H-1861.4  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 2072

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Representatives Kastama, McDonald, Bush, Wood, Sullivan, Boldt, Hickel, Doumit, Anderson, O'Brien, Lantz and Dunn

Read first time 02/19/97.  Referred to Committee on Education.

Requiring that grading policies that consider school attendance be applied school-wide and provide for notice and a hearing.

    AN ACT Relating to school attendance policies; and amending RCW 28A.600.030.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 28A.600.030 and 1990 c 33 s 498 are each amended to read as follows:

    Each school district board of directors may establish student grading policies which ((permit teachers to)) consider a student's attendance in determining the student's overall grade or deciding whether the student should be granted or denied credit.  ((Such policies)) The policies shall apply to all classrooms within a school unless a teacher establishes a different policy at the beginning of a school year and provides prior notice to the students of the classroom of that policy.  Any attendance policy shall take into consideration the circumstances pertaining to the student's inability to attend school.  However, no policy shall be adopted whereby a grade shall be reduced or credit shall be denied for disciplinary reasons only, rather than for academic reasons, unless due process of law is provided as set forth by the state board of education under RCW 28A.305.160.

                            --- END ---