HB 1573 - DIGEST
(SUBSTITUTED FOR - SEE 2ND SUB)

Provides that, subject to the availability of funds appropriated for this purpose, the office of the superintendent of public instruction shall create a grant program to local partnerships of schools, families, and communities to begin the phase in of a statewide comprehensive dropout prevention, intervention, and retrieval system. This program shall be known as the building bridges program. For purposes of this act, a "building bridges program" means a local partnership of schools, families, and communities that provides all of the following programs or activities: (1) A system that identifies individual students at risk of dropping out from middle through high school based on local predictive data, including state assessment data starting in the fourth grade, and provides timely interventions for such students, including a plan for educational success as already required by the student learning plan as defined under RCW 28A.655.061. Students identified shall include foster care youth and adjudicated youth;

(2) Coaches or mentors for students as necessary;

(3) Staff responsible for coordination of community partners that provide a seamless continuum of academic and nonacademic support in schools and communities;

(4) Retrieval or reentry activities; and

(5) Alternative educational programming, including, but not limited to, career and technical education preparatory programs and online learning opportunities.