Chapter 0076 - 521R - S Ver of SB1289

Senate Engrossed

State of Arizona

Senate

Fifty-second Legislature

First Regular Session

2015

CHAPTER 76

SENATE BILL 1289

AN ACT

PRescribing A Transition process to revise the school and school district ACCOUNTABILITY system.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. School and school district letter grades; transition process; report

A. Notwithstanding any other law, the department of education may not assign schools or school districts letter grade classifications pursuant to section 15‑241, Arizona Revised Statutes, for school years 2014‑2015 and 2015‑2016 in order for the department of education, subject to the approval of the state board of education, to develop and implement a revised accountability system for schools and school districts.

B. Notwithstanding subsection A of this section, the department of education shall continue to collect and publish data in school years 2014‑2015 and 2015‑2016 concerning the academic performance indicators for schools and school districts prescribed in section 15‑241, Arizona Revised Statutes, subsections C and D.

C. For the purposes of section 15-241, subsections K through II, Arizona Revised Statutes, and sections 15-241.01 and 15-537 and chapter 19 of this title, Arizona Revised Statutes, and subject to final adoption by the state board of education, the department of education shall develop criteria to identify schools and school districts for school years 2014‑2015 and 2015‑2016 that demonstrate a below average level of performance.

D. Notwithstanding any other law, during school years 2014-2015 and 2015‑2016, the governing board of a school district may adopt alternative policies regarding performance based funding pursuant to section 15-977, subsection B, Arizona Revised Statutes, or policies regarding dismissal or nonrenewal procedures for teachers who continue to be designated in the lowest performance classification pursuant to section 15-537, subsection C, Arizona Revised Statutes.

E. Notwithstanding section 15-211, subsection D, Arizona Revised Statutes, in fiscal years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, each school district and charter school that was assigned a letter grade of C, D or F pursuant to section 15-241, subsection H, Arizona Revised Statutes, in school year 2013‑2014 or that has more than ten percent of its pupils in grade three reading far below the third grade level according to the reading portion of the Arizona instrument to measure standards test, or a successor test, if data is available, shall receive monies generated by the K-3 reading support level weight established in section 15-943, Arizona Revised Statutes, only after the K-3 reading program plan of the school district or charter school has been approved by the state board of education.

F. The state board of education, in cooperation with the department of education, shall submit a report by December 15, 2015 to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the senate that includes proposed legislation to implement the revised accountability system for schools and school districts. The state board of education shall submit a copy of this report to the secretary of state.

Sec. 2. Assessments; student letter grades; moratorium

Notwithstanding any other law, a pupil's score on an assessment selected pursuant to section 15-741, Arizona Revised Statutes, may not be used as a factor in determining a pupil's letter grade in any particular course in school years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.

Sec. 3. Retroactivity

This act is effective retroactively to from and after June 30, 2014.