Legislative Update 2013Bills Signed by the Governor

Arizona School Administrators June 2013

New Requirements and Regulation BillsHB 2156 (Elections; Public Resources Prohibited) - Prohibits the state and all its political subdivisions from spending or

using public resources to influence an election. - Allows school districts to write support statements for bonds and

overrides.

SB 1450 (School Districts; FERPA Violations; Penalty)- Someone who suspects that a school district or charter school has

knowingly violated FERPA may notify the principal or superintendent. - Allows a person to file a complaint with the Superintendent of Public

Instruction if the matter is not resolved within 60 days of noticeHB 2170 (Stopped School Buses; Lights)- Requires school bus operators to display the signal and flashing lights if

passengers when stopped at a private road or driveway.

SB 1449 (Schools; Graduation; Personal Finance; Entrepreneurship)

- Requires SBE to include personal finance in the competency requirements for students to graduate from high school.

- A district may include these requirements in an existing course or create a stand alone course.

- A list of requirements that districts must include in the instruction for personal finance is provided in the bill.

HB 2476 (Schools; Isolation Rooms; Restrictions)- Beginning is school year 2013-2014 disciplinary policies for the

solitary confinement of a student in an enclosed space is required to include prior written parental consent.

- Prior consent may be waived if the student poses physical harm to self or others.

- An interim Ad-Hoc committee may be formed to address best practice and policies for the use of isolation room.

Governing Board Policy Bills

HB 2403 (Teacher Employment Contract; Electronic Signatures)

- Authorizes school boards to receive teacher contracts in an electronic format and to accept electronic signatures on those contracts.

HB 2427 (Schools; Unification; Consolidation; Initial Meetings)

- Allows a unified school district governing board to be constituted on formation of a unified district for the purpose of conducting operations for the following year.

- Permits unified school boards to file preliminarily boundary information for new or existing taxing jurisdictions.

HB 2611 (School District Superintendent Contracts; Renegotiation)

- Changes the timeframe a school district governing board may extend or renegotiate a superintendent’s contract from May of the year preceding the final year to no earlier than 15 months before the contract expires.

HB 2500 (Schools; Teachers; Evaluations; Dismissals) Evaluation Requirements and Timeline - Requires two observation per evaluation. The second observation

may be waived for a continuing teacher whose performance on the first observation places the teacher in one of the two highest classifications (the teacher may request a second observation.)

- Allows the district to issue a preliminary notice of inadequacy after the first observation. This notice must be followed by a performance improvement plan.

- Allows a district to use the second observation to determine if the inadequacies have been corrected.

- Allows the district to issue a notice of intention to dismiss or not to reemploy 45 instructional days after the notice of inadequacy.

- Prohibits an observation from being conducted within 2 instructional days of a break that is longer than a week.

Teacher Evaluation Bills

HB 2500 (Schools; Teachers; Evals; Dismissals) cont. Teacher Status - Defines in statute a “continuing teacher” as a certificated teacher

who has been and is currently employed by the school for the major portion of three consecutive school years and who has not been designated in the lowest performance classification for the pervious school year or who has not regained continuing status after being designated as a probationary teacher.

- Defines a “probationary teacher” as a certificated teacher who is not a continuing teacher. A probationary teacher does not have due process rights.

- A certificated teacher who is currently a continuing teacher but has been designated in the lowest performance classification for the current school year after an evaluation must become a probationary teacher for the subsequent school year and remain so until their performance classification is designated in one of the two highest classifications.

HB 2500 (Schools; Teachers; Evals; Dismissals) cont. Governing Board Requirements Requires the governing board to adopt:- Procedures to issue a notice of inadequacy to a teacher who has

been designated in one of the two lowest classification for two consecutive years unless the teacher is new or newly assigned.

- Training requirements for qualified evaluators. - A plan for the appropriate use of quantitative data of student

academic progress in evaluations for all certified teachers. - A definition of inadequacy of classroom performance that aligns

with the classifications adopted by the State Board.

Additional Definition- “Qualified Evaluator”: A school principal or other person who is

trained to evaluate teachers and who is designated by the governing board to evaluate the school districts certificated teachers.

SB 1293 (Schools; Pilot; Outcome-Based Funding)- Requires the State Board of Education to create a competitive

application process for a four-year simulated pilot program for the outcome-based funding of schools. January 1st is the deadline application.

- Requires the SBE to select up to five school districts and up to five charter schools to participate by March 1 of each year.

- Requires ADE to conduct an estimated analysis of the simulated funding that participating school districts and charter schools would have received if the school funding formula were to be modified according to specified formulas,

- Beginning November 15, 2015, the Board is required to submit an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature summarizing the results of the simulated pilot program.

- The pilot program is intended to begin in school year 2014-15, but the Board may delay implementation until required assessments are developed. The simulated pilot program self-repeals September 16, 2020.

Finance Bills

HB 2202 (School Districts; Leases)- Extends the period of time school boards are able to enter into lease

agreements from 5 to10 years.- Allows school districts to call for an override election to exceed

CORL during periods when profits from a lease or sale of school property are used for capital outlay.

SB 1447 (ADE; School Finance Revisions)- Increases the total instruction time in order to be counted as 0.5

ADM for kindergarten students from between 346 and 692 hours per year to between 356 and 712 hours per year.

- Increases the minimum number of hours per year for high school students from 120 to 123.

- Allows ADE to adjust school district funding if actions that took place within the audit window resulted in the miscalculation of the budget limit for the school district.

- Allows adjustments to ADM for the failure to provide sufficient instructional time to meet the requirements for a full-time student to be made proportionately according to the percentage that the instructional time provided does not meet the required number of instructional hours prescribed for that grade level.

SB 1447 (ADE; School Finance Revisions) Cont. - Adds reporting requirements and regulations to ADE’s

implementation of the Education Learning and Accountability System.

- Requires ADE to adopt policies and procedure to allow access of student level data for current enrollment to districts, charters and JTEDs.

- Directs ADE to publish criteria for a school or school district’s exit status from a previous assignment of a letter grade of F and requires this criteria to:

Prescribes the necessary actions and results in order to comply with school improvement requirements, including the implementation of a school improvement plan be provided to any school or school district that is assigned a letter grade of F.

- Authorizes charter schools to provide a preschool program for children with disabilities.

SB 1447 (ADE; School Finance Revisions) Cont. - Requires the State Board of Education to annually distribute at

least 10 percent of the federal monies it receives for preschool programs for children with disabilities to charter schools that provide preschool programs.

- Requires schools districts to (only) provide the odometer reading for each bus at the end of the current year and the total bus mileage during the current year.

SB 1103 (Charter Schools; Zoning Procedures)- Allows a charter school to authorize a third party to apply to a city or

county for any zoning application or action. - Prohibits a city and/or county from enforcing or attempting to enforce

any ordinance, procedure or process against a charter school that cannot be legally enforced against a school district.

- Clarifies that voluntary compliance of a school district of zoning regulations of a city or county does not result in the application of those zoning regulations to a charter school.

SB 1204 (Charter Schools; Applications; Renewals; Revocations)- Removes the requirement that charter schools include a description of

personnel policies, personnel qualifications and method of school governance in an application.

- Requires the following be included in a charter school application to a proposed sponsor: A detailed business plan, a detailed education plan, A detailed operational plan and a materials required by the sponsor

- Authorizes a sponsor to revoke a charter or deny a request for early renewal if the charter holder has failed to meet academic or operational performance expectations, complete the obligations of the contract or comply with applicable law. Emergency Clause.

Charter School Bills

HB 2494 (Charter Schools; Enrollment Preference)- Allows charter schools to offer enrollment preference to the

grandchildren or legal wards of charter school employees, charter holder employees or governing board members.

- Allows charter schools to give preference to siblings of students who attend a charter school that has the same educational management organization or educational service provider, as determined by the charter authorizer.

HB 2496 (Schools; Petition; Regulatory Exemptions)- Allows charter schools to qualify for exemptions from certain Title

15 requirements if they receive a letter grade of A for two years of

the the last three. (A follow up bill from last year)

HB 2042 (Schools; Diabetes Management) - Requires a district or charter to provide any medication

administration services specified in a child’s diabetes medical management plan.

- Allows a schools district to adopt polices to allow an employee to serve as a voluntary diabetes care assistants and administer insulin or assist the student with self-administration. (Currently they are allowed to assist and administer glucagon)

- Requires the voluntary assistant receive training from a medical professional.

- The student's parent or guardian is required to provide insulin and all equipment and supplies necessary for insulin administration by voluntary diabetes care assistants.

SB 1337 (Schools; CPR Training)- Allows all public schools, beginning in school year 2015-16, to

provided at least one training session in CPR in grades 7 through 12.

Health Bills

SB 1337 (Schools; CPR Training) Cont. - The training must be based on the most current training

developed by a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that provides CPS training. If the instruction results in CPR certification, the instruction must be provided by a certified CPR trainer.

SB 1421 (Schools Personnel; Emergency Epinephrine Administration)

- If a district is provided full funding by the state every school must stock two juvenile and two adult doses of auto-injectable epinephrine (epi-pen).

- Requires an employee of a school district or charter to be designated to administer an epi-pen to a student or adult whom the employee believes to be exhibiting symptoms of anaphylactic shock while at school or at school-sponsored activities.

- The bill provides liability coverage to employees.- Requires SBE to adopt rules for the training for school employees

in epi-pen administration. - Bill is optional if a full appropriation is not given to stock and train

employees.

HB 2458 (Empowerment Scholarships Accounts; Fraud Prevention)

- Outlines specific policies that ADE can adopt in order to administer an ESA and monitor fraudulent activity.

SB 1363 (Empowerment Scholarship Accounts; Expansion; Funding)

- Expands the definition of qualified student to include kindergarteners.

- Increases ESA funding to 90% of the sum of the BSL and Additional Assistance, if the student was attending a charter school.

- Includes Additional Assistance in the current amount that the Arizona Department of Education can retain and the subsequent amount transferred to the Treasurer for costs of administering ESAs.

- Caps new ESAs through 2019 at 0.5% of the total number of students enrolled in school districts and charters schools during the previous school year

Empowerment Account Bills

HB 2071 (ADE; Operations)- Allows ADE to impose a per transaction convenience fee for

teacher certification or examination fees collected by credit or debit card.

Miscellaneous Bills

HB 2425 (ELL Task Force Replacement)- The Arizona English Language Learners Task Force is eliminated;

all powers, authorities, duties and responsibilities are given to the SBE.

- Eliminates the high stakes requirement for AIMS and removes the NRT requirement.

HB 2217 (Extraordinary Education Special Plate)- Creates an Extraordinary Education License Plate through the

Dept of Transportation. $17.00 of every plate sold is donated to a special fund that supports elementary school districts in Arizona.

Arizona Department of Education Bills

FY 2014 K-12 Education BudgetInflation Funding - Adjusts the base level by 1.8% for inflation (to $3326.54) which is

approximately $82 million statewide. Requires districts and charters to report intended use of the $82 million to ADE by September 1, 2013.

Transportation - Increases the state support level per route mile by 1.8%.Override Reporting - Requires the ADE to report annually by November 30 the amounts

budgeted by each school district for each type of budget override.Building Renewal - Repeals the building renewal section of law (which includes the

building renewal formula), and moves the building data base requirements to the SFB powers and duties section (15-2002).

FY 2014 Budget Cont. New Construction - Modifies new construction formula to require a district to be over

capacity in the current school year in order to qualify for new construction funding and requires the SFB to act on new construction requests by March 1. Continues moratorium on new construction projects except for certain unified school districts (identified by JLBC as Benson and Thatcher).

Accommodation Schools - Excludes accommodation schools from eligibility for new

construction and building renewal grant funding. Bond Limits - Permanently increases the statutory limit on school district bond

indebtedness from 10% to 20% of secondary assessed valuation for unified districts and from 5% to 10% for elementary or high school districts.

- Increases applies to bonds approved both before and after the effective date.

Soft Capitol and CORL - Repeals the Soft Capital Allocation and renames the Capital Outlay

Revenue Limit (CORL). - Consolidates the two allocations into one per pupil allocation titled

District Additional Assistance (DAA). The amount is equal to the current statutory funding level for both programs.

- In session law, reduces statewide DAA by the amount needed to reduce equalization assistance by $238,985,500* (which is equal to the combined CORL & SCA reduction in FY 2013).

- Limits DAA reductions for districts with less than 1100 student count to $5 million.

- Makes some conforming changes, but ignores most conflicts and instead authorizes modification of budget forms and procedures and requires Legislative Council to prepare conforming legislation for the next legislative session.

FY 2014 Budget Cont.

Education Learning and Accountability System (ELAS)- Appropriates $7 million to the Department of Administration for

implementing ELAS. Performance Funding - Appropriates $2.4 million for a statewide Performance Incentive

Fund.- Established the Performance Incentive Fund consisting of

legislative appropriations. Beginning in 2014-2015 ADE must distribute the money in the fund based on achievement and improvement.

Structured English Immersion Fund (SEI)- Transfers $10 million dollars from the SEI fund to the state general

fund. Additional Components of K-12 Budget- Prohibits for FY 2014, the sum of the District Addition Assistance

reductions for school districts with fewer than 1,100 Average Daily Membership (ADM) from exceeding $5,000,000.

FY 2014 Budget Cont.

- Directs ADE to pay off the K-12 rollover for districts with less than 600 students

- Appropriated $3.6 million to the Schools Safety Fund.