Graduation Requirements—Overview.  To qualify for graduation from a public high school in Washington, students must satisfy course and credit requirements established by the State Board of Education (SBE), meet any locally established requirements, complete a high school and beyond plan (HSBP), and meet the requirements of at least one graduation pathway option.
 
High School and Beyond Plan.  All high school students must have a HSBP.  Each HSBP must be initiated in seventh- or eighth-grade with a career interest and skills inventory.  The plan must be updated to reflect high school assessment results, and must identify available interventions and academic support for students who are not on track to graduate.
 
All plans must include, among other items, an identification of career and educational goals, identification of dual credit opportunities, information on certain scholarship opportunities, and a four-year plan for course taking.  Decisions on whether a student has met HSBP requirements are made at the local level.
 
Student Learning Plans.  Districts are required to prepare student learning plans for eighth-grade students who were not successful on any or all of the content areas of the state assessment in the previous school year, or who are not on track to graduate due to credit deficiencies or absences. 
 
Student learning plans must contain certain information, including assessment results, credit deficiencies, attendance rates, academic progress, remediation strategies, and programs available to help meet graduation requirements.

High School and Beyond Plan Requirements.  Planning.  In addition to existing HSBP requirements, beginning by the seventh-grade, each student must be administered a career interest and skills inventory which is intended to be used to inform eighth-grade course taking and development of an HSBP.  No later than eighth grade, each student must have begun development of an HSBP that includes a proposed plan for first-year high school courses aligned with graduation requirements and secondary and postsecondary goals.
 
Access to Academic Interventions and Supports.  School districts are to provide students who have not met standards on state assessments or are behind in requirements, with opportunities to access certain interventions, academic supports, and courses, with parental notification.
 
Language Requirements.  An HSBP must be provided in a language that the student and parents or legal guardians understand, and in accordance with the school district's language access policy and procedures.  HSBPs must also include information on the potential impacts of a student's course selection on postsecondary opportunities, and information on opportunities for partial credit accrual, including mastery-based credit.

Additional Requirements.  Additional HSBP requirements are added, including that it comply with student privacy requirements, facilitates automatic import of data, that it includes in-state labor market and postsecondary education performance data, and the ability for school districts to customize or add features unique to local needs.

School districts are strongly encouraged to partner with student serving community-based organizations that support career and college exploration and preparation for postsecondary and career pathways.
 
Statewide Online High School and Beyond Plan Platform.  The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) must facilitate the transition to a universal online platform for the HSBP, and develop a preliminary list of existing vendors who can provide or build a platform.  OSPI must submit this list and estimated transition costs to the Governor and education policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature by January 1, 2024, and must include an estimated transition timeline for statewide implementation.  OSPI must select the vendor by June 1, 2024, subject to appropriation.
 
The statewide online platform must meet certain requirements, including having the capability to be routinely updated and modified to include 16 specified elements and capabilities to ensure equity in HSBP implementation and engagement.  Examples of these elements and capabilities include:

• enabling students to create, personalize, and revise their HSBP;
• complying with state and federal requirements for student privacy and allowing for students to opt in or out of portions of the universal platform related to third-party information sharing;
• facilitating the automatic import of academic course, credit, and grade data at a regular interval from the most commonly used district student information system platforms, and manual import from less commonly used systems;
• allowing for translation into the most common non-English languages across the state in accordance with the model language access policy and procedures;
• having a catalog containing meaningful, high quality career exploration opportunities and resources beyond the traditional college, career, and aptitude assessments that are submitted by approved entities—community organizations, institutions of higher education that are authorized to participate in state financial aid programs, and employers—and vetted by state-selected approvers that allow students to register for or apply to participate in the opportunities—programs, classes, internships, preapprenticeships, online courses, and so forth—or access the resources;
• having accessibility options for students needing accommodations including, but not limited to, visual aids and voice dictation for students with limited literacy skills;
• granting indefinite access for students to their HSBP, regardless of current school affiliation or lack thereof, in mobile and desktop applications; and
• enabling school districts to customize or add features unique to local needs and local graduation requirements, including the capability to auto-align data with the local school districts' graduation requirements or the ability to enter those requirements manually.

OSPI must also ensure that the universal platform will permit postschool transition plans for qualifying students with individualized education programs to be incorporated into the platform in a manner that eliminates the need to create duplicate or substantially similar transition plans in other electronic or non-electronic formats.
 
OSPI must develop an implementation plan for completing statewide implementation of a universal HSBP planning tool by October 1, 2024.  The implementation plan must include both an estimated timeline and updated cost estimates, including the technical assistance, technology updates, ongoing maintenance requirements, and adjustments to the technology funding formula, and statewide development that may be needed.  The plan may also include a cost alternative for educational service districts to host the universal platform for school districts with fewer than 2000 pupils when such a district does not have sufficient technology resources to implement and maintain the universal platform.

Within two years of completion of platform development, school districts must provide students with access to the adopted universal platform, with technical assistance provided by OSPI.  When carrying out these requirements, OSPI shall seek input from various groups and organizations.
 
Additional Policy Recommendations related to the High School and Beyond Plan Platform.  After selection of the vendor for a universal HSBP platform, OSPI shall report recommendations for additional policy changes related to the HSBP platform to the Governor and education committees of the Legislature. The recommendations should examine and include:

• a way to begin student use of a learning plan that utilizes the universal platform no later than the fifth grade;
• strategies for students to share their interests and engage with peers and mentors in order to obtain ongoing feedback and access to activities and learning opportunities that connect with their goals;
• recommended calendar, schedule, and delivery options for students updating their plans multiple times per year; and
• strategies to increase student and family engagement. 

The SBE must develop recommendations on how the HSBP could be modified to further support student choice and flexibility in meeting graduation requirements and preparing for postsecondary education and training, including increasing access to mastery-based learning and mastery-based crediting opportunities.
 
Both reports shall be submitted to the Governor and education committees of the Legislature by August 1, 2025.

Student Learning Plans.  Provisions relating to student learning plans are repealed.