SAINT PAUL — With the 2026 legislative session quickly winding down, the Minnesota Senate has passed two bills that would provide modest supplemental funding to help school districts mitigate looming budget shortfalls. The Senate’s Omnibus Supplemental Finance bill includes one-time compensatory aid while another bill would provide one-time school safety aid. The school safety bill also in.
While the funding in the Senate bills is modest, it significantly outpaces the proposals from the Governor and House. The Governor proposed an additional cut of $50 million in special education funding on top of the $250 million cut approved last session. The House budget resolution does not include any supplemental funding for education and the House has not advanced school safety or gun control legislation. AMSD is urging the Governor and House to approve at least the level of funding passed by the Senate.
Below is an overview of the two Senate bills that have passed, as well as the pending Permanent School Fund bill.
Gun Safety / School Safety Bill. SF4067 (Mohamed) provides comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation as well as school safety omnibus funding, but as of this writing the fate of this bill remains uncertain as it heads to the Minnesota House. In its current form, the bill passed the Senate on a 34-33 party line vote, and would:
- Include an assault weapons ban at the point of sale statewide.
- Ban high-capacity magazines (over 17 rounds). • Create restrictions on “ghost guns.”
- Provide $19 million for one time school safety aid in FY27 school districts, charter schools, intermediate districts and Tribal contract schools.
- Provide $1 million to the Dept. of Public Safety for Nonpublic School Safety Grants.
- Provide $2.7 million for one-time school-linked behavioral health grants.
- Expand definition of gun-free school zones to include Minnesota High School League–sponsored activities as well as other circumstances, as well as provide additional language on safe storage requirements.
- Provide some funding to MDE to assist and encourage districts to implement a local anonymous threat reporting system with certain universal requirements.
- LINK: Gun Safety/School Safety Spreadsheet
- LINK: View a full bill summary
Senate Omnibus Supplemental Finance Bill. SF4059 (Marty) provides one-time compensatory aid to soften the impact of the change in how the state identifies students eligible for additional support. The bill would:
- Provide one-time compensatory hold harmless aid of $25.489 million (at least 77.46 percent of the compensatory revenue for the site in FY26, after adjustment for any decline in total enrollment).
- Require law enforcement to notify a licensing board when a teacher is charged with certain crimes, requires the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to develop training for mandatory reporters. The bill would also clarify that alleged maltreatment may be investigated even if it occurred more than three years before a maltreatment report and would also establish a felony offense of grooming.
- Allow a school district to use operating capital revenue to pay utility service costs.
- Require the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) to annually survey school districts and charter schools on certain information relating to the school’s group health insurance plans.
- Exclude tests administered in the 2025-26 school year from the calculation of literacy aid in FY27, FY28, and FY29.
- LINK: View the bill summary
- LINK: View a spreadsheet of the funding breakdown
- LINK: View district runs for compensatory aid
Permanent School Fund. On Monday, May 4, the House of Representatives unanimously passed HF3900. This bill, highlighted in last month’s newsletter, would allow Minnesotans to vote on a constitutional amendment to increase distributions from the Permanent School Fund beginning in the 2027-28 school year. The bill is scheduled for a Senate floor vote on May 7.
