BILL REQ. #:  S-3311.2 

Read first time 01/15/14.   Referred to Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education.

     AN ACT Relating to linear K-3 class size reduction; amending RCW 28A.150.260; adding a new section to chapter 28A.525 RCW; creating a new section; making an appropriation; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature intends to provide a detailed plan to foster cooperation with the Washington supreme court by placing into statute a roadmap for steady forward progress to implement the basic education K-3 class size reduction to seventeen students by 2018. The legislature also intends to provide additional nonbasic education funds to assist with capital costs for school districts that have facility capacity limitations in meeting the target of reducing class size to seventeen.

Sec. 2   RCW 28A.150.260 and 2011 1st sp.s. c 27 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     The purpose of this section is to provide for the allocation of state funding that the legislature deems necessary to support school districts in offering the minimum instructional program of basic education under RCW 28A.150.220. The allocation shall be determined as follows:
     (1) The governor shall and the superintendent of public instruction may recommend to the legislature a formula for the distribution of a basic education instructional allocation for each common school district.
     (2) The distribution formula under this section shall be for allocation purposes only. Except as may be required under chapter 28A.155, 28A.165, 28A.180, or 28A.185 RCW, or federal laws and regulations, nothing in this section requires school districts to use basic education instructional funds to implement a particular instructional approach or service. Nothing in this section requires school districts to maintain a particular classroom teacher-to-student ratio or other staff-to-student ratio or to use allocated funds to pay for particular types or classifications of staff. Nothing in this section entitles an individual teacher to a particular teacher planning period.
     (3)(a) To the extent the technical details of the formula have been adopted by the legislature and except when specifically provided as a school district allocation, the distribution formula for the basic education instructional allocation shall be based on minimum staffing and nonstaff costs the legislature deems necessary to support instruction and operations in prototypical schools serving high, middle, and elementary school students as provided in this section. The use of prototypical schools for the distribution formula does not constitute legislative intent that schools should be operated or structured in a similar fashion as the prototypes. Prototypical schools illustrate the level of resources needed to operate a school of a particular size with particular types and grade levels of students using commonly understood terms and inputs, such as class size, hours of instruction, and various categories of school staff. It is the intent that the funding allocations to school districts be adjusted from the school prototypes based on the actual number of annual average full-time equivalent students in each grade level at each school in the district and not based on the grade-level configuration of the school to the extent that data is available. The allocations shall be further adjusted from the school prototypes with minimum allocations for small schools and to reflect other factors identified in the omnibus appropriations act.
     (b) For the purposes of this section, prototypical schools are defined as follows:
     (i) A prototypical high school has six hundred average annual full-time equivalent students in grades nine through twelve;
     (ii) A prototypical middle school has four hundred thirty-two average annual full-time equivalent students in grades seven and eight; and
     (iii) A prototypical elementary school has four hundred average annual full-time equivalent students in grades kindergarten through six.
     (4)(a) The minimum allocation for each level of prototypical school shall be based on the number of full-time equivalent classroom teachers needed to provide instruction over the minimum required annual instructional hours under RCW 28A.150.220 and provide at least one teacher planning period per school day((, and based on the following general education average class size of)).
     (i) During the 2011-2013 biennium and beginning with schools with the highest percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals in the prior school year, the general education average class size for grades K-3 shall be reduced until the average class size funded under this subsection (4) is no more than 17.0 full-time equivalent students per teacher beginning in the 2017-18 school year.
     (ii) Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, a linear implementation schedule for reducing the average class size for grades K-3 shall be initiated, based on the following general average class size of full-time equivalent students per teacher in high poverty schools where more than fifty percent of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals and in nonhigh poverty schools where the percent of students eligible for free and reduced-priced meals is fifty percent or less:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 28A.525 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) Notwithstanding other provisions in law, beginning in the 2014-15 school year through the 2017-18 school year, as the state implements K-3 class size reduction in accordance with RCW 28A.150.260, school districts that do not have sufficient facility capacity to implement the K-3 class size reduction may apply to the superintendent of public instruction for state assistance to modernize existing school facilities, provide portable or modular buildings or classrooms, or to facilitate new construction to implement K-3 class size reduction. To be eligible for state assistance under this section a school district must demonstrate the following:
     (a) The existence of unhoused K-3 students, which for the purpose of this section means current or projected enrolled students who are in excess of the capacity calculated for existing facilities within the district to implement the K-3 class size reduction under RCW 28A.150.260; and
     (b) The ability of the district to obtain capital funds to provide the local share required for state funding assistance, except for districts that do not have bond or levy capacity or have failed a bond or levy ballot measure that focused on facilities for K-3 class size reduction.
     (2) The school facilities citizen advisory panel created under RCW 28A.525.025 shall review all applications and make recommendations regarding the state assistance under this section to the superintendent of public instruction based on the kind and extent of the school plant facilities required, the urgency of need for the facilities in the school district seeking state assistance, and the ability of the school district to provide other available educational space in the school district that could be used for the K-3 class size reduction.
     (3) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall adopt rules to implement this section.
     (4) This section expires July 1, 2020.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   The sum of two hundred forty-one million one hundred forty-one thousand four hundred dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, from the general fund to the office of the superintendent of public instruction for the purposes of section 3 of this act.