H-3071

AN ACT Relating to education; amending RCW 28A.150.220, 28A.230.090, and 28A.410.080; adding a new section to chapter 28A.225 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.150 RCW; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that work stoppages by educational employees have the potential of significantly extending the school year into the summer months, which creates tremendous uncertainty for parents and students. In addition, school attendance after mid-June adversely affects student employment, cultural, and travel opportunities.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 28A.225 RCW to read as follows:

(1) As used in this section, "work stoppage" means any concerted action by employees or employee organizations to suspend, curtail, interrupt, withhold, or otherwise fail or refuse to perform fully their normal duties or services as public employees in connection with a controversy concerning terms, tenure, or conditions of their public employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of their public employment, regardless of whether the disputants in the controversy stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee or whether the concerted action is directed against the employer school district.

(2) The last day of mandatory school attendance for students enrolled in the common schools of the state for each school year, beginning with the 1990-91 school year shall be June 21st of each school year, or if June 21st is a Saturday or a Sunday, the Friday before June 21st. If, as a result of a work stoppage by employees of the school or school district, a school or school district has not offered a one hundred eighty-day school year as of June 21st of any school year, the school or school district shall continue to offer an education program until the school or school district has offered an education program for one hundred eighty days. Students shall not be required to attend school after June 21st of any school year but may attend on a voluntary basis. The voluntary education program shall include transportation, meals, and other student services and programs generally offered during the school year.

(3) Students who have made satisfactory progress as of June 21st of each school year in a course that has been shortened by the ending of the school year on June 21st shall receive full credit for the course. The state board of education shall adopt rules and the school districts shall adopt policies to revise the definitions of required coursework and coursework credits for courses taken during the school year to allow students who have made satisfactory progress in the courses taken during the school year to receive full credit for those courses.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28A.150 RCW to read as follows:

An education program offered by a school or school district under section 2 of this act shall be deemed to comply with the requirements of RCW 28A.150.220 regarding a one hundred eighty-day school year, total program hour offerings, and course mix and percentages. Schools or school districts offering an education program under section 2 of this act shall receive all funding they would otherwise be entitled to receive.

Sec. 4. RCW 28A.150.220 and 1990 c 33 s 105 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) For the purposes of this section and RCW 28A.150.250 and 28A.150.260:

(a) The term "total program hour offering" shall mean those hours when students are provided the opportunity to engage in educational activity planned by and under the direction of school district staff, as directed by the administration and board of directors of the district, inclusive of intermissions for class changes, recess and teacher/parent-guardian conferences which are planned and scheduled by the district for the purpose of discussing students' educational needs or progress, and exclusive of time actually spent for meals.

(b) "Instruction in work skills" shall include instruction in one or more of the following areas: Industrial arts, home and family life education, business and office education, distributive education, agricultural education, health occupations education, vocational education, trade and industrial education, technical education and career education.

(2) Except as provided in section 2 of this 1991 act, satisfaction of the basic education goal identified in RCW 28A.150.210 shall be considered to be implemented by the following program requirements:

(a) Each school district shall make available to students in kindergarten at least a total program offering of four hundred fifty hours. The program shall include reading, arithmetic, language skills and such other subjects and such activities as the school district shall determine to be appropriate for the education of the school district's students enrolled in such program;

(b) Each school district shall make available to students in grades one through three, at least a total program hour offering of two thousand seven hundred hours. A minimum of ninety-five percent of the total program hour offerings shall be in the basic skills areas of reading/language arts (which may include foreign languages), mathematics, social studies, science, music, art, health and physical education. The remaining five percent of the total program hour offerings may include such subjects and activities as the school district shall determine to be appropriate for the education of the school district's students in such grades;

(c) Each school district shall make available to students in grades four through six at least a total program hour offering of two thousand nine hundred seventy hours. A minimum of ninety percent of the total program hour offerings shall be in the basic skills areas of reading/language arts (which may include foreign languages), mathematics, social studies, science, music, art, health and physical education. The remaining ten percent of the total program hour offerings may include such subjects and activities as the school district shall determine to be appropriate for the education of the school district's students in such grades;

(d) Each school district shall make available to students in grades seven through eight, at least a total program hour offering of one thousand nine hundred eighty hours. A minimum of eighty-five percent of the total program hour offerings shall be in the basic skills areas of reading/language arts (which may include foreign languages), mathematics, social studies, science, music, art, health and physical education. A minimum of ten percent of the total program hour offerings shall be in the area of work skills. The remaining five percent of the total program hour offerings may include such subjects and activities as the school district shall determine to be appropriate for the education of the school district's students in such grades;

(e) Each school district shall make available to students in grades nine through twelve at least a total program hour offering of four thousand three hundred twenty hours. A minimum of sixty percent of the total program hour offerings shall be in the basic skills areas of language arts, foreign language, mathematics, social studies, science, music, art, health and physical education. A minimum of twenty percent of the total program hour offerings shall be in the area of work skills. The remaining twenty percent of the total program hour offerings may include traffic safety or such subjects and activities as the school district shall determine to be appropriate for the education of the school district's students in such grades, with not less than one-half thereof in basic skills and/or work skills: PROVIDED, That each school district shall have the option of including grade nine within the program hour offering requirements of grades seven and eight so long as such requirements for grades seven through nine are increased to two thousand nine hundred seventy hours and such requirements for grades ten through twelve are decreased to three thousand two hundred forty hours.

(3) In order to provide flexibility to the local school districts in the setting of their curricula, and in order to maintain the intent of this legislation, which is to stress the instruction of basic skills and work skills, any local school district may establish minimum course mix percentages that deviate by up to five percentage points above or below those minimums required by subsection (2) of this section, so long as the total program hour requirement is still met.

(4) Nothing contained in subsection (2) of this section shall be construed to require individual students to attend school for any particular number of hours per day or to take any particular courses.

(5) Each school district's kindergarten through twelfth grade basic educational program shall be accessible to all students who are five years of age, as provided by RCW 28A.225.160, and less than twenty-one years of age and, except as provided in section 2 of this 1991 act shall consist of a minimum of one hundred eighty school days per school year in such grades as are conducted by a school district, and one hundred eighty half-days of instruction, or equivalent, in kindergarten: PROVIDED, That effective May 1, 1979, a school district may schedule the last five school days of the one hundred and eighty day school year for noninstructional purposes in the case of students who are graduating from high school, including, but not limited to, the observance of graduation and early release from school upon the request of a student, and all such students may be claimed as a full time equivalent student to the extent they could otherwise have been so claimed for the purposes of RCW 28A.150.250 and 28A.150.260.

(6) The state board of education shall adopt rules to implement and ensure compliance with the program requirements imposed by this section, RCW 28A.150.250 and 28A.150.260, and such related supplemental program approval requirements as the state board may establish: PROVIDED, That each school district board of directors shall establish the basis and means for determining and monitoring the district's compliance with the basic skills and work skills percentage and course requirements of this section. The certification of the board of directors and the superintendent of a school district that the district is in compliance with such basic skills and work skills requirements may be accepted by the superintendent of public instruction and the state board of education.

(7) Handicapped education programs, vocational-technical institute programs, state institution and state residential school programs, all of which programs are conducted for the common school age, kindergarten through secondary school program students encompassed by this section, shall be exempt from the basic skills and work skills percentage and course requirements of this section in order that the unique needs, abilities or limitations of such students may be met.

(8) Any school district may petition the state board of education for a reduction in the total program hour offering requirements for one or more of the grade level groupings specified in this section. The state board of education shall grant all such petitions that are accompanied by an assurance that the minimum total program hour offering requirements in one or more other grade level groupings will be exceeded concurrently by no less than the number of hours of the reduction.

Sec. 5. RCW 28A.230.090 and 1990 1st ex.s. c 9 s 301 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The state board of education shall establish high school graduation requirements or equivalencies for students who commence the ninth grade subsequent to July 1, 1985, that meet or exceed the following:

SUBJECT CREDITS

English 3

Mathematics 2

Social Studies

United States history

and government 1

Washington state

history and government 1/2

Contemporary world

history, geography,

and problems 1

Science (1 credit

must be in

laboratory science) 2

Occupational Education 1

Physical Education 2

Electives 5 1\2

Total 18

(2) For the purposes of this section one credit is equivalent to one year of study except as provided in section 2 of this 1991 act.

(3) The Washington state history and government requirement may be fulfilled by students in grades seven or eight or both. Students who have completed the Washington state history and government requirement in grades seven or eight or both shall be considered to have fulfilled the Washington state history and government requirement.

(4) A candidate for graduation must have in addition earned a minimum of 18 credits including all required courses. These credits shall consist of the state requirements listed above and such additional requirements and electives as shall be established by each district.

(5) In recognition of the statutory authority of the state board of education to establish and enforce minimum high school graduation requirements, the state board shall periodically reevaluate the graduation requirements and shall report such findings to the legislature in a timely manner as determined by the state board.

(6) Pursuant to any foreign language requirement established by the state board of education or a local school district, or both, for purposes of high school graduation, students who receive instruction in sign language shall be considered to have satisfied the state or local school district foreign language graduation requirement.

(7) If requested by the student and his or her family, a student who has completed high school courses while in seventh and eighth grade shall be given high school credit which shall be applied to fulfilling high school graduation requirements if:

(a) The course was taken with high school students and the student has successfully passed by completing the same course requirements and examinations as the high school students enrolled in the class; or

(b) The course would qualify for high school credit, because the course is similar or equivalent to a course offered at a high school in the district as determined by the school district board of directors.

(8) Students who have taken and successfully completed high school courses under the circumstances in subsection (7) of this section shall not be required to take an additional competency examination or perform any other additional assignment to receive credit. Subsection (7) of this section shall also apply to students enrolled in high school on April 11, 1990, who took the courses while they were in seventh and eighth grade.

Sec. 6. RCW 28A.410.080 and 1969 ex.s. c 223 s 28A.01.025 are each amended to read as follows:

The school year for all matters pertaining to teacher certification or for computing experience in teaching shall consist of not fewer than one hundred eighty school days. An education program offered by a school or school district under section 2 of this 1991 act shall be deemed to comply with this section regarding one hundred eighty school days.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.