2220-S2

AN ACT Relating to allowing schools to receive waivers from state laws, rules, and school district policies and procedures; amending RCW 28A.150.220; adding new sections to chapter 28A.320 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.150 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.155 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.165 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.175 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.180 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.185 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.210 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.220 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.225 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.230 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.235 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.305 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.330 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.400 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.405 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.410 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.600 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.605 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.640 RCW; creating a new section; repealing RCW 28A.305.140, 28A.305.145, and 28A.630.945; and providing a contingent expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The board of directors of each school district may grant waivers, or partial waivers, of state laws and rules and of school district policies and procedures to schools within the district in accordance with this section.

(2) To apply for waivers, a school principal, in consultation with school staff and parents, shall prepare an application to the board of directors that identifies which laws, rules, policies, and procedures are being requested to be waived and the rationale for requesting the waivers.

(3) The school board shall provide for public review and comment regarding the waiver request.

(4) The duration, renewal, and recision of the waivers shall be determined by the school district board of directors.

(5) The following may not be waived:

(a) Laws and rules pertaining to health, safety, and civil rights;

(b) The assessment, accountability, and reporting requirements in RCW 28A.230.190, the fourth grade standardized test; RCW 28A.230.230, the eighth grade standardized test; RCW 28A.230.240, the eleventh grade standardized test; RCW 28A.400.200, salaries and compensation for employees; RCW 28A.630.885, assessment requirements; and RCW 28A.320.205, the annual performance report; and

(6) The granting of waivers by school district boards of directors as authorized in this section shall not be subject to collective bargaining.

(7) School district boards of directors shall transmit to the superintendent of public instruction and the state board of education a list of laws and rules that have been waived in accordance with this section. The superintendent of public instruction and state board of education shall review the waivers of state laws and rules within their respective jurisdictions. The waivers shall be approved by the superintendent of public instruction or the state board of education, as appropriate, if the school district board of directors complied with the requirements of this section. The superintendent or state board, as appropriate, shall approve or deny the waiver request, in whole or in part, within thirty calendar days of receiving the list of waivers. The state board may delegate the responsibility for reviewing and approving or denying the waivers to its staff if an appeal procedure to the board is provided.

(8) The superintendent and state board of education shall report to the legislature by December 1, 1999, the laws and rules that have been waived in accordance with this section.

Sec. 2. RCW 28A.150.220 and 1995 c 77 s 1 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) 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 languages other than English, including American Indian 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 languages other than English, including American Indian 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 languages other than English, including American Indian 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, languages other than English, which may be American Indian languages, 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 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) Special education programs for students with disabilities, 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.))

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The following acts or parts of acts are each repealed:

(1) RCW 28A.305.140 and 1992 c 141 s 302, 1990 c 33 s 267, & 1985 c 349 s 6;

(2) RCW 28A.305.145 and 1993 c 336 s 302; and

(3) RCW 28A.630.945 and 1995 c 208 s 1.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 28A.150 RCW to read as follows:

Schools may obtain, in accordance with section 1 of this act, waivers from the statutory requirements in this chapter that pertain to the instructional program, operation, and management of schools. Waivers also may be obtained, in accordance with section 1 of this act, from any rules of the state board of education and superintendent of public instruction adopted to implement the statutory requirements.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 28A.155 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. A new section is added to chapter 28A.165 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. A new section is added to chapter 28A.175 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. A new section is added to chapter 28A.180 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. A new section is added to chapter 28A.185 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. A new section is added to chapter 28A.210 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. A new section is added to chapter 28A.220 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. A new section is added to chapter 28A.225 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 13. A new section is added to chapter 28A.230 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 14. A new section is added to chapter 28A.235 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 15. A new section is added to chapter 28A.300 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 16. A new section is added to chapter 28A.305 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 17. A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 18. A new section is added to chapter 28A.330 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 19. A new section is added to chapter 28A.400 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 20. A new section is added to chapter 28A.405 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 21. A new section is added to chapter 28A.410 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 22. A new section is added to chapter 28A.600 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 23. A new section is added to chapter 28A.605 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 24. A new section is added to chapter 28A.640 RCW to read as follows:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 25. Section 2 of this act shall expire September 1, 2000. However, section 2 of this act shall not expire if, by September 1, 2000, a law is not enacted stating that a school accountability and academic assessment system is not in place.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 26. This 1996 act shall not constitute an alternative to Initiative 177.