Bill > SB0209

This bill establishes a grant program administered by the State Board of Education to provide personal mobile learning devices, defined as tablet computers assigned to individual students, to school districts and charter schools. The grant funds can be used for the devices themselves, related equipment, software, services, and professional development for educators on using these devices and online content. The State Board of Education is required to create rules for awarding these grants, which must ensure that grant money supplements, rather than replaces, existing technology spending, and that recipients provide matching funds equal to or greater than the grant amount, with restrictions on using federal funds or increasing tax rates to meet this matching requirement. The bill also appropriates $3,000,000 from the Education Fund for this program in fiscal year 2014 and sets an effective date of May 14, 2013, with the appropriation taking effect on July 1, 2013.