up because what the bill says, is at the end of the school year, school districts would respond to them new costs which are directly related to the new educational positions they had to hire, to the new programs they had to put in place."

Tedisco is working to get bipartisan support on the legislation.

When asked if Hochul is considering reimbursing school districts, her office said, “Governor Hochul will release the details of her Executive Budget early next year, as required by law.”

In the state budget passed earlier this year, money for education increased. $24 billion was allocated to fully fund Foundation Aid for the first time in state history.