H-8266

   Amend House File 2278, as amended, passed, and reprinted by the House, as follows:
   1.  Page 1, by striking lines 1 and 2 and inserting: 
   <Section 1.  Section 282.18, subsection 8, paragraphs b and c, Code 2024, are amended to read as follows:>
   2.  Page 2, after line 2 by inserting: 
   <c.  (1)  If the pupil meets the economic eligibility requirements established by the department and state board of education, the sending district is responsible for providing transportation or paying the pro rata cost of the transportation to a parent or guardian for transporting the pupil to and from a point on a regular school bus route of a contiguous receiving district unless the cost of providing transportation or the pro rata cost of the transportation to a parent or guardian exceeds the average transportation cost per pupil transported for the previous school year in the district. The economic eligibility requirements established by the department of education and state board of education shall minimally include those pupils with household incomes of two hundred percent or less of the federal poverty level as defined by the most recently revised poverty income guidelines published by the United States department of health and human services. If the cost exceeds the average transportation cost per pupil transported for the previous school year, the sending district shall only be responsible for that average per pupil amount. A sending district which provides transportation for a pupil to a contiguous receiving district under this subsection may withhold, from the district cost per pupil amount that is to be paid to the receiving district, an amount which represents the average or pro rata cost per pupil for transportation, whichever is less.
   (2)  A sending district shall not be responsible for paying a parent or guardian pursuant to subparagraph (1) if the pupil is transported by the receiving district to and from school in the receiving district pursuant to paragraph “b”.>