R277-477-4. Appropriate Use of School LAND Trust Program Funds

  (1) Parents, teachers, and the principal, in collaboration with an approving entity, shall review school-wide assessment data annually and use School LAND Trust Program funds in data-driven and evidence-based ways to improve educational outcomes, including:

  (a) strategies that are measurable and show academic outcomes with multi-tiered systems of support; and

  (b) counselors and educators working with students and families on academic and behavioral issues when a direct impact on academic achievement can be measured.

  (2) School LAND Trust Program expenditures are required to have a direct impact on the instruction of students in the particular school's areas of most critical academic need.

  (3) A school may not use School LAND Trust Program funds for the following:

  (a) to cover the fixed costs of doing business;

  (b) for construction, maintenance, facilities, overhead, security, or athletics; or

  (c) to pay for non-academic in-school, co-curricular, or extracurricular activities.

  (4) A school district or local school board may not require a council or school to spend the school's School LAND Trust Program funds on a specific use or set of uses.

  (5)(a) A council may budget and spend no more than $7,000 for in-school civic and character education, including student leadership skills training, digital citizenship training, and implementing school safety principles.

  (b) A school may designate School LAND Trust Program funds to implement school safety principles or for an in-school civic or character education program or activity only if the plan clearly describes how the program or activity has a direct impact of the instruction of students in a school's areas of most critical academic need.

  (6) Notwithstanding other provisions in this rule, a school may use funds as needed to implement a student's Individualized Education Plan.

  (7) Student incentives implemented as part of an academic goal in the School LAND Trust Program may not exceed $2 per awarded student in an academic school year.