Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 2

19 S.B. 109 Schools and Institutional Trust Lands Amendments Sen. Millner This bill amends provisions related to schools and institutional trust lands and related education funding. It creates the Trust Distribution Account within the Uniform School Fund and amends language governing the disposition of revenues in the State School Fund. S.B. 143 Competency- based Learning Amendments Sen. Stephenson This bill amends existing competency-based education provisions, and enacts the Competency Based Education Grants Program which is intended to provide an incentive to LEAs to establish competency-based education through personalized learning, blended learning, extended learning, or educator professional learning in competency- based education. S.B. 149 School Grading ModiÞcations Sen. Millner The bill modifies the school percentage grading scale from the previous law and distinguishes percentages to establish school grades between high schools and non-high schools. The bill provides that for a school year in which at least 65% of the schools receive an A or B the State Board will increase an endpoint range by 5% over the previous school year until the lower endpoint of an A is 90%, lower endpoint of B=80%, C=70%, and D=60%. The bill also provides that the Board may increase an endpoint of a range by less than 5% over the previous school year if increasing the endpoint by 5% would increase the endpoint above the assigned letter grade. The bill also requires the Board to publish on its website when it increases an endpoint of a range. S.B. 191 School Turnaround and Leadership Development Sen. Millner The bill makes changes to last year's school turnaround program. It clarifies the definition of "final remedial year," broadens student assessment beyond the basic 3 to basic academic subjects, changes several implementation dates, provides greater specificity when a turnaround expert can be paid the remainder of its professional fees, allows the State Board to keep part of the funding for administration, clarifies when the board may extend the school turnaround expert's contract and makes terminology changes--from "grade levels" to "letter grades." S.B. 232 Rescue Medication in Schools Sen. Urquhart This bill requires the Department of Health to develop a training program for the administration of seizure rescue medications by a school employee volunteer and requires schools to provide the training.