AN ACT Relating to school choice; amending RCW 28A.655.110; adding a new section to chapter 28A.657 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 28A.657 RCW to read as follows:

(1) As used in this section, "low-performing school" means a common school identified by the office of the superintendent of public instruction, as required under the federal every student succeeds act, as: A school in the bottom five percent of performers, a high school graduating fewer than two-thirds of students, or a school in which a subgroup of students is consistently underperforming.

(2)(a) The office of the superintendent of public instruction must grant the request of a student's parent or guardian for the student to enroll in and attend a common school in accordance with the provisions of this section if the student:

(i) Spent the prior school year in attendance at a low-performing school;

(ii) Was in attendance elsewhere in the common school system and has been assigned to a low-performing school for the next school year; or

(iii) Was notified that he or she has been assigned to a low-performing school for the next school year.

(b) For purposes of continuity of educational choice, the permission granted under this section must remain in effect until the student graduates from high school.

(3) A school district must, for each student who meets the criteria in subsection (2)(a) of this section:

(a) Notify the parent or guardian of the student of all options available under this section upon being identified as a low-performing school;

(b) Provide the parent or guardian of the student with an opportunity to enroll the student in a higher performing common school within the district;

(c) Provide the student with the opportunity to continue attendance in the higher performing common school's feeder pattern until the student graduates from high school; and

(d) If the parent or guardian of the student chooses to enroll the student in a higher performing common school in the district, incur the cost of transporting the student to the chosen school.

(4)(a) The parent or guardian of a student who meets the criteria in subsection (2)(a) of this section may, as an alternative to the school district offer under subsection (3)(b) of this section, choose to enroll the student in and transport the student to a higher performing common school in any school district in the state that has enrollment capacity.

(b) The school district selected by the parent or guardian under (a) of this subsection must accept the student and report the enrollment of the student to the office of the superintendent of public instruction.

(c) If the parent or guardian of a student who meets the criteria in subsection (2)(a) of this section enrolls the student in another school district, in accordance with this subsection (4), the office of the superintendent of public instruction shall, if funds are appropriated for this specific purpose, distribute to the student's resident school district funding to compensate the district for the funding lost due to the student's transfer.

(5) This section does not apply to a student who is enrolled in a school operating for the purposes of providing educational services to youth in education programs for juvenile inmates, under chapters 28A.193 and 28A.194 RCW.

Sec. 2.  RCW 28A.655.110 and 2010 c 235 s 703 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Beginning with the 1994-95 school year, to provide the local community and electorate with access to information on the educational programs in the schools in the district, each school shall publish annually a school performance report and deliver the report to each parent with children enrolled in the school and make the report available to the community served by the school. The annual performance report shall be in a form that can be easily understood and be used by parents, guardians, and other members of the community who are not professional educators to make informed educational decisions. As data from the assessments in RCW 28A.655.060 becomes available, the annual performance report should enable parents, educators, and school board members to determine whether students in the district's schools are attaining mastery of the student learning goals under RCW 28A.150.210, and other important facts about the schools' performance in assisting students to learn. The annual report shall make comparisons to a school's performance in preceding years, student performance relative to the goals and the percentage of students performing at each level of the assessment, a comparison of student performance at each level of the assessment to the previous year's performance, and information regarding school-level plans to achieve the goals.

(2) The annual performance report shall include, but not be limited to: (a) A brief statement of the mission of the school and the school district; (b) enrollment statistics including student demographics; (c) expenditures per pupil for the school year; (d) a summary of student scores on all mandated tests; (e) a concise annual budget report; (f) student attendance, graduation, and dropout rates; (g) the performance of the school and the school district on the Washington achievement index developed under RCW 28A.657.110; (h) information regarding the use and condition of the school building or buildings; (((h))) (i) a brief description of the learning improvement plans for the school; (((i))) (j) a summary of the feedback from parents and community members obtained under RCW 28A.655.115; and (((j))) (k) an invitation to all parents and citizens to participate in school activities.

(3) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop by June 30, 1994, and update periodically, a model report form, which shall also be adapted for computers, that schools may use to meet the requirements of subsections (1) and (2) of this section. In order to make school performance reports broadly accessible to the public, the superintendent of public instruction, to the extent feasible, shall make information on each school's report available on or through the superintendent's internet web site.

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