BILL REQ. #:  H-3149.1 

READ FIRST TIME 03/28/07.   

     AN ACT Relating to education system benchmarks and monitoring; adding new sections to chapter 43.41 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.320 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 43.41 RCW to read as follows:
     FINANCIAL HEALTH AND MONITORING--BUDGET REVIEW AND APPROVAL PROCESS. (1) The legislature finds that the existing school district budget review system focuses on current school year budget implementation and preparation of the ensuing school year budget and does not provide a systematic look of longer-range budget issues, including any indication of impending financial problems in school districts. Parents, students, taxpayers, school employees, school administrators, and state policymakers need a financial monitoring system that considers long-term budgeting issues and commitments, and provides early warning of school district financial health concerns. Once financial concerns and issues are identified, districts should receive early, practical assistance.
     (2) The office of financial management shall develop and implement a school district financial health and monitoring system, with input and collaboration from the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee and the office of the superintendent of public instruction.
     (3) The office of financial management shall identify a limited set of system measures that shall be established for a public financial reporting system, including related data collection content and processes. In identifying the measures, the office shall rely on measures developed and recommended by the government finance officers association pertaining to public schools and consider education finance studies conducted by the joint legislative audit and review committee. In addition, the office shall jointly develop a financial health outlook rating system that places school districts in one of three financial health categories based on their ratings on the financial measures.
     (4) The office of financial management shall present proposed system measures and a financial health outlook rating system to the governor and the legislature by November 1, 2007. The legislative evaluation and accountability program committee shall make recommendations to the legislature for modifications to the measures and systems, if necessary. Unless the legislature takes action during the 2008 legislative session to change the measures and the rating system, the financial health and monitoring system shall be implemented during the 2008-09 school year.
     (5) The financial health outlook rating category of each school district shall be published annually. In addition, updates shall be published throughout the year if subsequent data to the school district's financial reporting measures cause a change in the district's financial health categorization.
     (6) Regional financial specialists employed by educational service districts shall provide progressive levels of technical assistance to school districts in the lowest category on the financial health outlook rating system.
     (7) The office of financial management shall review the current school district budget submittal and approval process and develop recommendations for changes to the budget approval and financial oversight system, with input and collaboration from the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee and the office of the superintendent of public instruction. The recommendations shall include a system of progressive state technical assistance and oversight in school districts identified in the lowest category on the financial health outlook rating system, which may be implemented only with approval from the legislature through the omnibus appropriations act or by statute.
     (8) The office of financial management shall submit a report summarizing the review and reporting recommendations in subsection (7) of this section to the governor, the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee, and the education and fiscal committees of the legislature by November 15, 2007.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 43.41 RCW to read as follows:
     EDUCATION DATA CENTER. (1) An education data center shall be established in the office of financial management. The education data center shall jointly, with the legislative education and accountability program committee, conduct collaborative analyses of early learning, K-12, and higher education programs and education issues across the P-20 system, which includes the department of early learning, the superintendent of public instruction, the professional educator standards board, the state board of education, the state board for community and technical colleges, the workforce training and education coordinating board, the higher education coordinating board, public and private nonprofit four-year institutions of higher education, and the employment security department. The education data center shall conduct collaborative analyses under this section with the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee and provide data electronically to the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee, to the extent permitted by state and federal confidentiality requirements. The education data center shall be considered an authorized representative of the state educational agencies in this section under applicable federal and state statutes for purposes of receiving and processing student record data for research purposes.
     (2) The education data center shall:
     (a) Coordinate with other state education agencies to collect, compile, and analyze education data, including data on student demographics that is disaggregated by distinct ethnic categories within racial subgroups, and complete P-20 research projects;
     (b) Collaborate with the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee and the education and fiscal committees of the legislature in identifying the data to be collected, compiled, and analyzed to ensure that legislative interests are served;
     (c) Track enrollment and outcomes through the public centralized higher education enrollment system;
     (d) Assist other state educational agencies' collaborative efforts to develop a long-range enrollment plan for higher education including estimates to meet demographic and workforce needs;
     (e) Provide research that focuses on student transitions within and among the early learning, K-12, and higher education sectors in the P-20 system; and
     (f) Phase-in implementation of a comprehensive data system with school-level financial, student, teacher, and community variables consistent with recommendations of the joint legislative audit and review committee.
     (3) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop a reporting format and instructions for school districts to collect and submit data on student demographics that is disaggregated by distinct ethnic categories within racial subgroups so that analyses may be conducted on student achievement using the disaggregated data.
     (4) The department of early learning, superintendent of public instruction, professional educator standards board, state board of education, state board for community and technical colleges, workforce training and education coordinating board, higher education coordinating board, public four-year institutions of higher education, and employment security department shall work with the education data center to develop data sharing and research agreements, consistent with applicable security and confidentiality requirements, to facilitate the work of the center. Private, nonprofit institutions of higher education that provide programs of education beyond the high school level leading at least to the baccalaureate degree and are accredited by the Northwest association of schools and colleges or their peer accreditation bodies may also develop data-sharing and research agreements with the education data center, consistent with applicable security and confidentiality requirements. The education data center shall make data from collaborative analyses available to the education agencies and institutions that contribute data to the education data center to the extent allowed by federal and state security and confidentiality requirements applicable to the data of each contributing agency or institution.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 RCW to read as follows:
     Each school district shall collect and electronically submit to the office of the superintendent of public instruction, in a format and according to a schedule prescribed by the office, the following minimum data elements no later than the beginning of the 2008-09 school year and thereafter:
     (1) For each class or course offered in each school:
     (a) The certification number or other unique identifier associated with the teacher's certificate for each teacher assigned to teach the class or course, including reassignments that may occur during the school year; and
     (b) The statewide student identifier for each student enrolled in or being provided services through the class or course; and
     (2) For each high school-level mathematics class or course offered in each secondary school, a course code based on the classification of secondary school courses by the national center for education statistics, which shall also be recorded on the transcript of each secondary student enrolled in the class or course.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   A new section is added to chapter 28A.300 RCW to read as follows:
     The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall develop standards for school data systems that focus on validation and verification of data entered into the systems to ensure accuracy and compatibility of data. The standards shall address but are not limited to the following topics:
     (1) Date validation;
     (2) Code validation, which includes gender, race or ethnicity, and other code elements;
     (3) Decimal and integer validation; and
     (4) Required field validation as defined by state and federal requirements.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall convene a work group composed of representatives of school districts of varying sizes and geographic locations, educational service districts, the Washington school information processing cooperative, and at least one additional school information system vendor. The work group shall develop an implementation plan for consistent coding of secondary courses in subjects other than mathematics that is based on the national classification system. The work group shall present the plan to the fiscal committees of the legislature by September 1, 2008.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   Captions used in this act are not any part of the law.