Brief Description: Authorizing a statewide program for comprehensive dropout prevention, intervention, and retrieval.

Sponsors: By House Committee on Appropriations (originally sponsored by Representatives Quall, Priest, P. Sullivan, Pettigrew, Kenney, Kagi, Wallace, McCoy, Dickerson, Lovick, Santos, Hunt, Hasegawa, Simpson, Pedersen, Morrell, Conway, Lantz, O'Brien and Ormsby; by request of Superintendent of Public Instruction).

House Committee on Education
House Committee on Appropriations
Senate Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education
Senate Committee on Ways & Means

Background:

School districts are required to report to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) on an annual basis regarding student graduation rates, dropout rates, and related data. For the 2004-05 school year, just over 5 percent of students enrolled in grades 9 through 12, or just under 16,000 students, dropped out of school. Approximately 74 percent of students in grades 9 through12 graduated on time.

In 2006 the Washington Learns committee, chaired by Governor Gregoire, issued a final report. As one of a number of comprehensive strategies to improve the education system, the report recommended the establishment of a grant program for school district and community partnerships to prevent students from dropping out of school.

Summary:

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is directed to create the Building Bridges Program to award grants to local partnerships involving schools, families, and communities. The partnerships identify students at risk of dropping out of school, or who have dropped out, and provide those students with assistance and support to facilitate the continuation of their education.

Each partnership must include at least one school district, and shall be led by one of several specified entities. To be eligible for a grant, applicants must:

• build or demonstrate a commitment to build a partnership that includes a variety of specified members;
• demonstrate how the grant will enhance any existing dropout prevention and intervention programs in the district;
• provide a 25 percent match from within the partnership, including in-kind contributions;
• track and report data as required by the grant; and
• describe how the program will be sustained beyond initial funding and the roles of each of the partners.

In consultation with the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (WTECB), the OSPI develops criteria for the grants and evaluates proposals for funding. In addition, the OSPI undertakes a variety of specified oversight and support functions with respect to the grant program and grant recipients.

To support the local partnerships, Educational Service Districts (ESDs) and workforce development councils provide training and assistance in specified areas and provide additional assistance at the request of a local partnership.

From funds appropriated for the grant program, one grant must be awarded to a two-year demonstration project focusing on three distinct communities and populations, two in western Washington and one in eastern Washington. This grant recipient must submit a report to the Legislature by December 1, 2009.

The OSPI establishes a state-level work group comprised of various specified state agencies that work with at-risk youth or youth who have dropped out of school. The purpose of the work group is to make recommendations to the Legislature, develop and track performance measures for the partnerships; identify research-based and emerging best practices for prevention, intervention, and retrieval programs; and examine issues related to the use of basic education dollars to fund contracts with alternative educational service providers. Beginning December 1, 2007, the work group reports annually to the Legislature and the Governor with recommendations.

Basic education allocations may continue to be used to fund contracts with alternative educational service providers that provide education programs for students at risk of dropping out, or who have dropped out, of school. School districts with such contracts must provide information about the programs to the OSPI, and the OSPI must report a summary of that information to the Legislature by December 2008.

Votes on Final Passage:

House   84   13
Senate   47   0   (Senate amended)
House         (House refused to concur)
Senate   44   0   (Senate amended)
House   93   4   (House concurred)

Effective: July 22, 2007

Partial Veto Summary: The Governor vetoed Section 8 which deals with existing dropout prevention and high school completion programs run by community partnerships and services, support vulnerable students who are at risk of dropping out of middle or high school.