Adds to existing law to provide for regional service centers.

This legislation provides a framework that two or more school districts or charter schools can use to share services that are cost-prohibitive or impractical for a single district or charter to deliver independently. Regional Service Centers provide targeted support to school districts and charter schools, particularly small and rural ones, with a focus on hard-to-fill special education positions such as speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and school psychologists, and other non-instructional positions, such as business managers. Districts and charters often compete for a limited pool of qualified special education professionals at a high cost, and many do not require full-time staff to meet their students’ needs. The legislation creates a fund to account for various levels of shared service contract costs, paid by school districtsandpubliccharterschoolsthatchoosetoparticipate,thatwouldvaryannuallybasedontheparticipation of local schools and their specific needs. Many states use similar models to share specialized services.