Pursuant to A.C.A. §§ 6-20-603 and 6-20-604, school districts containing one or more isolated school areas may be eligible for two types of isolated funding. A.C.A. § 6-20-603 established a per-student isolated funding amount to be multiplied by the prior year average daily membership (ADM) of the isolated school area. Recent Attorney General Opinion number 2005-115 provides for current year ADM to be used in the year of an isolated school's partial closure. If an isolated school has completely closed, the school district will receive no isolated funding on behalf of the closed isolated school. Isolated funding pursuant to A.C.A. § 6-20-603 is restricted revenue. It will be paid in two installments. The first installment will be approximately 75% of the total calculated amount and will be paid in December of 2005. The final installment will be adjusted for appropriate ADM changes and will be paid in June of 2006.
Any unused appropriation of isolated funding pursuant to A.C.A. § 6-20-603 shall be used to fund isolated special needs funding pursuant to A.C.A. § 6-20-604. Eligible school districts may receive one of four categories of isolated special needs funding. School districts must meet the requirements of A.C.A. § 6-20-604 to be eligible for isolated special needs funding. In part, eligibility requires a school district to file an affidavit of isolated school status with the state board after the consolidation or annexation process or August 12, 2005. The following school districts have affidavits on file with the state board:
0101 DeWitt (Gillett and Humphrey)
1101 Corning (Biggers-Reyno)
1408 Emerson-Taylor (Taylor)
2105 McGehee (Arkansas City and Delta Special)
2807 Greene Co. Tech (Delaplaine)
3004 Malvern (Carthage)
3212 Cedar Ridge (Cord-Charlotte)
3302 Melbourne (Mount Pleasant)
3405 Jackson Co. (Swifton)
4401 Huntsville (St. Paul)
4603 Fouke (Bright Star)
4802 Clarendon (Holly Grove)
5102 Jasper (Kingston and Oark)
5106 Deer/Mt. Judea (Deer and Mt. Judea)
5205 Harmony Grove (Sparkman)
5705 Wickes (Umpire)
5706 Ouachita River (Oden)
6303 Bryant (Paron)
6502 Searcy County (Leslie)
6505 Ozark Mountain (St. Joe and Bruno-Pyatt)
6806 Twin Rivers (Oak Ridge and Williford)
6901 Mountain View (Rural Special and Timbo)
7102 Clinton (Alread and Scotland)
7510 Two Rivers (Fourche Valley and Plainview-Rover)
Isolated special needs funding pursuant to A.C.A. § 6-20-604 is unrestricted revenue. Isolated special needs funding will be paid in one payment. Categories I and II will be paid in December of 2005. Categories III and IV will be paid in June of 2006 pending availability of funds.