BP BHEAD INT H [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to extended learning opportunities for struggling students; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature recognizes that higher academic standards will not be achieved by all students at the same rate. Some students start school fully ready to learn and with good instruction and hard work are likely to meet the rigorous demands of the fourth grade Washington assessment of student learning, while other students will have a great deal of difficulty meeting high standards without additional time and assistance beyond what is otherwise provided during the regular school day for the regular one hundred eighty-day school year.

The legislature intends to encourage school districts to offer summer school opportunities for struggling students in the primary grades in order to provide cost-effective strategies for helping all students achieve high standards on the fourth grade assessment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 28A.300 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The superintendent of public instruction shall allocate funds to school districts for summer school extended learning programs for struggling students who have completed first, second, or third grade. The purpose of the programs are to assist struggling students to meet the standard on the fourth grade Washington assessment of student learning in reading, writing, and mathematics.

(2) School districts shall determine the manner in which students may be selected for participation in programs funded under this section. However, districts shall include teacher referrals as a part of the process for identifying and selecting students who will be eligible to participate. This section may not be construed to require any student to attend summer school. Districts shall encourage eligible struggling students and their parents to enroll the student in the program.

(3) The summer school programs funded under this section shall offer students at least twenty days of instruction. The programs funded under this section shall be offered only during the summer; however, a school using a year-round calendar may offer this program during vacation and intercession periods to students who are enrolled in first, second, or third grade. School districts may not expend funds provided under this chapter for after-school or Saturday school programs.

(4) Funds appropriated to implement the program in this section may be used for:

(a) Participating instructional staff compensation;

(b) Transportation of participating students; and

(c) The cost of other activities and services essential to operating a full-day program, such as food service and utilities.

(5) Funds appropriated to implement the program in this section shall not be used to supplant funding used to operate extended learning programs for struggling students that a school district operated before May 1, 2000.

(6) Instruction for programs under this section shall be provided primarily by excellent certificated classroom teachers; however, excellent classified instructional staff may provide up to one-fourth of the instruction conducted under this program. Staff providing instruction for the summer school program shall be determined by the principal, with the consent of the staff selected by the principal. Instruction shall be provided by staff who are trained in instructional strategies that have been proven to be effective in helping the types of students being served by the program to improve their reading, writing, or math achievement. The manner of selecting the staff who may participate in the program is not subject to collective bargaining.

(7) The amount of funds allocated to school districts shall be determined by the percentage of students scoring in level one on the reading, writing, or mathematics component of the 1999 Washington assessment of student learning multiplied by the full-time equivalent student enrollment in grades kindergarten through three.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) The sum of twenty-three million dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, from the general fund to the office of the superintendent of public instruction for the purposes of this act.

(2) Of the appropriation in this section, the superintendent of public instruction may use up to seventy-five thousand dollars to contract with an independent consultant to evaluate the effectiveness of the extended learning programs funded under this act.