H-2396

AN ACT Relating to parents' rights; amending RCW 28A.320.230 and 28A.230.070; adding a new chapter to Title 28A RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. DEFINITION. Unless specifically provided by law, for purposes of this chapter, "parent" means a parent or legal guardian having legal custody of a child enrolled in public school. For purposes of this chapter, "parent" does not mean parents of children in private school or of children receiving home-based instruction. If a person has a child enrolled in a public school and has another child enrolled in a private school or receiving home-based instruction, this chapter applies to the parent with regard to the parent's rights and responsibilities concerning the child enrolled in the public school.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. PARENTS' RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES EXISTING IN CURRENT LAW. In accordance with existing law, parents shall:

(1) Comply with immunization requirements for their child, unless exempted, in accordance with RCW 28A.210.090;

(2) Provide information regarding their child's prior educational history when the child transfers from another school, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.330;

(3) Be responsible for property damaged by their child, in accordance with RCW 28A.635.060;

(4) Comply with compulsory attendance requirements, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.010;

(5) Be notified when their child has an unexcused absence, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.020;

(6) Determine whether their child participates in AIDS instruction, in accordance with RCW 28A.230.070 and this chapter;

(7) Be involved in instructional materials committees in accordance with RCW 28A.320.230 and this chapter;

(8) Be notified of their parent involvement opportunities, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.300;

(9) Receive an annual report from their school district, in accordance with RCW 28A.320.205;

(10) Be consulted in the development of the district's AIDS curriculum, in accordance with RCW 28A.230.070;

(11) Receive periodic reports on the academic progress of their child, in accordance with RCW 28A.150.240;

(12) Receive the results of their child's performance on state-wide assessments, in accordance with RCW 28A.230.190, 28A.230.195, 28A.230.230, 28A.230.240, 28A.230.250, 28A.630.885, and 28A.630.886;

(13) Be notified if their child has a hearing or visual loss, in accordance with RCW 28A.210.030;

(14) Be notified of their child's choice options, in accordance with RCW 28A.225.300;

(15) Be notified about the running start program, in accordance with RCW 28A.600.320;

(16) Be notified of their child's conduct, discipline problem areas, and rights, in accordance with RCW 28A.600.010; and

(17) Be notified if a court order or subpoena has been issued for access to the records of their child, in accordance with RCW 28A.600.475.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. PARENTS' RIGHTS. In accordance with existing law, parents may:

(1) Make a complaint to the school board and have the complaint heard at a public hearing regarding instructional and library materials the parent deems objectionable, in accordance with RCW 28A.150.230;

(2) Exclude their child from sex education classes and be involved in evaluation and revision of sex education programs, in accordance with rules adopted by the state board of education; and

(3) Exclude their child from scoliosis screening, in accordance with RCW 28A.210.190 through 28A.210.240.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. ACCESS TO ACADEMIC PROGRAMS AND TEACHING MATERIALS. (1) A parent shall have access to his or her child's classroom. Every school district board of directors shall, after following established procedures, adopt a policy assuring parents access to their child's classrooms and school-sponsored activities for purposes of observing class procedure, teaching material, and class conduct. Observation under this section may not disrupt the classroom procedure or learning activity.

(2) School district employees may not withhold information pertaining to the school activities of a child from the child's parents.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. ACCESS TO STUDENT RECORDS. (1) Except as specifically exempted by other state or federal law, all records maintained on a student by a school, school district, educational service district, the superintendent of public instruction, the state board of education, or anyone under contract with the entities named in this subsection, shall be provided to a parent upon request for the parent's observation. Upon the written request of a parent, copies of records shall be provided within fourteen working days. The appropriate legal reference shall be provided to the parent for all individual records that the school, school district, educational service district, the superintendent of public instruction, the state board of education, or any contractor, claims are exempt from parent disclosure by state or federal law. School counseling records are confidential and exempt from disclosure as provided by statute and rule.

(2) Parents shall annually be entitled to one set of student records at no charge upon the parent's request but districts may establish a reasonable fee pursuant to RCW 42.17.300 for each subsequent request made during the school year.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. NOTIFICATION REGARDING SCHOOL ACTIVITIES. (1)(a) At the beginning of each school year, all schools shall notify parents in writing of any school-sponsored class program or activity, whether curricular or extracurricular, that will include subject matter relating to sex education, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, sexual orientation, suicide, or euthanasia. Schools must provide parents with the opportunity to exempt their child from any such class program or activity identified in this section. Such notification is in addition to the notification requirements of RCW 28A.230.070.

(b) If a school adds a school-sponsored class program or activity, whether curricular or extracurricular, after the beginning of the school year, a school must give parents twenty days' advance written notice before presenting any class program or activity identified in (a) of this subsection that was not identified at the beginning of the school year and must provide parents with the opportunity to excuse their child from the identified program or activity.

(c) This subsection (1) does not apply to school activities or programs sponsored in response to an emergency situation at the school. It also does not apply to student initiated discussions of the topics listed in subsection (1) of this section.

(2) In addition to other provisions in law, parents may remove their child temporarily from a class or other school activity that conflicts with the parents' religious or moral beliefs if the parents present or deliver to the teacher of the parents' child a written statement authorizing the removal of the child from the class or other activity. A parent may not remove the child from the class or other activity specifically to avoid a test on academic subject matter. The parent is responsible for identifying educational opportunities to be provided for those excused.

This section does not exempt a child from satisfying grade level or graduation curriculum requirements in a manner acceptable to the school district.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. PARTICIPATION IN ADVISORY GROUPS. School districts shall seek parental involvement in advisory groups that are considering major policy decisions affecting the education of children in the school district.

Sec. 8. RCW 28A.320.230 and 1989 c 371 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

Every board of directors, unless otherwise specifically provided by law, shall:

(1) Prepare, negotiate, set forth in writing and adopt, policy relative to the selection or deletion of instructional materials. Such policy shall:

(a) State the school district's goals and principles relative to instructional materials;

(b) Delegate responsibility for the preparation and recommendation of teachers' reading lists and specify the procedures to be followed in the selection of all instructional materials including text books;

(c) Establish an instructional materials committee to be appointed, with the approval of the school board, by the school district's chief administrative officer. This committee shall consist of parents, representative members of the district's professional staff, including representation from the district's curriculum development committees, and, in the case of districts which operate elementary school(s) only, the educational service district superintendent, one of whose responsibilities shall be to assure the correlation of those elementary district adoptions with those of the high school district(s) which serve their children. ((~~The committee may include parents at the school board's discretion: PROVIDED, That parent members shall make up less than one-half of the total membership of the committee~~)) At least one-third of the committee must be comprised of parents who are not school district employees and who have children enrolled in the district. In addition to these parents, other parents who live in the district may also serve on the committee at the school board's discretion;

(d) Provide for reasonable notice to parents of the opportunity to serve on the committee and for terms of office for members of the instructional materials committee;

(e) Provide a system for receiving, considering and acting upon written complaints regarding instructional materials used by the school district;

(f) Provide free text books, supplies and other instructional materials to be loaned to the pupils of the school, when, in its judgment, the best interests of the district will be subserved thereby and prescribe rules and regulations to preserve such books, supplies and other instructional materials from unnecessary damage.

Recommendation of instructional materials shall be by the district's instructional materials committee in accordance with district policy. Approval or disapproval shall be by the local school district's board of directors.

Districts may pay the necessary travel and subsistence expenses for expert counsel from outside the district. In addition, the committee's expenses incidental to visits to observe other districts' selection procedures may be reimbursed by the school district.

Districts may, within limitations stated in board policy, use ((~~and experiment with~~)) instructional materials for a period of time before general adoption is formalized.

Within the limitations of board policy, a school district's chief administrator may purchase instructional materials to meet deviant needs or rapidly changing circumstances.

(2) Establish a depreciation scale for determining the value of texts which students wish to purchase.

Sec. 9. RCW 28A.230.070 and 1994 c 245 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:

((~~(1) The life-threatening dangers of~~)) Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) ((~~and its prevention shall be taught in the public schools of this state. AIDS~~)) prevention education shall be limited to the discussion of the life-threatening dangers of the disease, its spread, and prevention. ((~~Students shall receive such education at least once each school year beginning no later than the fifth grade.~~))

(2) Each district board of directors shall adopt an AIDS prevention education program which ((is)) must be an independent unit within a course offering. The program may not be offered to students until they are in the fifth grade. This shall not inhibit discussion of AIDS in the context of other studies such as geography or history or when appropriate for medical necessities. The program shall be developed in consultation with teachers, administrators, parents, and other community members including, but not limited to, persons from medical, public health, and mental health organizations and agencies ((~~so long as~~)). The curricula and materials developed for use in the AIDS education program shall either be: (a) ((~~are~~)) The model curricula and resources under subsection (3) of this section, or (b) ((~~are~~)) developed by the school district and approved for medical accuracy by the office on AIDS established in RCW 70.24.250. If a district elects to use curricula developed by the school district, the district shall submit to the office on AIDS a copy of its curricula and an affidavit of medical accuracy stating that the material in the district-developed curricula has been compared to the model curricula for medical accuracy and that in the opinion of the district the district-developed materials are medically accurate. Upon submission of the affidavit and curricula, the district may use these materials until the approval procedure to be conducted by the office of AIDS has been completed.

(3) Model curricula and other resources available from the superintendent of public instruction may be reviewed by the school district board of directors, in addition to materials designed locally, in developing the district's AIDS education program. The model curricula shall be reviewed for medical accuracy by the office on AIDS established in RCW 70.24.250 within the department of social and health services.

(4) Each school district shall, at least one month before teaching AIDS prevention education in any classroom, conduct at least one presentation during weekend and evening hours for the parents and guardians of students concerning the curricula and materials that will be used for such education. The parents and guardians shall be notified by the school district of the presentation and that the curricula and materials used for teaching AIDS prevention are available for inspection. No student may ((~~be required to~~)) participate in AIDS prevention education if the student's parent or guardian((~~, having attended one of the district presentations,~~)) objects in writing to the participation.

(5) The office of the superintendent of public instruction with the assistance of the office on AIDS shall update AIDS education curriculum material as newly discovered medical facts make it necessary.

(6) The curriculum for AIDS prevention education shall stress the life-threatening dangers of contracting AIDS and be designed to teach students which behaviors place a person dangerously at risk of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and methods to avoid such risk including, at least:

(a) That abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain means for the prevention of the spread or contraction of the AIDS virus through sexual contact. It shall also teach that condoms and other artificial means of birth control are not a certain means of preventing the spread of the AIDS virus and reliance on condoms puts a person at risk for exposure to the disease; and

(b) The dangers of drug abuse, especially that involving the use of hypodermic needles; and

((~~(b)~~)) (c) The dangers of sexual intercourse((~~, with or without condoms.~~

(7) The program of AIDS prevention education shall stress the life-threatening dangers of contracting AIDS and shall stress that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain means for the prevention of the spread or contraction of the AIDS virus through sexual contact. It shall also teach that condoms and other artificial means of birth control are not a certain means of preventing the spread of the AIDS virus and reliance on condoms puts a person at risk for exposure to the disease)) outside of a monogamous marriage.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. COMPLAINTS. The board of directors of each school district shall have a grievance procedure under which the school district shall address and attempt to resolve each written complaint that the district receives concerning violation of a right guaranteed by this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. Sections 1 through 7, RCW 28A.320.230 and 28A.230.070, and section 10 of this act are not intended to reflect the exclusive rights and obligations of parents of students in public schools.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. CAPTIONS NOT LAW. Captions used in this chapter are not any part of the law.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 13. Sections 1 through 7, 10, and 12 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 28A RCW.