CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5878

2022 REGULAR SESSION

Passed by the Senate March 7, 2022 Yeas 46 Nays 3 President of the Senate Passed by the House March 3, 2022 Yeas 92 Nays 4 Speaker of the House of Representatives	CERTIFICATE I, Sarah Bannister, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5878 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth. Secretary Secretary
Approved	FILED
	Secretary of State State of Washington

ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5878

AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE

Passed Legislature - 2022 Regular Session

2022 Regular Session

BySenate Early Learning & K-12 Education (originally sponsored by Senators Rolfes, Wellman, Hunt, Lovick, Nobles, and C. Wilson)

READ FIRST TIME 01/31/22.

AN ACT Relating to visual and performing arts instruction; amending RCW 28A.230.020; adding a new section to chapter 28A.230 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.710 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.715 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) Washington state has long led the way in creating arts education policy. Washington state was one of the first states to adopt visual and performing arts graduation requirements. Our state has a two-credit visual and performing arts graduation requirement, although the second credit may be waived in certain circumstances. Our state has also been a leader by formally declaring the arts including dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and media as core content areas in the definition of basic education. However, there is a very large gap between policy and practice in our state. While most high schools offer a range of arts courses, it is not uncommon for middle schools to offer only one of the arts, usually music, and for elementary schools to offer no formal arts instruction at all, during the regular school day. When arts instruction is offered, it is often as an extracurricular activity, a volunteer docent program, or as a program which meets far less often than other core subjects do. Further, students who perform poorly on standardized tests in math and English often have what little arts instruction they would normally receive taken away, in favor of remediation in the test subject areas. Our students who live in low socioeconomic areas tend to perform worse on standardized tests. As a result, poorer students in our state tend to be denied arts instruction at a higher rate than students from economically stable homes and neighborhoods. The evidence of the multiple benefits of arts education is voluminous and undeniable. The arts are not only a vehicle for doing better at other subjects; they have immense value in their own right and should be taught as stand-alone disciplines, the way our laws and policies are written.

(2) The legislature intends to clarify, for schools and school districts, the importance of arts education and to bring our schools' practices in line with our state and federal laws and policies, and the promises made to our communities, by ensuring formal instruction in the core disciplines of visual and performing arts for all Washington students, regardless of their family's socioeconomic status or the relative affluence of the neighborhood in which they live. The legislature recognizes and supports that the best practice is for basic education courses, including the arts, to be taught by certificated teachers who are qualified through an endorsement to teach in the subject area of the course. However, the legislature acknowledges that there is a shortage of arts endorsed teachers in Washington, so intends to allow arts instruction to also be provided by certificated teachers actively pursuing an endorsement in the relevant arts discipline.

Sec. 2. RCW 28A.230.020 and 2013 c 23 s 48 are each amended to read as follows:

All common schools shall give instruction in reading, handwriting, orthography, written and mental arithmetic, geography, the history of the United States, English grammar, visual and performing arts, physiology and hygiene with special reference to the effects of alcohol and drug abuse on the human system, science with special reference to the environment, and such other studies as may be prescribed by rule of the superintendent of public instruction. All teachers shall stress the importance of the cultivation of manners, the fundamental principles of honesty, honor, industry and economy, the minimum requisites for good health including the beneficial effect of physical exercise and methods to prevent exposure to and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, and the worth of kindness to all living creatures and the land. The prevention of child abuse may be offered as part of the curriculum in the common schools.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28A.230 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Beginning with the 2023-24 school year, school districts with more than 200 enrolled students shall offer regular instruction in at least one visual art or at least one performing art, throughout the school year. Each student must receive instruction in at least one arts discipline throughout their elementary and middle education experience. For grades nine through 12, all students must be given the opportunity to take arts coursework each academic year.

(2) Every student must have access to arts education, as part of basic education under RCW 28A.150.210. Arts instruction must be accessible by all students, in a manner that is commensurate with instruction in other core subject areas.

(3)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, arts instruction must be provided by either: A certificated teacher with an endorsement in the relevant arts discipline; or a certificated teacher actively pursuing an endorsement in the relevant arts discipline.

(b) A person holding a limited teaching certificate may provide arts instruction while either: (i) The school district recruits and hires a certificated teacher with the qualifications provided in (a) of this subsection; or (ii) the certificated teacher with qualifications provided in (a) of this subsection takes leave as provided in the school district's written leave policy required by RCW 28A.400.300.

(4) Instruction under this section must be solely for the arts discipline in the skills and craft of each specific arts discipline as their own end, rather than as a vehicle to enhance learning in any other nonarts subject area. If schools wish to integrate or infuse the arts into other subject matter, they must do so in addition to the regular, formal arts instruction required by this section.

(5) The arts instructors in each school district, as subject matter experts, shall be consulted to determine which specific visual and performing arts courses to offer at given grade levels, so that instruction is properly aligned to state learning standards in the arts and students' developmental stages and vertically aligned to give arts-focused students the best chance for success in their arts college or career pathway.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 28A.710 RCW to read as follows:

Section 3 of this act, related to arts instruction, governs school operation and management under RCW 28A.710.040 and applies to charter schools with more than 200 enrolled students established under this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 28A.715 RCW to read as follows:

Section 3 of this act, related to arts instruction, governs school operation and management under RCW 28A.715.020 and applies to state-tribal education compact schools with more than 200 enrolled students established under this chapter.