BILL REQ. #:  H-0971.2 

Read first time 01/25/11.   Referred to Committee on Education.

     AN ACT Relating to school assessments for students with cognitive disabilities; and adding a new section to chapter 28A.155 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 28A.155 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The legislature finds that:
     (a) One of the difficult issues facing states and school districts across the country is the inclusion of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in their state assessment and accountability systems.
     (b) Assessment and accountability systems provide valuable information to parents and educators, and all students deserve teachers who believe in their potential and who will encourage them to make progress. Nevertheless, assessing the academic knowledge and skills of students with unique and significant cognitive disabilities can be challenging and may provide only limited information. Furthermore, the development of meaningful assessment portfolios can be extremely time consuming.
     (2) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall, as soon as possible, develop and implement, or contract with a third party to develop and implement, a meaningful common-task assessment that requires considerably less time on the part of the teacher to develop and individualize than the currently employed portfolio assessment.