Provides that a student's enrollment in Medicaid would be included in calculating and determining the student success factor for use in the foundation education-aid formula.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would change how Rhode Island calculates the amount of education funding that schools receive for students who come from low-income backgrounds. Currently, the state uses a measure called the "student success factor" to identify students who may need extra support, and schools get additional funding for those students. Right now, this calculation relies on data about students who qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. This bill would add Medicaid enrollment as another way to identify and count low-income students for this funding formula.

The practical effect is that schools could receive more state education aid if they have students enrolled in Medicaid who weren't already being counted through the existing meal program data. Since Medicaid enrollment is often a reliable indicator of a family's low income status, using it as an additional data point could give a more complete and accurate picture of how many economically disadvantaged students a school serves. Schools in districts with higher numbers of Medicaid-enrolled students could potentially see an increase in their state funding.

This bill would primarily affect public school districts across Rhode Island, particularly those serving larger populations of low-income families. Families themselves would not need to do anything differently — the change would happen behind the scenes in how the state calculates and distributes school funding. The bill has been introduced and referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where it will be reviewed before any further action is taken.