This bill amends RCW 84.52.0531 and RCW 28A.500.015, repeals RCW 84.52.058, and takes effect January 1, 2026. For enrichment levies collected in calendar year 2026 and thereafter it establishes a new formula for a school district’s maximum levy amount and levy base, sets the district maximum levy percentage at 30 percent beginning with collection year 2026, and creates specific adjustments to levy authority for high/nonhigh district relationships, interdistrict cooperative agreements, and innovation academy cooperatives. It requires OSPI to adjust levy bases where indicated, to adopt rules and provide data, and requires districts to obtain approval of an enrichment levy expenditure plan before placing a proposition before voters. The bill creates and clarifies calculations and definitions used for state local effort assistance, including definitions for inflation, prior school year, student enrollment, a state local effort assistance threshold of $1,550 per student adjusted for inflation, and formulas for a district’s “18 percent levy amount” and the “statewide average 18 percent levy rate.” It directs the state to provide local effort assistance using a specified matching ratio comparing a district’s 18 percent levy rate to the statewide average, establishes a cap formula for state-tribal education compact schools, and states that state local effort assistance is not part of the state’s basic education program. The district maximum levy amount must be reduced by the amount of local effort assistance for which the district is eligible and by any out-of-compliance expenditure amount identified by the state auditor; enrichment levy revenues must be held in a separate general fund subfund and are subject to specified restrictions and audit requirements. Legally, the bill primarily modifies existing levy and school funding statutes, repeals a prior statute governing high/nonhigh district relationships, and creates new funding and procedural rules (including a new formula-driven assistance program and reductions tied to audit findings). Some statutory definitions and cross-referenced formula components are truncated or missing in the provided text (for example, the full definition of “eligible school district” and some subsection cross-references), so the complete implementation detail and certain formula elements are unclear from the extracted material alone.

Starting January 1, 2026, school districts will face a narrower and more standardized limit on enrichment and excess levies: the maximum levy percentage is set at 30 percent and the amount districts can tax will be calculated mainly from state basic education funding plus a short list of state categorical allocations rather than a broader set of local revenues. That will shift which districts collect levy dollars in high/nonhigh relationships, interdistrict cooperatives, and innovation academy arrangements (OSPI will adjust enrollment shares), and state-tribal compact schools will receive a per-student supplement up to $1,550 (inflation adjusted). The law also repeals the prior high/nonhigh statute and requires districts to get an approved expenditure plan before placing a levy before voters, to deposit levy revenues in a separate subfund, and to comply with audits. In practical terms, some districts will lose local taxing capacity while others—those with relatively low assessed value compared with their levy needs—will receive state local effort assistance calculated from each district’s “18 percent levy” rate versus the statewide average, which may reduce the need to increase local levies. Districts must follow new administrative steps (OSPI rules, separate subfund accounting, voter plan approval) and face the risk that auditor-identified out-of-compliance expenditures can reduce their levy amounts. Important calculation details and some definitions needed to predict exact dollar impacts for individual districts are not included in the extracted text, so the precise funding changes for any given district remain uncertain.