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Following the preparation of Tuesday’s Update, the House took action
on one education-related bill, SB 6483. SB 6483 is the bill to
enact the Local Farms-Healthy Kids Act. It would make changes to state
procurement policies to encourage and facilitate the purchase of
Washington grown food.
On Wednesday, legislators continued to work through lengthy Floor
Calendars, taking action on bills from the opposite house. At the time
this Update was being prepared, the House had taken action on two
education bills, SB 6183 and SB 6556. SB 6183 would
provide a process for first class school districts to change from all
director districts to a mix of director districts and “at large”
districts. This new process would be identical to the current process
provided for second class school districts to dissolve director
districts. Because the House adopted this bill with no amendments, it
now moves to the Governor’s desk for her signature or veto. SB 6556
would require OSPI to develop and report anaphylactic policy
guidelines to the Legislature and to school districts. Individual
school districts then would be required to adopt anaphylaxis
prevention policies. The bill now returns to the Senate for its
acceptance or rejection of House amendments.
The Senate, so far, had only taken action on one education-related
bill, HB 3166. HB 3166 is the bill relating to the design of
the state assessment system and the WASL. It would direct OSPI to
develop statewide end-of-course assessments for high school
mathematics and phase them in beginning in 2009-10. The Senate Early
Learning and K-12 Education Committee had removed the provision of
end-of-course assessments; however, a new amendment was adopted on the
floor today reinserting the assessments. Beginning with the graduating
class of 2014, the end-of-course assessments would replace the high
school math WASL. The bill also would direct OSPI to redesign the WASL
in all areas except writing and all grades except high school to
shorten test administration. This bill continues to have implications
for the 2008 Supplemental Operating Budget, so will continue to be
debated; however, with the reinsertion of required end-of-course
assessments, it appears that legislators in the House and Senate have
perhaps reached an agreement on this issue.
As legislators continue to adopt bills from their Floor Calendars, new
bills continue to be added. The Senate added the following education
matters to its Floor Calendar today:
HB 2635 – School district boundaries
HB 3317 – Mathematics standards
HB 2811 – Healthy student program |
