SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 6153

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

As of January 24, 2014

Title: An act relating to teacher attendance data collection.

Brief Description: Requiring the collection of teacher attendance that matches student, course, and teacher.

Sponsors: Senators Litzow, McAuliffe, Dammeier, Rolfes and Tom; by request of Professional Educator Standards Board.

Committee Activity: Early Learning & K-12 Education: 1/24/14.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON EARLY LEARNING & K-12 EDUCATION

Staff: Eric Wolf (786-7405)

Background: Education Data Reports. Current statute requires the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to publish to the Internet reports on a variety of education data OSPI collects about education spending, enrollment, and class size ratios. These reports include an estimate of education spending per student, the cost of basic education per student, improvements made by students on statewide assessments, and the number of students per classroom and per teacher.

Summary of Bill: Teacher Attendance Data. To the extent that data is available, OSPI must collect data on daily teacher attendance and make a report on the data available on the Internet. The report must either be run on demand against current data, or must use the most recently collected data.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Committee/Commission/Task Force Created: No.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony: PRO: Senate Bill 6696 (2010) charged the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) to work with districts to examine teacher hiring practices so that PESB could talk with teacher preparation programs about what districts are looking for in new teachers. PESB was concerned about the number of districts hiring teachers late, after the first day of school. PESB submitted a report to the Legislature in 2012 outlining this problem. PESB wanted to examine how many students were beginning classes with substitutes before a permanent teacher is assigned, but the Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS) database system is set up in such a way that this is impossible. When a permanent teacher is assigned to a class after the start date, the data on the substitute teacher who covered the class is overridden. This bill would fix the problem by collecting data on each day an instructor is in the classroom, but there may be alternative ways to solve the problem more efficiently.

OTHER: The Washington Education Association (WEA) agrees with trying to solve the problem the bill attempts to address, particularly the lost student learning time when a substitute is running the classroom. But this bill may be a burden on districts with very tight budgets. CEDARS already captures the teacher, course code, and student; and schools do already take a daily attendance role of their staff for leave and other purposes. There is also concern from districts that teacher attendance will need to be collected each hour to satisfy the requirement that attendance data for teachers be matched to each course they teach.

Persons Testifying: PRO: David Brenna, PESB.

OTHER: Lucinda Young, WEA.