H-2571

AN ACT Relating to mandates on school districts; amending RCW 28A.150.290, 28A.150.290, 28A.335.210, 74.09.5249, 74.09.5253, 74.09.5255, 74.09.5256, 43.09.260, and 70.24.290; creating a new section; and providing a contingent effective date.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 28A.150.290 and 1990 c 33 s 111 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The superintendent of public instruction shall have the power and duty to make such rules and regulations as are necessary for the proper administration of this chapter and RCW 28A.160.150 through ((~~28A.160.220~~)) 28A.160.210, 28A.300.035, 28A.300.170, and 28A.500.010 not inconsistent with the provisions thereof, and in addition to require such reports as may be necessary to carry out his or her duties under this chapter and RCW 28A.160.150 through ((~~28A.160.220~~)) 28A.160.210, 28A.300.035, 28A.300.170, and 28A.500.010.

(2) The superintendent of public instruction shall have the authority to make rules and regulations which establish the terms and conditions for allowing school districts to receive state basic education moneys as provided in RCW 28A.150.250 when said districts are unable to fulfill for one or more schools as officially scheduled the requirement of a full school year of one hundred eighty days or the total program hour offering, teacher contact hour, or course mix and percentage requirements imposed by RCW 28A.150.220 and 28A.150.260 due to one or more of the following conditions:

(a) An unforeseen natural event, including, but not necessarily limited to, a fire, flood, explosion, storm, earthquake, epidemic, or volcanic eruption that has the direct or indirect effect of rendering one or more school district facilities unsafe, unhealthy, inaccessible, or inoperable; and

(b) An unforeseen mechanical failure or an unforeseen action or inaction by one or more persons, including negligence and threats, that (i) is beyond the control of both a school district board of directors and its employees and (ii) has the direct or indirect effect of rendering one or more school district facilities unsafe, unhealthy, inaccessible, or inoperable. Such actions, inactions or mechanical failures may include, but are not necessarily limited to, arson, vandalism, riots, insurrections, bomb threats, bombings, delays in the scheduled completion of construction projects, and the discontinuance or disruption of utilities such as heating, lighting and water: PROVIDED, That an unforeseen action or inaction shall not include any labor dispute between a school district board of directors and any employee of the school district.

A condition is foreseeable for the purposes of this subsection to the extent a reasonably prudent person would have anticipated prior to August first of the preceding school year that the condition probably would occur during the ensuing school year because of the occurrence of an event or a circumstance which existed during such preceding school year or a prior school year. A board of directors of a school district is deemed for the purposes of this subsection to have knowledge of events and circumstances which are a matter of common knowledge within the school district and of those events and circumstances which can be discovered upon prudent inquiry or inspection.

(3) The superintendent of public instruction shall make every effort to reduce the amount of paperwork required in administration of this chapter and RCW 28A.160.150 through ((~~28A.160.220~~)) 28A.160.210, 28A.300.035, 28A.300.170, and 28A.500.010; to simplify the application, monitoring and evaluation processes used; to eliminate all duplicative requests for information from local school districts; and to make every effort to integrate and standardize information requests for other state education acts and federal aid to education acts administered by the superintendent of public instruction so as to reduce paperwork requirements and duplicative information requests.

Sec. 2. RCW 28A.150.290 and 1992 c 141 s 504 are each amended to read as follows:

(2) The superintendent of public instruction shall have the authority to make rules and regulations which establish the terms and conditions for allowing school districts to receive state basic education moneys as provided in RCW 28A.150.250 when said districts are unable to fulfill for one or more schools as officially scheduled the requirement of a full school year of one hundred eighty days or the annual average total instructional hour offering imposed by RCW 28A.150.220 and 28A.150.260 due to one or more of the following conditions:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall report to the legislature before December 1, 1997, on specific actions it has taken in calendar year 1997 to meet paperwork reduction and other requirements in RCW 28A.150.290(3).

Sec. 4. RCW 28A.335.210 and 1983 c 204 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:

The state board of education and superintendent of public instruction shall allocate, as a nondeductible item, out of any moneys appropriated for state assistance to school districts for the original construction of any school plant facility the amount of one-half of one percent of the appropriation to be expended by the Washington state arts commission for the acquisition of works of art. The works of art may be placed in accordance with Article IX, sections 2 and 3 of the state Constitution on public lands, integral to or attached to a public building or structure, detached within or outside a public building or structure, part of a portable exhibition or collection, part of a temporary exhibition, or loaned or exhibited in other public facilities. The Washington state arts commission shall, in consultation with the superintendent of public instruction, determine the amount to be made available for the purchase of works of art under this section, and payments therefor shall be made in accordance with law. The designation of projects and sites, selection, contracting, purchase, commissioning, reviewing of design, execution and placement, acceptance, maintenance, and sale, exchange, or disposition of works of art shall be the responsibility of the Washington state arts commission in consultation with the superintendent of public instruction and representatives of school district boards of directors. However, the costs to carry out the Washington state arts commission's responsibility for maintenance shall not be funded from the moneys referred to under this section, RCW 43.17.200, 43.19.455, or 28B.10.025, but shall be contingent upon adequate appropriations being made for that purpose: PROVIDED, That the superintendent of public instruction and the school district board of directors of the districts where the sites are selected shall have the right to:

(1) Waive its use of the one-half of one percent of the appropriation for the acquisition of works of art before the selection process by the Washington state arts commission;

(2) Appoint a representative to the body established by the Washington state arts commission to be part of the selection process with full voting rights;

(3) Reject the results of the selection process;

(4) Reject the placement of a completed work or works of art on school district premises if such works are portable.

School districts may, in lieu of accepting a work of art selected by the Washington state arts commission, select a local work of art that is of equal or lesser value than the work of art selected by the Washington state arts commission.

Rejection at any point before or after the selection process shall not cause the loss of or otherwise endanger state construction funds available to the local school district. Any works of art rejected under this section shall be applied to the provision of works of art under this chapter, at the discretion of the Washington state arts commission, notwithstanding any contract or agreement between the affected school district and the artist involved. In addition to the cost of the works of art the one-half of one percent of the appropriation as provided herein shall be used to provide for the administration by the Washington state arts commission and all costs for installation of the work of art. For the purpose of this section building shall not include sheds, warehouses or other buildings of a temporary nature.

The executive director of the arts commission, the superintendent of public instruction and the Washington state school directors association shall appoint a study group to review the operations of the one-half of one percent for works of art under this section.

Sec. 5. RCW 74.09.5249 and 1994 c 180 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The agency awarded the contract under RCW 74.09.5245 shall:

(a) Enroll all participating districts in this state, except those with preexisting contracts under RCW 74.09.5247, as medicaid providers effective the beginning of the 1993-94 school year;

(b) Develop a state-wide system of billing the department and private insurers for medical services provided in special education programs;

(d) Verify the medicaid eligibility of students enrolled in special education programs in each district;

(e) Provide ongoing technical assistance to practitioners and districts; and

(f) Process and forward all medicaid claims to the department and all other claims to private insurers.

(2) For each student, individual districts may, in consultation with the billing agent, deliver to the student's parent or guardian a letter, prepared by the billing agent, requesting the consent of the parent or guardian to bill the student's health insurance carrier for services provided through the special education program. If a district chooses to do this, the letter must be accompanied by a consent form, on which the parent may identify the student's health insurance carrier so that the billing agent may bill the carrier for medical services provided to the student. The letter must clearly state the following:

(a) That the billing program is designed in part to raise additional funds to improve education services;

(b) That under no circumstances will the parent or guardian be personally charged for any portion of the bill not paid by the insurer, including copayments, deductibles, or uncovered services;

(c) That the amount of the billing will apply to the policy's annual deductible even though the parent will not be billed for the amount of the deductible;

(d) That the amount of the billing, will, however, apply towards annual or lifetime benefit caps if these are included in the policy;

(e) That it is possible that their premiums would be increased as a result of their consent;

(f) That if any of the possible negative consequences of consent were to affect them, they are free to withdraw their consent at any time; and

(g) That their consent is entirely voluntary and that the services the student receives through the district will not be affected by their willingness or refusal to consent to the billing of their private insurer.

Sec. 6. RCW 74.09.5253 and 1994 c 180 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Each district ((~~shall~~)) may participate in the program of billing for medical services provided in the district's special education program. Each participating district shall provide the superintendent of public instruction with a list, as of the first school day in October, December, and May of each year, of all students enrolled in special education programs within the area served by the district, for purposes of verifying the medicaid eligibility of the students.

(2) A person employed by or contracting with a district who provides medical services shall provide the billing agent with information necessary to promptly complete monthly billings for each medicaid-eligible student he or she serves as part of the district's special education program.

(3) The superintendent of public instruction shall submit to the legislature at the beginning of each legislative session a report indicating the district-by-district participation and the medicaid and private insurance payment receipts during the preceding fiscal year. The report must further indicate for each participating district the total number of special education students, and the number eligible for medicaid, as determined by the medical assistance administration. ((The superintendent may require a letter of explanation from any district whose billings for medical assistance under the program, in the judgment of the superintendent, indicate nonparticipation or underparticipation.))

(4) Failure to apply for reimbursement shall not result in reduction of block grant moneys and allocations to special education students shall not be reduced below 1996-97 funding levels.

Sec. 7. RCW 74.09.5255 and 1994 c 180 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:

Of the projected federal medicaid and private insurance revenue collected under RCW 74.09.5249, twenty percent, after deduction for billing fees, shall be for incentive payments to participating districts. Incentive payments shall only be used by participating districts for children with disabilities.

Sec. 8. RCW 74.09.5256 and 1994 c 180 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Participating districts shall reassign medicaid payments to be received under RCW 74.09.5249 through 74.09.5253, 74.09.5254 and 74.09.5255, and this section to the superintendent of public instruction.

(2) The superintendent of public instruction shall receive medicaid payments from the department of social and health services for all state and federal moneys under Title XIX of the federal social security act due to participating districts for medical assistance provided in the district's special education program.

(3) The superintendent shall use reports from the department of social and health services, the state billing agent, participating districts acting as their own billing agent, and firms to calculate the appropriate amounts of incentive payments and state special education program moneys due each district.

(4) Moneys received by the superintendent of public instruction shall be disbursed for the following purposes:

(a) Reimbursement to the department of social and health services for the state-funded portion of medicaid payments;

(b) Reimbursement for billing agent's fees, including those of participating districts acting as their own agent and billing fees of firms;

(c) Incentive payments to participating school districts equal to twenty percent of the federal portion of medicaid payments after deduction for billing fees; and

(d) The remainder shall be distributed to participating districts as part of state allocations for the special education program provided under RCW 28A.150.390.

(5) With respect to private insurer funds received by participating districts, the superintendent of public instruction shall reduce state special education program allocations to the participating districts by eighty percent of the amount received, after deduction for billing fees.

Sec. 9. RCW 43.09.260 and 1995 c 301 s 15 are each amended to read as follows:

The examination of the financial affairs of all local governments shall be made at such reasonable, periodic intervals as the state auditor shall determine. However, an examination of the financial affairs of all local governments shall be made at least once in every three years, and an examination of individual local government health and welfare benefit plans and local government self-insurance programs shall be made at least once every two years. Examinations of school districts shall be made every three years, unless a more frequent audit is required as a condition of a grant received, or a contract entered into, by a school district, or the state auditor has evidence that a more frequent audit of an individual school district is needed. The term local governments for purposes of this chapter includes but is not limited to all counties, cities, and other political subdivisions, municipal corporations, and quasi-municipal corporations, however denominated.

The state auditor shall establish a schedule to govern the auditing of local governments which shall include: A designation of the various classifications of local governments; a designation of the frequency for auditing each type of local government; and a description of events which cause a more frequent audit to be conducted.

On every such examination, inquiry shall be made as to the financial condition and resources of the local government; whether the Constitution and laws of the state, the ordinances and orders of the local government, and the requirements of the state auditor have been properly complied with; and into the methods and accuracy of the accounts and reports.

A report of such examination shall be made and filed in the office of state auditor, and one copy shall be transmitted to the local government. A copy of any report containing findings of noncompliance with state law shall be transmitted to the attorney general. If any such report discloses malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance in office on the part of any public officer or employee, within thirty days from the receipt of his or her copy of the report, the attorney general shall institute, in the proper county, such legal action as is proper in the premises by civil process and prosecute the same to final determination to carry into effect the findings of the examination.

It shall be unlawful for any local government or the responsible head thereof, to make a settlement or compromise of any claim arising out of such malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance, or any action commenced therefor, or for any court to enter upon any compromise or settlement of such action, without the written approval and consent of the attorney general and the state auditor.

Sec. 10. RCW 70.24.290 and 1988 c 206 s 606 are each amended to read as follows:

The superintendent of public instruction shall ((~~adopt rules that require appropriate education and training, to be included as part of their present continuing education requirements,~~)) make available to school districts information and training material developed for public school employees on the prevention, transmission, and treatment of AIDS. Neither the superintendent nor the department of health may require that school employees receive training in AIDS, except as required under chapter 49.17 RCW. The superintendent of public instruction shall work with the office on AIDS under RCW 70.24.250 to develop the educational and training material necessary for school employees.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. Section 2 of this act takes effect September 1, 2000. However, section 2 of this act shall not take effect if, by September 1, 2000, a law is enacted stating that a school accountability and academic assessment system is not in place.