BILL REQ. #:  S-0892.1 

Read first time 01/18/2007.   Referred to Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education.

     AN ACT Relating to school districts not being required to make up school days missed due to unforeseen natural events or mechanical failures occurring during the 2006-07 school year; creating a new section; providing an expiration date; and declaring an emergency.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) If during the 2006-07 school year a school district is unable to fulfill for one or more schools as officially scheduled the requirement of a full school year of one hundred eighty days or the annual average total instructional hour offering required by RCW 28A.150.220 and 28A.150.260 due to one or more of the conditions listed in subsection (2) of this section, then the school district is not required to make up any school days and the state basic education moneys received by the school district pursuant to RCW 28A.150.250 shall not be affected, but shall be provided as though no school days were missed.
     (2) The conditions required to meet subsection (1) of this section are:
     (a) An unforeseen natural event including, but not limited to, a flood, windstorm, ice storm, or snowstorm, that has the direct or indirect effect of rendering one or more school district facilities unsafe, unhealthy, inaccessible, or inoperative; and
     (b) An unforeseen mechanical failure including, but not limited to, the discontinuance or disruption of utilities such as heating, lighting, and water, that (i) is beyond the control of both a school district board of directors and its employees and (ii) has the direct or indirect effect of rendering one or more school district facilities unsafe, unhealthy, inaccessible, or inoperative.
     (3) For the purposes of this section, a condition is foreseeable to the extent a reasonably prudent person would have anticipated before August 1st of the preceding school year that the condition probably would occur during the ensuing school year because of the occurrence of an event or a circumstance that existed during the preceding school year or a prior school year. A board of directors of a school district is deemed for the purposes of this section to have knowledge of events and circumstances that are a matter of common knowledge within the school district and of those events and circumstances that can be discovered upon prudent inquiry or inspection.
     (4) This section expires August 31, 2007.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.