SB623 H ED AM 4-8 #1
The Committee on Education moves to amend the bill on page
one, following the enacting clause, by striking the remainder of
the bill and inserting in lieu thereof the following:
"That §18-5B-11 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be
amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5B. SCHOOL INNOVATION ZONES ACT.
§18-5B-11. Local Solution Dropout Prevention and Recovery
Innovation Zone Act.
(a) Legislative findings, intent and purpose.
The Legislature finds that:
(1) High school graduation is an essential milestone for all
West Virginia students and impacts the future success of the
individual, community and state;
(2) There are significant correlations between educational
attainment and labor market outcomes, greater labor force
participation rate, increased employment rates, improved health,
and decreased levels of poverty and crime. The negative impact on
these linkages is most evident in the absence of high school
completion;
(3) Dropping out of school is a process, not an event, with
factors building and compounding over time;
(4) Students at risk of not completing high school can be
identified as early as sixth grade using the indicators of attendance, behavior and course failures. Therefore, a
comprehensive graduation plan must include a comprehensive systemic
approach that emphasizes early interventions;
(5) Research identifies a number of effective strategies for
engaging students that have the most positive impact on improving
high school graduation rates. Some of these strategies are
school-community collaboration, safe learning environments, family
engagement, early literacy development, mentoring and tutoring
services, service learning opportunities, alternative and
nontraditional schooling, offering multiple pathways and settings
for attaining high school diplomas, after-school opportunities,
individualized instruction and career and technical education;
(6) Schools cannot solve the dropout problem alone. Research
shows when educators, parents, elected officials, business leaders,
faith-based leaders, human service personnel, judicial personnel
and civic leaders collectively work together they are often able to
find innovative solutions to address school and community problems;
and
(7) Increasing high school graduation rates is an important
factor in preparing a college and career-ready citizenry. Higher
education institutions, including community and technical colleges,
are essential partners in creating local and statewide solutions.
(b) Therefore, the intent of the Legislature is to provide a
separate category of innovation zones designated "Local Solution Dropout Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zones" intended to
achieve the following purposes:
(1) Provide for the establishment of Local Solution Dropout
Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zones to increase graduation
rates and reduce the number of dropouts from West Virginia schools;
(2) Provide schools and communities with opportunities for
greater collaboration to plan and implement systemic approaches
that include evidence-based solutions for increasing graduation
rates and reducing the number of dropouts;
(3) Provide a testing ground for innovative graduation
programs, incentives and approaches to reducing the number of
dropouts;
(4) Provide information regarding the effects of specific
innovations, collaborations and policies on graduation rates and
dropout prevention and recovery; and
(5) Document educational strategies that increase graduation
rates, prevent dropouts and enhance student success.
(c) Local Solution Dropout Prevention and Recovery Innovation
Zones.
A school, a group of schools or a school district may be
designated as a Local Solution Dropout Prevention and Recovery
Innovation Zone in accordance with the provisions of this article,
subject to the provisions of this section. The state board shall
propose rules for legislative promulgation, including an emergency rule if necessary, in accordance with article three-b chapter
twenty-nine of this code to implement the provisions of this
section. All provisions of this article apply to Local Solution
Dropout Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zones, including, but
not limited to, the designation, application, approval, waiver of
statutes, policies, rule and interpretations, employee approval,
employee transfers, progress reviews, reports and revocations, and
job postings, subject to the following:
(1) For purposes of this section, a "school, a group of
schools or a school district" means a high school, a group of
schools comprised of a high school and any of the elementary and
middle schools whose students will attend the high school, or a
school district whose graduation rate in the year in which an
application is made is less than ninety percent based on the latest
available school year data published by the Department of
Education;
(2) The contents of the application for designation as a Local
Solution Dropout Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zone must
include a description of the dropout prevention and recovery
strategies and that the school, group of schools or school district
plans to implement if designated as a Local Solution Dropout
Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zone, and any other information
the state board requires. The application also shall include a
list of all county and state board rules, policies and interpretations, and all statutes, if any, identified as
prohibiting or constraining the implementation of the plan,
including an explanation of the specific exceptions to the rules,
policies and interpretations and statutes required for plan
implementation. A school, a group of schools, or school district
may not request an exception nor may an exception be granted from
any of the following:
(i) An assessment program administered by the West Virginia
Department of Education;
(ii) Any provision of law or policy required by the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001, Public Law No. 107-110 or other federal
law; and
(iii) Section seven, article two and sections seven-a, seven-
b, eight and eight-b, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this
code, except as provided in section eight of this article;
(3) The factors to be considered by the state board when
evaluating an application shall include, but are not limited to,
the following:
(A) Evidence that other individuals or entities and community
organizations are involved as partners to collectively work with
the applicant to achieve the purposes as outlined in the dropout
prevention and recovery plan. These individuals or entities and
community organizations may include, but are not limited to,
individuals or entities and community organizations such as parents, local elected officials, business leaders, faith-based
leaders, human service personnel, judicial personnel, civic leaders
community and technical colleges Higher education institutions;
(B) The level of commitment and support of staff, parents,
students, the county board of education, the local school
improvement council and the school's business partners as
determined in accordance with this article apply to become a Local
Solutions Dropout Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zone;
(C) The potential for an applicant to be successful in
building community awareness of the high school dropout problem and
developing and implementing its dropout prevention and recovery
plan; and
(D) Implementation of the statewide system of easily
identifiable early warning indicators of students at risk of not
completing high school developed by the state board in accordance
with section six, article eight of this chapter, known as The High
School Graduation Improvement Act, along with a plan of
interventions to increase the number of students earning a high
school diploma;
(4) The rule shall provide standards for the state board to
review applications for designation as a Local Solutions Dropout
Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zones;
(5) The application for designation as a Local Solutions
Dropout Prevention and Recovery Innovation Zone under this section is subject to approval in accordance with sections five and six of
this article. In addition to those approval stages, the
application, if approved by the school employees, shall be
presented to the local school improvement council for approval
prior to submission to county superintendent and board. Approval
by the local school improvement council is obtain when at least
eighty percent of the local school improvement council members
present and voting after a quorum is established vote in favor of
the application; and
(6) Upon approval by the state board and state superintendent
of the application, all exceptions to county and state board rules,
policies and interpretations listed within the plan are granted.
The applicant school, group of schools or school district shall
proceed to implement the plan as set forth in the approved
application and no further plan submissions or approval are
required, except that if an innovation zone plan, or a part
thereof, may not be implemented unless an exception to a statute is
granted by Act of the Legislature, the state board and state
superintendent may approve the plan, or the part thereof, only upon
the condition that the Legislature acts to grant the exception as
provided in this article.
__(d) A county board that enters into a truancy program
agreement with the circuit court of the county that (1) provides
for the referral of truant juveniles for supervision by the court's probation office pursuant to section eleven, article five, chapter
forty-nine of this code and (2) requires the county board to pay
the costs of the probation officer or officers assigned to
supervise truant juveniles, may apply to the state board for a
dropout prevention and recovery innovation zone grant for
reimbursement of one-half of
the costs of the probation officer or
officers. This application is not subject to any of the
requirements for other applications under this section. The state
board shall coordinate the application deadlines and grant
approvals under this section to ensure funding for this purpose.
If the funds available are insufficient to award all eligible grant
applications at the full amount, the award amounts shall be reduced
prorata.
__(d) (e) Local solutions dropout prevention and recovery fund.
There is hereby created in the State Treasury a special
revenue fund to be known as the "Local Solutions Dropout Prevention
and Recovery Fund." The fund shall consist of all moneys received
from whatever source to further the purpose of this article. The
fund shall be administered by the state board solely for the
purposes of this section. Any moneys remaining in the fund at the
close of a fiscal year shall be carried forward for use in the next
fiscal year. Fund balances shall be invested with the state's
consolidated investment fund and any and all interest earnings on
these investments shall be used solely for the purposes that moneys deposited in the fund may be used pursuant to this section.