ByHouse Education (originally sponsored by Representatives McClintock, Couture, Waters, Rude, Jacobsen, Cheney, and Griffey)

AN ACT Relating to collecting data on student transfers and withdrawals from public schools and school districts; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; and creating a new section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature recognizes that emerging trends in recent years show a decline in enrollment in elementary and secondary public schools, and that between the 2018-19 and 2022-23 school years, public school enrollment declined by more than 20,000 students, a decrease of more than two percent.

(2) The legislature finds that the increasingly frequent parental preferences for nonpublic education options have occurred without a corresponding collection of data that could help school officials, policymakers, and the public: (a) More fully understand why parents are forgoing public schools; and (b) make informed choices in the shared objective of supporting the education needs of all students.

(3) The legislature, therefore, intends to direct the office of the superintendent of public instruction to create and administer a voluntary survey for parents to complete when they transfer or withdraw students from public schools or school districts.

(1) The office of the superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the Washington school information processing cooperative, shall establish and maintain a confidential online survey for parents or guardians to complete, at their option, upon transferring or withdrawing their student or students from a public school or school district. For the purpose of avoiding duplication in the data collection process, the survey must use the statewide student identifier for each student for which there is a survey response. The purpose of the survey, which must be operational by September 1, 2024, is to:

(a) Collect data for school officials, policymakers, and the public about the purposes and reasons that parents or guardians transfer or withdraw students from public schools and school districts; and

(b) Identify, through the collected data, potential opportunities for improving the public school system to better meet the needs of students and their parents or guardians.

(2) Public schools must notify parents or guardians of the survey and provide a link to the survey upon receiving a request from a parent or guardian to transfer or withdraw a student.

(3)(a) Beginning December 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, the office of the superintendent of public instruction shall provide a summary of the data received through the survey during the school year preceding the issuance of the report to:

(b) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall annually post and maintain on its website an aggregate statewide summary of the data summaries required by (a) of this subsection (3).

(4) The office of the superintendent of public instruction shall ensure that the implementation of this section occurs in conformity with requirements governing the privacy of student education records.