SUPERINTENDENT OF

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

School districts have general authority to contract for the services of individuals to provide instruction, subject to applicable state and federal laws and local collective bargaining agreements. School districts also have authority to enter into interdistrict cooperative agreements for instructional services with other school districts under RCW 28A.225.250. However, when a school district contracts with an entity other than a school district and that entity employs staff to provide basic education instruction claimed by the school district for state basic education funding, the requirements of this section also apply. Instruction provided by such an entity (hereafter called the contractor) may be counted as a course of study and claimed by the school district for state funding if the following requirements are met:

(1) The school district board of directors in accordance with RCW 28A.320.015 adopts a resolution that concludes it is in the best interest of the students to expand the options available by providing an appropriate basic education program pursuant to the contract and sets forth the rationale in support of the conclusion. A board adopted resolution is not required for online courses purchased by the school district from an online provider approved by the superintendent of public instruction under RCW 28A.250.020;

(2) The school district retains full responsibility for compliance with all state and federal laws;

(3) The contractor complies with all relevant state and federal laws that are applicable to the school district;

(4) The contractor provides instruction free of sectarian or religious influence or control;

(5) The contractor charges the student no tuition for enrollment;

(6) Enrollment is voluntary;

(7) No student or person is unlawfully excluded from participation on the grounds of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, marital status, or presence of any sensory, mental, or physical handicap;

(8) Each student is enrolled in the school district reporting the enrollment and each high school student is working toward course credits which satisfy high school graduation requirements;

(9) If the contractor is a state higher education institution, a state funded education center, or any other state funded entity, the contractor is not claiming enrollment of the student or receiving direct state support for the contracted instruction reported pursuant to this section;

(10) The curriculum is approved by the district. District approval for online course curriculum is not required for online courses offered by an online provider approved by the superintendent of public instruction under RCW 28A.250.020;

(11) The contractor provides enrollment reports to the school district that comply with this chapter;

(12) The contractor maintains and has available for audit or review by the school district, state, or federal authorities documentation of enrollment, hours of instructional activity participated in by the students, personnel data, and financial data including all revenues and expenditures pertaining to the contract with the school district;

(13) As of October 1st, if a contractor certificated employee employed by a contractor other than an institution of higher education spends more than twenty-five percent of a full-time equivalent time with students for a given school district ((at any time during the school year)), the school district must report the individual contractor certificated employee as required by the SPI annual personnel reporting system for calculation of state funding, staff ratios and statistics;

(14) The school district and contractor execute a written contract which is consistent with this section, and which sets forth the duties of the contractor in detail sufficient to hold the contractor accountable to the school district. School districts that purchase online courses through the online course catalog provided by the office of superintendent of public instruction are exempt from this provision;

(15) The school district and contractor establish a process for periodic monitoring by the school district for compliance with this section and other terms of the contract between the school district and contractor. School districts that purchase online courses through the online course catalog provided by the office of superintendent of public instruction are exempt from this provision;

(16) Contracts for services for students with disabilities shall comply with WAC 392-172A-04085 and 392-172A-04090;

(17) Full-time equivalent enrollment reported for students served under a contract with a higher education institution shall be based on the number of hours of instruction meeting the criteria in WAC 392-121-107 (1)(a) provided by staff of the higher education institution under the contract. This section does not apply to running start enrollment, which is governed by chapter 392-169 WAC or at-risk programs meeting the standards of subsection (18) of this section; and

(18) Full-time equivalent enrollment reported for students served under contract with a community or technical college as defined in RCW 28B.50.030 shall be based on the credits generated by the student consistent with WAC 392-169-025 if the program meets the following standards:

(a) The student is earning credits applicable to a high school diploma.

(b) The program is focused on serving credit deficient students.

(c) The student population served is considered at-risk and meet the following criteria:

(i) The students have already dropped out of high school; or

(ii) The students have not demonstrated success in the traditional high school environment.

(19) The school district requires the contractor to clearly state in all of the contractor's advertising, publicity, or public statements regarding the contracted service that the service is being offered by the school district under contract.