BILL REQ. #:  H-3715.2 

READ FIRST TIME 01/30/14.   

     AN ACT Relating to providing for educational data on students from military families; amending RCW 28A.300.505; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds that, nationally, nearly two million students are from military families, where one or more parent or guardian serves in the United States armed forces, reserves, or national guard. There are approximately one hundred thirty-six thousand military families in Washington state.
     (2) The legislature further finds that a United States government accountability office study in 2011 identified that it is not possible to monitor educational outcomes for students from military families due to the lack of a student identifier in state educational data systems. Such an identifier is needed to allow educators and policymakers to monitor critical elements of education success, including academic progress and proficiency, special and advanced program participation, mobility and dropout rates, and patterns over time across states and school districts. Reliable information about student performance will assist educators in more effectively transitioning students to a new school and enable school districts to discover and implement best practices.

Sec. 2   RCW 28A.300.505 and 2007 c 401 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall develop standards for school data systems that focus on validation and verification of data entered into the systems to ensure accuracy and compatibility of data. The standards shall address but are not limited to the following topics:
     (a) Date validation;
     (b) Code validation, which includes gender, race or ethnicity, and other code elements;
     (c) Decimal and integer validation; and
     (d) Required field validation as defined by state and federal requirements.
     (2) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop a reporting format and instructions for school districts to collect and submit data that must include:
     (a) Data on student demographics that is disaggregated by distinct ethnic categories within racial subgroups so that analyses may be conducted on student achievement using the disaggregated data; and
     (b) Starting no later than the 2015-16 school year, data on students from military families. The K-12 data governance group established in RCW 28A.300.507 must develop best practice guidelines for the collection and regular updating of this data on students from military families.
     (3) For the purposes of this section "students from military families" means the following categories of students, with data to be collected and submitted separately for each category:
     (i) Students with a parent or guardian who is a member of the active duty United States armed forces; and
     (ii) Students with a parent or guardian who is a member of the reserves of the United States armed forces or a member of the Washington national guard.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   Using the definitions in RCW 28A.300.505, the office of the superintendent of public instruction shall conduct an analysis of the average number of students from military families who are special education students. The data reported must include state, district, and school-level information. The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall report its analysis to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 31, 2016.