HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 SHB 1770

                    As Passed Legislature

Title:  An act relating to the recommendations of the state board of education based on its review of its statutory authority.

Brief Description:  Adopting recommendations of the state board of education.

Sponsors:  By House Committee on Education (Originally sponsored by Representatives Stensen and Talcott; by request of Board of Education).

Brief History:

  Committee Activity:

Education:  2/24/99, 2/25/99 [DPS].

Floor Activity:

Passed House:  3/9/99, 93-0.

Senate Amended.

Passed Senate:  4/15/99, 45-0.

House Concurred.

Passed Legislature.

           Brief Summary of Substitute Bill

$OSPI will determine the amount of funding that will be provided to education centers for diagnostic tests and student enrollments.

$School districts may determine the level of fees needed to cover the cost of prescreening kindergarten and first grade students who wish to enroll at a younger age than is generally permitted by district policies.

$A number of laws related to school districts are moved from their current placement in the Revised Code of Washington to different chapters in the code and two obsolete laws are repealed.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  Signed by 14 members:  Representatives Quall, Democratic Co-Chair; Talcott, Republican Co-Chair; Haigh, Democratic Vice Chair; Schindler, Republican Vice Chair; Carlson; Cox; Keiser; Rockefeller; Santos; D. Schmidt; Schual-Berke; Stensen; Sump and Wensman.

Staff:  Susan Morrissey (786-7111).

Background:

During 1997 and 1998, the State Board of Education (SBE) convened a Mandate Review Committee to study all of the board's rules and their related laws.  The committee recommended the revision or repeal of a number of existing state laws.  The recommendations included the establishment of a linkage between an education center's program and the state's essential academic learning requirements and the reassignment of the responsibility to approve certain tests from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to the SBE.  The committee recommended the revision of language on fees for education centers and kindergarten prescreening.   The committee also recommended the repeal of outdated language on teacher testing and clarification of OSPI's administrative role in the implementation of rules adopted by the SBE.  Finally, the committee recommended the consolidation of the SBE's certification authority into one chapter in the Revised Code of Washington.

Summary of Bill:

Education Centers.  SBE approves tests used to determine a student's eligibility to enroll in an education center.  In place of the current statutory fee limits, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) determines the amount it pays to education centers for diagnostic tests and student enrollments.

Fees for K-1 Pre-admission Screening.  In place of the current statutory fee limit, school districts may establish the level of fees for screening certain students before they enroll in school.  The affected students are those who request an exception to district rules for entry into kindergarten or first grade.

Recodified and Repealed Statutes.  Statutory sections concerning joint school districts, divided school districts, school board members, and school district boundaries are recodified in a new RCW chapter.  A decodified law concerning master in teaching degrees is repealed.  The statute concerning an obsolete study on assessments for teacher candidates is repealed.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  (Original bill) The legislation clarifies and streamlines certain existing laws and aligns educational programs offered to state funded students at education centers to the state's essential academic learning requirements.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  (Original bill) Rep. Stensen, prime sponsor; Larry Davis, State Board of Education; and Dwayne Slate, Washington State School Directors' Association.