The 2023 105-day Legislative Session came to an end on Sunday, April 23. On Saturday, lawmakers released their proposed budget, which tallies roughly around $69 billion dollars. The spending plan aims to boost teacher salaries, increase funding for school meals and further fund emergency housing and rental assistance. According to The Seattle Times, “On education, lawmakers have agreed to $2.9 billion in new spending for K-12 schools. Within that, special education would get an additional $417 million.” The proposal that came out Saturday was a compromise between legislators in the state House and Senate. Each chamber, both controlled by Democrats, separately proposed budgets in March, as did Governor Inslee prior to the start of session.
Crosscut reported that at the budget’s unveiling Saturday afternoon, Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, said the final deal includes the largest funding increase for K-12 schools since the Legislature’s investments to resolve the landmark state Supreme Court order of 2012 (the McCleary decision) to fund basic education.
OSPI seemed pleased as well as many of their priorities came to fruition. State Superintendent, Chris Reykdal, stated in a news release on Tuesday, “Coming out of the pandemic, the needs of our students and schools have been spotlighted not just for our schools, but for our communities as a whole. We put forward a legislative agenda this year that centered unapologetically on ensuring Washington’s public K–12 education system is prepared to support each student on their individual journey.”
The Legislature passed their final budgets and adjourned on Sunday, making progress on several of Inslee’s and Reykdal’s priorities and more. Among other items, the Legislature invested in special education, school meals, access to school construction funding, school seismic safety, dual language programming, access to dual credit opportunities, and competitive school employee salaries.
Important Legislative Links
Legislative Website: Get information on bills, legislators, hearings and more.
Bill Tracker: Track specific bills, read bill reports.
TVW: Watch live and archived legislative proceedings.
Note about legislative updates:
CSTP relays these legislative updates to provide information on bills, budgets and legislative processes. CSTP doesn’t have a legislative agenda, but does track legislative issues most relevant to teaching.
Bills Signed by Governor Inslee
2SHB 1013: which would require OSPI and Washington ESDs to jointly establish a regional apprenticeship pilot program with one site each in Eastern and Western Washington.
SHB 1015: which revises minimum employment requirements for paraeducators.
SHB 1658: which would authorize high school students aged 16 and above to earn up to two elective credits through paid work experience if approval and alignment with the student’s High School and Beyond Plan are met.
ESB 5650: which concerns salary inflationary increases for K-12 employees.
Bills Delivered to the Governor for Signature
SHB 1207: which aims to prevent and respond to harassment, intimidation, bullying, and discrimination in schools through updated policies and procedures.
E2SHB 1238: which would require K-5 elementary public schools, beginning with the 2024-25 school year, to offer universal free breakfasts and lunches if up to 30% of students at the school qualify for free or reduced lunch.
HB 1308: which establishes a graduation pathway option that enables students to meet pathway requirements by completing a performance-based learning experience.
2SHB 1316: which would lower dual enrollment program costs for eligible students from $65 to $42.50 per credit by creating a subsidy program, incentivizing reduction of per college credit fees charged to college in the high school students, and revising eligibility for the Running Start (RS) program tuition fee waiver.
ESHB 1436: which would increase the enrollment limit for special education funding over several years until the 2027-28 school year, when the limit is removed, and would increase special education excess cost multipliers for kindergarten through age 21 over four school years to 1.059 for students who spend at least 80 percent of the school day in a general education setting.
2SHB 1550: which would establish the transition to kindergarten program to provide no-charge assistance to eligible children in need of additional preparation to be successful kindergarten students in the following school year.
HB 1622: which aims to support the needs of students experiencing homelessness by aligning program goals, establishing common reporting requirements, and establishing examples of permitted expenditures for the OSPI program.
SHB 1701: which concerns basic education services to youth who are served through institutional education programs.
SSB 5048: which would require colleges to provide enrollment and registration in College in the High School (CHS) courses at no cost to students in grades 9-12 at public high schools, and would require the legislature to appropriate funds to fund CHS courses, at inflation-adjusted rates.
SSB 5072: which would establish new requirements for identifying students who may be eligible for highly capable services, including conducting universal screenings once in or before second grade, and again before sixth grade.
SSB 5127: which would clarify school districts’ ability to redact personal information related to a student.
ESB 5175: which would allow employment contracts between a school board and principal to be up to three years in length, as opposed to limited to a term of one year.
E2SSB 5243: which revises high school and beyond plan (HSBP) requirements, and would require OSPI to facilitate the transition and adoption of a common online platform for HSBPs.
ESSB 5257: which would ensure that public schools provide daily recess for all elementary students with a minimum of 45 minutes when the school day is longer than five hours and a minimum of 30 minutes when the school day is shorter, as well as prohibit schools from withholding recess as a punitive action.
E2SSB 5315: which would require OSPI to establish standards for approval, monitoring, and investigating school district contracts with nonpublic agencies (NPAs) operating special education programs for students with disabilities, and requires that restraint and isolation procedures and notification requirements apply to NPAS.
ESB 5355: which requires school districts to provide instruction on sex trafficking prevention and identification at least once between grades 7 and 12 beginning in the 2024-25 school year.
SSB 5617: which would require interdistrict cooperative agreements in a skill center to stipulate that any course equivalencies approved by OSPI or a host district must be honored by other participating school districts.
Odds and Ends
In an innovative effort to combat growing teacher shortages, one Texas school district is pitching the teaching profession to middle schoolers. This week from NPR Education, As Teacher Shortages Loom, One District Grows Future Educators in High School.
I can’t resist ending things on a high note, and if HB 1020 finally receives the signature of the governor, Washington State will have an official state dinosaur: the “Suciasaurus Rex.” Roar!
Signing off until next year, happy Friday to all!
Samantha Miller