2216‑S AMH CHAP KELL 4

SHB 2216 ‑ H AMD 279 FAILED 2-13-96

By Representative Chappell

     On page 1, strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:

     "NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.   The legislature recognizes families as the fundamental unit of society and affirms parents' rights to direct the upbringing of their children.  The legislature further supports parents as the primary educators of their children and recognizes parents' right to further direct the educational decisions which concern their children.

     The legislature believes that public schools derive their authority from parents of the attending students and must therefor take every reasonable step to provide parents with access and discretion regarding their child's education.  Parents' rights regarding what their children are provided by public schools is paramount in protecting the proper and fundamental role of the family.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  Unless specifically provided by law, for purposes of this chapter, "parent" means a parent or legal guardian having legal custody of a child enrolled in public school.  For purposes of this act, "parent" does not mean parents of children in private schools or of children receiving home-based instruction. 

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  PARENTS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES EXISTING IN CURRENT LAW.

     (1) Parents shall immunize their children, unless exempted, in accordance with RCW 28A.210.030;

     (2) Parents shall provide information about the child's prior educational programs when the child transfers to another school, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.330;

     (3) Parents shall be responsible for property damaged by their children, in accordance with RCW 28A.635.060;

     (4) Parents shall ensure that their children attend school every day, unless excused, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.010;

     (5) Parents shall decide whether their children participate in AIDS instruction, in accordance with RCW 28A.230.070 and this act;

     (6)  Parents may make a complaint to the school board and have the complaint heard at a public hearing on instructional and library materials that a parent thinks is objectionable, in accordance with RCW 28A.150.230.

     (7)  Parents shall be involved in instructional materials committees in accordance with RCW 28A.320.230 and this act.

     (8) Parents shall be consulted in the development of the district's AIDS curriculum, in accordance with RCW 28A.230.070.

     (9) Parents may exclude their children from scoliosis screening, in accordance with RCW 28A.210.090, 28A.210.210, and 28A.210.240;

     (10) Parents shall receive periodic reports on the progress of their children, in accordance with RCW 28A.150.240;

     (11) Parents shall be notified if their child has a hearing or visual loss, in accordance with RCW 28A.210.030;

     (12) Parents shall be notified when their child has an unexcused absence, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.020;

     (13) Parents shall be notified of their child's "choice options" in accordance with RCW 28A.225.300;

     (14) Parents shall be notified of their parent involvement opportunities, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.300;

     (15) Parents shall receive the results of their child's performance on state-wide assessments, in accordance with RCW 28A.230.190, 28A.230.195, 28A.230.230, 28A.230.240, and 28A.230.250;

     (16) Parents shall receive an annual report from their school district, in accordance with RCW 28A.320.205;

     (17) Parents shall be notified of pupil conduct, discipline, and rights, in accordance with RCW 28A.600.010;

     (18) Parents shall be notified about the running start program, in accordance with RCW 28A.600.320; and

     (19) Parents shall be notified if a court order or subpoena has been issued for access to the records of their children, in accordance with RCW 28A.600.475.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  ACCESS TO ACADEMIC PROGRAMS AND TEACHING MATERIALS.

     (1)  A parent shall have access to his or her child's classroom.  Every school district board of directors shall, after following established procedures and with the participation of parents, adopt a policy ensuring parents access to their children's classrooms and school-sponsored activities for purposes of observing class procedure, teaching material, and class conduct.  The policy shall provide that observation shall not disrupt the classroom procedure or learning activity.

     (2)  School district employees shall not withhold information pertaining to the school activities of a child from the child's parents.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.  INFORMATION CONCERNING STUDENTS. 

     (1) Each school district shall make available a list of all records which the district routinely keeps on all students and shall establish procedures whereby parents shall have access to each of the individual student records.  The list shall include, but not be limited to, academic, vocational, disciplinary and attendance records.

     (2) Except as specifically exempted by other state or federal law, all records maintained on a student by a school, school district, educational service district, the superintendent of public instruction, the state board of education, or anyone under contract with the above, shall be provided to a parent upon request for the parent's observation.  Upon the written request of a parent, copies of records shall be provided within fourteen working days.  Upon request, parents shall be provided with the appropriate legal reference for all individual records which the school, school district, educational service district, the superintendent of public instruction, the state board of education, or any contractor, claim are exempt from parent disclosure by state or federal law. 

     (3)  Upon request, parents shall annually be entitled to one set of student records at no charge but districts may establish a fee pursuant to RCW 42.17.300 for each subsequent request made during the year.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.  SURVEYS AND TESTS REQUESTING DISCLOSURE.

     Every school district board of directors shall, after following established procedures and with the participation of parents, adopt a policy regarding student participation in tests or surveys that request disclosure by the student of information about either the student or the student's parents or legal guardians concerning:  political or religious affiliations, mental or psychological problems, sexual behavior or attitudes, illegal, self-incriminating or demeaning behavior, critical appraisals of any other individual with whom the student has a family relationship, legally privileged information arising out of confidential relationships with persons such as lawyers, physicians or ministers, or religious issues.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7.  PROHIBITION ON REMOVAL OF CHILD.

     The board of directors of each school district by rule or regulation shall adopt procedures to ensure that each school within its district is carrying out district policy providing that no child in grades kindergarten through eight will be removed from any school grounds or building during school hours except by a person authorized by a parent or legal guardian having legal custody of the child, pursuant to RCW 28A.605.010.

     Sec. 8.  RCW 28A.315.510 is amended to read as follows:

     Regular meetings of the board of directors of any school district shall be held monthly or more often at such a time as the board of directors by resolution shall determine or the bylaws of the board may prescribe.  Special or deferred meetings may be held from time to time as circumstances may demand, at the call of the president, if a first class district, or the chair of the board, if a second class district, or on petition of a majority of the members of the board.  All meetings shall be open to the public unless the board shall otherwise order an executive session as provided in RCW 42.30.110.   The board of directors shall provide a reasonable opportunity for public oral and written comments on proposals before the board.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9.  GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING SERVICES.

     Every school district board of directors shall, after following established procedures and with the participation of parents, adopt a policy regarding counseling services available to students.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10.  PARTICIPATION IN ADVISORY GROUPS.

     School districts shall seek parental involvement in advisory groups that are considering major policy decisions affecting the education of children in the school district.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11.  NON-ACADEMIC CURRICULUM.    

     Every school district board of directors shall, after following established procedures and with the participation of parents, adopt a policy regarding student participation in school-sponsored curriculum components, programs or activities (whether curricular or extracurricular) that contain information regarding:  sex education, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, sexual orientation, suicide, and euthanasia.

Sec. 12.  RCW 28A.320.230 and 1989 c 371 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

     Every board of directors, unless otherwise specifically provided by law, shall:

     (1) Prepare, negotiate, set forth in writing and adopt, policy relative to the selection or deletion of instructional materials.  Such policy shall:

     (a) State the school district's goals and principles relative to instructional materials;

     (b) Delegate responsibility for the preparation and recommendation of teachers' reading lists and specify the procedures to be followed in the selection of all instructional materials including text books;

     (c) Establish an instructional materials committee to be appointed, with the approval of the school board, by the school district's chief administrative officer.  This committee shall consist of representative members of the district's professional staff, including representation from the district's curriculum development committees, and, in the case of districts which operate elementary school(s) only, the educational service district superintendent, one of whose responsibilities shall be to assure the correlation of those elementary district adoptions with those of the high school district(s) which serve their children.  The committee ((may)) shall include parents who are not school district employees and whose children are enrolled in the district.   ((at the school board's discretion)):  PROVIDED, That parent members shall make up ((less than one-half)) at least one-third of the total membership of the committee.  Parent members shall not be school district employees;

     (d) Provide for reasonable notice to parents of the opportunity to serve on the committee and for terms of office for members of the instructional materials committee;

     (e) Provide a system for receiving, considering and acting upon written complaints regarding instructional materials used by the school district;

     (f) Provide free text books, supplies and other instructional materials to be loaned to the pupils of the school, when, in its judgment, the best interests of the district will be subserved thereby and prescribe rules and regulations to preserve such books, supplies and other instructional materials from unnecessary damage.

     Recommendation of instructional materials shall be by the district's instructional materials committee in accordance with district policy.  Approval or disapproval shall be by the local school district's board of directors.

     Districts may pay the necessary travel and subsistence expenses for expert counsel from outside the district.  In addition, the committee's expenses incidental to visits to observe other districts' selection procedures may be reimbursed by the school district.

     Districts may, within limitations stated in board policy, use ((and experiment with)) instructional materials for a period of time before general adoption is formalized.

     Within the limitations of board policy, a school district's chief administrator may purchase instructional materials to meet ((deviant)) unique needs or rapidly changing circumstances.

     (2) Establish a depreciation scale for determining the value of texts which students wish to purchase.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 13. COMPLAINTS.  The board of directors of each school district shall have a grievance procedure under which the school district shall address and attempt to resolve each written complaint that the district receives concerning violation of a right guaranteed by this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 14. A new section is added to chapter 28A.300 RCW to read as follows:

     The superintendent of public instruction shall annually prepare, publish, and distribute a handbook for parents that includes the text and an explanation of all state statutes and rules pertaining to the rights and responsibilities of parents in the education of their children in the public school system.  The handbook shall include, but not be limited to, text and explanations of laws regarding compulsory attendance, inspection of instructional materials, classroom visitation, the process for withdrawing children from classes, and other related topics.  The explanations shall be written in a style that will be understandable to parents.  Copies of the handbook shall be distributed to school districts annually by August 1st.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 15.  A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:

     Each school district shall distribute annually to all parents at the beginning of the school year the parent's rights and responsibilities handbook under section 14 of this act and an explanation and text of all school district policies pertaining to the rights and responsibilities of parents in the education of their children in the school district.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 16.  Captions used in this act do not constitute any part of the law.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 17.  Sections 2 through 7, 9 through 11, and 13 through 15 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 28A RCW."

Correct the title accordingly.