BILL REQ. #:  S-5155.1 

Read first time .   Referred to .

     AN ACT Relating to providing instruction in Spanish and a Chinese language; amending RCW 28A.410.025; adding a new section to chapter 28A.320 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A majority of students in Washington do not have the chance to study any language other than English until they are in middle school, or more often, high school. Education systems of other nations, some of them much less economically developed than the United States, begin second language study in the early elementary grades or even in preschool. Washington's economy is tied to world trade. If we want future Washington citizens to more effectively compete in the world marketplace and develop a greater sense of the world's culture and geography, then we must provide our students, at all levels, the opportunity to develop fluency in a second language.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:
     Beginning with the 2004-05 school year:
     (1) Each school district shall administer elementary, middle, and high school classes or programs that provide instruction in Spanish and a Chinese language. The classes or programs shall be offered in grades four through ten and may be offered outside the regularly scheduled school day as an after or before-school or weekend class or program.
     (2) Each student shall be required to take a class or participate in a program established under subsection (1) of this section and receive instruction in Spanish or a Chinese language.
     (3) Each school district shall provide every student the opportunity to purchase, at a minimal cost, workbooks to supplement the instruction received by the student in a class or program established under subsection (1) of this section.

Sec. 3   RCW 28A.410.025 and 1969 ex.s. c 223 s 28A.67.010 are each amended to read as follows:
     No person shall be accounted as a qualified teacher within the meaning of the school law who is not the holder of a valid teacher's certificate or permit issued by lawful authority of this state, except that a school district may use noncertificated staff to provide the language instruction in the programs or classes taught in accordance with section 2 of this act. However, the noncertificated staff providing the language instruction must: (1) Be able to speak and write the language fluently; and (2) speak English.