SB1399 - 541R

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

Section 1. Physical and health education professional development pilot program; application; prioritization; request for proposals; report; delayed repeal

A. The department of education shall conduct a three-year physical and health education professional development pilot program to improve the ability of physical and health educators in this state to provide high quality physical and health education to students in this state thereby improving student health and reducing Arizona health care cost containment system and other health-related costs.

B. A school that is operated by a school district, a charter school, a tribal school or any other public school may apply to participate in the pilot program by submitting an application to the department of education or its designated service provider. The department shall establish the application process for the pilot program. The department or its designated service provider shall select pilot program participants based on all of the following:

1. The availability of certified or otherwise adequate physical or health education teaching personnel.

2. The degree of support shown by the school principal for the pilot program. A school principal shall demonstrate a commitment to the pilot program by agreeing to all of the following:

(a) Providing time off and arrange a substitute teacher for physical or health education teaching personnel during training periods.

(b) Having the school develop and implement an effective school wellness policy.

(c) Allowing student fitness assessments, physical activity monitoring, nutrition behavior reporting and, at the option of the school principal, body-mass index data reporting to track child obesity.

(d) Allowing aggregated, anonymized, privacy-protected data by grade for the school to be published for the public and to provide such data to the department of education and its service providers. Data collected pursuant to this pilot program shall be aggregated and always protect the privacy and confidentiality of individual students. Individually identifiable student data may not be provided by schools or solicited or stored in the state or service provider databases.

3. Any other factor as determined by the department of education.

C. If the amount appropriated for the pilot program is not adequate to allow all applicants to participate, the department of education shall implement professional development based on the following order of priority:

1. Physical and health education school accountability A-F workgroup pilot schools.

2. Schools with grades three through eight.

3. Schools with a substantially higher percentage of students likely to be unhealthy or at risk of chronic disease. Of these schools, schools with lower than average total funding per student, including school lacking override or desegregation monies, have additional priority.

4. Schools representing a broad cross-section of geographic and demographic groups and enrollment sizes, including a representative cross‑section of qualifying urban, suburban and rural schools in as many counties as feasible.

5. Schools that opt in to health and medical monitoring and evaluation in accordance with privacy, confidentiality, parental consent, the health insurance portability and accountability act, the institutional review board and school district and other relevant rules.

D. The department of education shall issue a request for proposals to contract with qualified service providers to provide professional development services for those participating in the pilot program, to implement the health, medical and return on investment monitoring and evaluation and for related systems, equipment and support. The department shall develop the request for proposals in close consultation with all of the following:

1. This state's main professional association of physical and health educators.

2. The organizations named in tactic 2 of the school health section of this state's official Arizona Health Improvement Plan published by the department of health services.

3. Key personnel involved in a youth health program that meets all of the following requirements:

(a) Has operated in this state for three or more years in schools with primarily low-income, Latino and Native American populations.

(b) Has been recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Presidential Youth Fitness Program.

(c) Trains and supports existing physical education and classroom teachers and develops volunteer student leaders for peer-led activity.

(d) Was funded by a federal PEP grant from 2012 through 2015.

E. The organizations described in subsection D of this section may also submit a proposal for the request for proposals.

F. On or before November 30, 2019, the department of education shall select one or more qualified service providers to provide professional development services for those participating in the pilot program during the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, the 2020‑2021 and 2021-2022 school years and the first semester of the 2022‑2023 school year. The department of education shall determine the criteria by which it will select the qualified service providers.

G. The professional development services provided by the qualified service provider or providers shall develop the ability of each participating school's physical and health educators and related school staff to improve student health through the type of program described in subsection D, paragraph 3 of this section. The department of education shall determine the specific objectives and duties of the qualified service provider or providers, including duties related to developing online and in-person professional development curriculum, training, materials and support. At a minimum, as a result of the professional development services, physical and health educators and other school personnel participating in the pilot program shall have all of the following abilities:

1. To develop and implement high quality, effective school wellness policy plans.

2. To substantially increase levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity among students over time.

3. To build effective student wellness advocacy teams to provide student-led peer assistance to lead student activities and improve student habits and health.

4. To administer accurate body mass index measurements.

5. To introduce and use valid regular student fitness assessments, physical activity data monitoring and student nutrition behavior reporting, as described by the Arizona physical and health education A-F school accountability work group.

H. On or before December 15, 2019, the department of education, in consultation with the Arizona health care cost containment system, shall select one or more qualified service providers to implement the health, medical and return on investment monitoring and evaluation of the professional development services during the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years and the first semester of the 2022‑2023 school year. The qualified service provider or providers selected pursuant to this subsection shall be independent from the qualified service providers selected pursuant to subsection F of this section. The department, in consultation with the Arizona health care cost containment system, shall determine the required monitoring and evaluation criteria.

I. The department of education shall also:

1. Select a service provider to develop, implement and support user-friendly information systems in support of more efficient and automated data collection and reporting needed for this section, ideally at no ongoing cost to schools and minimal ongoing cost to this state, including usage of widely available free web-based and smartphone-based forms and spreadsheets, and providing aggregated privacy-protected information to the public.

2. Provide a limited number of grants to pilot less widely used equipment such as digital physical activity monitoring in support of this professional development.

J. All training or other materials, documents, web pages, processes, software, systems or other intellectual property that is developed specifically for this pilot program and for which state monies are used shall be:

1. Considered open source and in the public domain, with sufficient documentation for others to readily understand and use.

2. Posted online in a user-friendly manner and made available to the public at no charge, including through the department of education.

K. Notwithstanding subsection J of this section, no individually identifiable student data shall be provided by schools or solicited or stored in the state or service provider databases. Student data shall be aggregated, and individual student privacy and confidentiality shall at all times be protected and maintained.

L. Each school participating in the pilot program shall receive a stipend in an amount as follows:

1. For the first year a school participates in the program:

(a) $1,500 for a school with one physical and health educator.

(b) $2,000 for a school with two physical and health educators.

2. For each subsequent full year that a school participates in the program, $1,000 per school.

M. A school shall use the stipend described in subsection L of this section to cover professional development participation and implementation and reporting follow-through costs, including the costs of substitute teachers and out-of-pocket travel or other costs to participate in training or other aspects of professional development. The school shall make any remaining monies available for use by the school's physical and health educators to spend as needed to implement improvements in physical and health education learned during the pilot program.

N. After the first year of the pilot program, the department of education may withhold stipend payments from a school if the department determines that the school is not following through on the professional development with improved implementation in practice or with satisfactory data reporting. Subject to available monies, the department or its service provider selected pursuant to subsection O of this section may make reasonable changes in the allocation of stipend payments by school by year if a school's expenses for participation in the pilot program are higher or lower than average.

O. The department of education may delegate to a qualified service provider the payment of stipends to individual schools if appropriate oversight and auditing are provided.

P. The department of education shall pay qualified service providers selected pursuant to this section as follows:

1. For the qualified service provider or providers selected pursuant to subsection F of this section, up to $5,000 cumulatively per school for each pilot school for which the service provider is responsible.

2. For qualified service providers selected pursuant to subsection H of this section, up to $950,000 in total for monitoring and evaluation of the pilot program, with the terms and final amount based on the request for proposals and associated contract. The qualified service provider or providers conducting the monitoring and evaluation may use a portion of these monies to provide payments to schools or health organizations participating in health and medical outcome monitoring and evaluation to help cover the additional costs of monitoring and evaluation participation.

Q. The department of education may use any remaining monies not spent during the pilot program for ongoing associated statewide professional development follow-through and scaling and reporting.

R. On or before September 1 of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, each qualified service provider selected pursuant to this section shall comprehensively report findings to the department of education, which shall provide them to the general public. All data contained in these reports shall be aggregated and protect the privacy and confidentiality of individual students. Individually identifiable student data shall not be provided by school or solicited or stored in the state or service provider or evaluator databases. These reports shall include the following information:

1. For reports submitted by qualified service providers selected pursuant to subsection F of this section:

(a) Best practices related to professional development.

(b) Key obstacles encountered and how they were overcome.

(d) Other lessons learned of relevance to potential future improvements in physical and health education.

(e) Any other factor determined by the department of education.

2. For reports submitted by qualified service providers selected pursuant to subsection H of this section:

(a) Participating school experience and satisfaction with the program.

(b) An analysis of changes by school in fitness, physical activity, nutrition behavior and body mass index during the pilot program, as relevant, and possible reasons for those changes.

(c) An identification and analysis of schools deemed potential best practice school health schools across a representative range of schools, with practices that could be practically and cost effectively used across large numbers of schools statewide.

(d) With optional school opt-in, and in accordance with privacy, confidentiality, parental consent, the health insurance portability and accountability act, the institutional review board and school district and other relevant laws and rules:

(i) Known or, if appropriate, estimated aggregated and anonymized health and medical outcomes associated with the pilot program compared to students at comparable non-pilot schools.

(ii) Descriptions of the higher improvement schools and the possible reasons for those improvements.

(iii) Estimated potential Arizona health care cost containment system and other health, medical and economic cost savings and return on investment, if scaled statewide.

(e) Aggregated reporting by sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic and other categories, per every student succeeds acts standards, including protection of student privacy and confidentiality.

(f) Any other factor determined by the department of education in consultation with the Arizona health care cost containment system.

S. On or before November 30 of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, the department of education shall submit to the governor, the president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives a report that summarizes the results of the pilot program to date, including a recommendation on whether to expand the pilot program to additional schools. The department shall provide a copy of this report to the secretary of state.

T. This section is repealed from and after December 31, 2023.

Sec. 2. Appropriation; department of education; physical and health education professional development pilot program; exemption

A. The sum of $9,650,000 is appropriated from the state general fund in fiscal year 2019-2020 to the department of education for planning and implementing the physical and health education professional development pilot program as prescribed in this act to be allocated in the following amounts for the following purposes:

1. Up to a cumulative maximum of $4,350,000 for stipends to be paid to schools participating in the pilot program.

2. Up to a cumulative maximum of $4,350,000 to be paid to qualified service providers selected pursuant to section 1, subsection F of this act to provide professional development services.

3. Up to $950,000 in total to be paid to qualified service providers selected pursuant to section 1, subsection H of this act to provide monitoring and evaluation.

B. The department of education may award grants as prescribed in and pay service providers selected pursuant to section 1, subsection I of this act with monies appropriated to the department pursuant to subsection A, paragraphs 2 or 3 of this section.

C. The department of education shall use any remaining monies not spent for the purposes prescribed in subsection A of this section for ongoing statewide physical and health education professional development follow-through and scaling and reporting.

D. The appropriation made in subsection A of this section is exempt from the provisions of section 35-190, Arizona Revised Statutes, relating to lapsing of appropriations.