BILL REQ. #:  S-3278.1 

Read first time 01/11/12.   Referred to Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education.

     AN ACT Relating to implementing recommendations of the 2010 working group regarding programs for highly capable students; amending RCW 28A.185.020 and 28A.185.030; adding a new section to chapter 28A.185 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature intends to implement the recommendations of the 2010 working group regarding the programs for highly capable students, including standardizing the process since the legislature has designated the program as part of basic education.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 28A.185 RCW to read as follows:
     For the purposes of the program for highly capable students under this chapter, a highly capable student means a student who performs, or shows potential for performing, at significantly advanced levels when compared to others of his or her age, experience, or environment. Outstanding capabilities are seen with the student's general intellectual aptitudes, specific academic abilities, creative productivities within a specific domain, or leadership skills. Highly capable students are present in all cultural and linguistic groups and across all socioeconomic strata; coexist with all manner of disabling conditions both visible and invisible; and manifest across all areas of human endeavor.

Sec. 3   RCW 28A.185.020 and 2009 c 548 s 708 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The legislature finds that, for highly capable students, access to accelerated learning and enhanced instruction is access to a basic education. The education of highly capable students may include supports and services that are in addition to those ordinarily provided as part of general education.
     (2) There are multiple definitions of highly capable, from intellectual to academic to artistic. The research literature strongly supports using multiple criteria to identify highly capable students, and therefore, the legislature does not intend to prescribe a single method. Instead, the legislature intends to allocate funding based on two and three hundred fourteen one-thousandths percent of each school district's population and authorize school districts to identify through the use of multiple, objective criteria those students most highly capable and eligible to receive accelerated learning and enhanced instruction in the program offered by the district. Access to accelerated learning and enhanced instruction through the program for highly capable students does not constitute an individual entitlement for any particular student.
     (((2))) (3) Supplementary funds provided by the state for the program for highly capable students under RCW 28A.150.260 shall be categorical funding to provide services to highly capable students as determined by a school district under RCW 28A.185.030.

Sec. 4   RCW 28A.185.030 and 2009 c 380 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     Local school districts may establish and operate, either separately or jointly, programs for highly capable students. Such authority shall include the right to employ and pay special instructors and to operate such programs jointly with a public institution of higher education. Local school districts which establish and operate programs for highly capable students shall adopt identification procedures and provide educational opportunities as follows:
     (1) In accordance with rules adopted by the superintendent of public instruction, school districts shall implement procedures for nomination, assessment and selection of their most highly capable students for the purposes of the highly capable program. ((Nominations shall be based upon data from teachers, other staff, parents, students, and members of the community. Assessment shall be based upon a review of each student's capability as shown by multiple criteria intended to reveal, from a wide variety of sources and data, each student's unique needs and capabilities. Selection shall be made by a broadly based committee of professionals, after consideration of the results of the multiple criteria assessment.)) Under the procedures, no single criterion should prevent a student's identification. However, any single criterion, if strong enough, may indicate a need for services. The rules adopted by the superintendent of public instruction must include but are not limited to consistent procedures for:
     (a) Universal screening;
     (b) Regular public notification;
     (c) Use of multiple criteria;
     (d) Involvement of qualified professionals in the identification process;
     (e) Family involvement in decision making;
     (f) Notification of parents or legal guardians;
     (g) Safeguards to reduce cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and gender bias, and to mitigate impacts resulting from disabilities; and
     (h) Periodic reviews, including input from families.
     (2) When a student, who is a child of a military family in transition, has been assessed or enrolled as highly capable by a sending school, the receiving school shall initially honor placement of the student into a like program.
     (a) The receiving school shall determine whether the district's program is a like program when compared to the sending school's program; and
     (b) The receiving school may conduct subsequent assessments to determine appropriate placement and continued enrollment in the program.
     (3) Students selected pursuant to procedures outlined in this section shall be provided, to the extent feasible, an educational opportunity which takes into account each student's unique needs and capabilities and the limits of the resources and program options available to the district, including those options which can be developed or provided by using funds allocated by the superintendent of public instruction for that purpose.
     (4) The definitions in Article II of RCW 28A.705.010 apply to subsection (2) of this section.