H-4257.1 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL 3071
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 56th Legislature 2000 Regular Session
By Representative D. Schmidt
Read first time 01/27/2000. Referred to Committee on Education.
AN ACT Relating to making community service a graduation requirement in Washington state schools; adding new sections to chapter 28A.150 RCW; creating new sections; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This act may be known and cited as the community service act of 2000.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The legislature finds that:
(a) Young people were four times more likely to volunteer if they were asked than if they were not asked;
(b) In Snohomish county, more than one hundred fifty thousand volunteers, about half the county population, log more than two million five hundred thousand hours each year. That is equivalent to more than thirty-three million dollars in paid staff hours, including benefits;
(c) A lot of colleges require community service on their applications;
(d) People learn things they are good at, and that helps them decide what they want to do as a career and also gives them valuable skills that they will use forever; and
(e) Community service gives students responsibility and allows them to prove that they can make a difference in the community.
(2) The purposes of this act are:
(a) To get students involved in their community; and
(b) To get students ready for the profession in which they are interested.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) All students in Washington state high schools shall complete a minimum of forty hours of community service.
(2) The superintendent of public instruction shall adopt rules to implement this section and establish a process for a school board to exempt a student from the requirement under this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The definitions in this section apply throughout sections 1 through 3 of this act unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Community service" means activities that are noncurriculum-based and nonprofit and are recognized or arranged through the school.
(2) "Volunteer" means doing work without any payment.
(3) "Students" means people who are in the ninth grade through the twelfth grade and are enrolled in high school.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. (1) This act applies to all federal and state law, and the implementation of that law, whether statutory or otherwise, and whether adopted before or after the effective date of this act.
(2) State statutory law adopted after the effective date of this act is subject to this act unless such law explicitly excludes such application by reference to this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. Nothing in this act shall be construed to affect, interpret, or in any way change the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the state of Washington.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. This act takes effect August 1, 2001.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. Sections 1 through 4 of this act are each added to chapter 28A.150 RCW.
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