H-197                _______________________________________________

                                                    HOUSE BILL NO. 361

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Representatives Peery, Betrozoff, Walker, L. Smith, Todd, Appelwick, Rasmussen, Pruitt, Cooper, Taylor, Schoon, Valle, Ebersole, Rayburn, Jacobsen, Sutherland, Wang, P. King, Fisch, Kremen, Silver, Doty, Meyers, May, Unsoeld, Spanel and Wineberry

Read first time 1/26/87 and referred to Committee on Education.  Referred to Committee on Ways & Means 2/18/87.

AN ACT Relating to class size; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     The legislature has discussed and attempted to reduce class size based on the belief that lower class size results in more effective instruction of our children.  The sum of one hundred fifty thousand dollars or so much thereof as may be necessary is appropriated from the general fund for the 1987-89 biennium to the superintendent of public instruction to conduct a cluster analysis study of actual class size in the schools in this state.  Information shall also be collected on each classroom on the numbers of aids and volunteers used in the classroom, the training of the aides and volunteers, the number of instructional staff such as reading specialists, special education instructional staff, bilingual and remediation instructional staff, speech therapists, and other instructional staff pulling students from the classroom.  The study shall be conducted during the 1987-88 school year and the results shall be reported to the legislature no later than January 1, 1989.  The report shall also include recommendations for the revision of the data collection system currently used by the superintendent of public instruction.  The aim of revising the reporting system shall be to accurately reflect conditions in the classroom and to provide a more accurate basis for decision-making.