Senate File 384 - Introduced

SENATE FILE  	 BY	McKINLEY

Passed Senate, Date		Passed House,	Date  	 Vote:	Ayes	Nays		Vote:	Ayes		Nays  	 
Approved  	

A BILL FOR

An Act requiring the board of directors of a school district to
adopt a student promotion policy and providing for related
matters.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
TLSB 1659XS 83
kh/nh/24

PAG LIN

1	
1	
Section 1.	
NEW SECTION.	
279.68	
STUDENT PROMOTION OR	
1	2	RETENTION.				
1	3	1.	Beginning July 1, 2012, a student enrolled by a school
1	4 district in grade three who at the completion of grade three
1	5 is more than one year below grade level in reading as
1	6 determined by reading assessments administered pursuant to
1	7 this section, shall not be promoted to grade four unless it is
1	8 determined that retention at the current grade level would not
1	9 be in the best interest of the child as provided in the
1 10 student promotion policy adopted by the school in accordance
1 11 with this section.
1 12	2.	Beginning August 1, 2009, the board of directors of
1 13 each school district shall adopt a student promotion policy
1 14 that facilitates collaboration among teachers, parents, and
1 15 guardians of the students, and the school district to support
1 16 student reading at grade level.	The policy shall address the
1 17 assessment of, and the establishment of performance levels
1 18 for, a student identified as limited English proficient and a
1 19 student identified as a child requiring special education.
1 20 The policy shall be developed, and annually updated, with
1 21 input from school administrators, teachers, parents, and
1 22 guardians.	Annually, by the first day of school, the school
1 23 district shall notify the parents and guardians of students in
1 24 grades kindergarten through grade three of the district's
1 25 student promotion policy.
1 26	3.	a.	To identify students at risk of reading failure,
1 27 beginning July 1, 2010, students enrolled in kindergarten
1 28 through grade three in a school district shall be assessed at
1 29 the beginning of each school year and throughout the school
1 30 year as necessary by ongoing assessments of their reading
1 31 skills or early literacy development including but not limited
1 32 to phonological awareness, reading fluency, and alphabetic
1 33 principle.	At least annually, within the first three months
1 34 of the school year, the school district shall provide written
35 notice to the parent or guardian of the student's Iowa grade
1 equivalency.
2	2	b.	The department of education shall establish by
2	3 administrative rule a list of approved reading or early
2	4 literacy development assessments, which shall be provided to
2	5 each school district.	This list shall include the dynamic
2	6 indicators of basic early literacy skills and the Iowa test of
2	7 basic skills.
2	8	c.	(1)	The director of the department of education shall
2	9 establish a committee to assist with the development of rules
2 10 required pursuant to paragraph "b", to review and recommend
2 11 reading and early literacy development assessments that
2 12 measure a student's reading skills or early literacy
2 13 development, including assessments that do the following:
2 14	(a)	Assess a student's reading skills or early literacy
2 15 development progress throughout the school year.
2 16	(b)	Indicate grade level competencies that have been
2 17 attained.

2 18	(2)	The committee may review and recommend reading skill
2 19 or early literacy development assessments that been developed
2 20 or utilized by other states to the extent that the tests are
2 21 appropriate for use under this section.
2 22	(3)	The assessments recommended by the committee shall be
2 23 thoroughly researched and demonstrated to be reliable and
2 24 valid indicators of reading progress.	In developing its
2 25 recommendations, the committee shall review the requirements
2 26 of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No.
2 27 107-110, and any federal regulations adopted pursuant to the
2 28 federal Act, to align the committee's recommendations with the
2 29 requirements of the federal Act when possible in order to
2 30 minimize any additional burden the committee's recommendations
2 31 may place on a school district.	The committee shall provide a
2 32 progress report to the general assembly annually until July 1,
2 33 2013, and biennially thereafter.
2 34	(4)	The majority of members appointed to the committee
35 shall be supportive of research=based reading instruction
1 described in the 2003 edition of the report issued by the
3	2 center for improvement of early reading achievement report
3	3 titled "Put Reading First:	The Research Building Blocks for
3	4 Teaching Children to Read".
3	5	4.	The board of directors of each school district shall
3	6 establish a committee composed of stakeholders to develop
3	7 reading instruction programs that meet the requirements of
3	8 this section.	The reading instruction programs shall include
3	9 but not be limited to:
3 10	a.	Curriculum using systematic and explicit phonics
3 11 instruction.
3 12	b.	Sufficient additional in=school instructional time for
3 13 the acquisition of phonological awareness, reading fluency,
3 14 and alphabetic principle.
3 15	c.	Tutorial instruction.
3 16	d.	Periodic reassessments to measure the reading skills or
3 17 early literacy development including but not limited to
3 18 phonological awareness, reading fluency, and alphabetic
3 19 principle, as identified in the student's individualized
3 20 reading instruction program.
3 21	e.	Additional in=school instructional time during the
3 22 summer.
3 23	5.	Beginning July 1, 2010, if the results of assessments
3 24 administered pursuant to this section indicate intervention is
3 25 necessary, the school district shall provide written notice to
3 26 the parent or guardian of the student's Iowa grade equivalency
3 27 and the options available to the parent or guardian as
3 28 provided in subsection 4.	A parent or guardian of a student
3 29 shall be included in the development of an individualized
3 30 program of reading instruction for the student.
3 31	6.	Beginning July 1, 2010, if the results of assessments
3 32 administered pursuant to this section indicate the student is
3 33 reading above grade level, the school district shall provide
3 34 written notice to the parent or guardian of the options
35 available to the parent or guardian for enrichment activities
1 for the child.
4	2	7.	Beginning July 1, 2010, for any grade three student
4	3 found reading more than one year or more below grade level as
4	4 determined by reading assessments administered pursuant to
4	5 this section, a new intensive reading instruction plan, which
4	6 shall include specialized tutoring by the school district,
4	7 shall be developed and implemented.	The school district is
4	8 encouraged to provide tutorial instruction in a manner that
4	9 would minimize interference with a student's instructional
4 10 time in the classroom.	Tutorial instruction may be offered
4 11 before or after regular school hours.
4 12	8.	Beginning July 1, 2012, the school board shall decide
4 13 in favor of a student's promotion only if the school board
4 14 concludes, using standards adopted by the school board, that
4 15 if promoted and provided with additional or continued
4 16 interventions, the student is likely to perform at grade
4 17 level.	However, a school board shall not deny a promotion to
4 18 a student under the provisions of this section more than once.
4 19	9.	A school district shall notify a parent or guardian in
4 20 writing of the ability of the parent or guardian to appeal a
4 21 school's decision to deny promotion of a student to the school
4 22 board.
4 23	10.	A decision of the school board to deny promotion is
4 24 subject to appeal under section 290.1.
4 25	11.	The director of the department of education shall
4 26 conduct a review of school district student promotion
4 27 policies, including the number of students in need of
4 28 remediation in reading in kindergarten through grade three,

4 29 and the number of students who successfully completed their
4 30 individualized reading instruction program.	The director
4 31 shall evaluate the data reported pursuant to this subsection
4 32 and shall submit a report of the findings and recommendations
4 33 resulting from the review to the general assembly by December
4 34 1, 2010, and biennially thereafter.
35	12.	The state board of education shall submit its
1 recommendations for modifications to this section relating to
5	2 student promotion in a report to the general assembly by 5	3 December 1, 2011.
5	4	Sec. 2.	IMPLEMENTATION OF ACT.	Section 25B.2, subsection
5	5 3, shall not apply to this Act.
5	6	EXPLANATION
5	7	This bill requires the board of directors of a school
5	8 district, beginning August 1, 2009, to adopt a student
5	9 promotion policy that facilitates collaboration among
5 10 teachers, parents, and guardians of the student, and the
5 11 school district, to support student reading at grade level.
5 12 Beginning July 1, 2012, the bill prohibits a school district
5 13 from promoting a student enrolled in grade three to grade four
5 14 if the student is more than one year below grade level in
5 15 reading, unless retention at the current grade level is
5 16 determined not to be in the best interest of the child.	A
5 17 student cannot be denied promotion more than once.
5 18	Beginning July 1, 2010, students enrolled in kindergarten
5 19 through grade three in a school district must be assessed from
5 20 the beginning of and throughout the school year using ongoing
5 21 assessments of reading skills or early literacy development
5 22 including phonological awareness, reading fluency, and
5 23 alphabetic principle.	The department of education is required
5 24 to establish by rule, and provide each school district with, a
5 25 list of approved reading or early literacy development
5 26 assessments.
5 27	The bill also requires the board of directors of each
5 28 school district to provide interventions to improve a
5 29 student's reading skills, and notify the parents and guardians
5 30 of students of the options under the school district's reading
5 31 instruction program.	An intensive reading instruction plan,
5 32 including specialized tutoring, must be developed and
5 33 implemented by a school district for any grade three student
5 34 who is one year or more below grade level.
35	After July 1, 2012, if a student is more than one year
1 below grade level in reading, the school board can decide in
6	2 favor of the student's promotion only if the school board
6	3 concludes that if promoted and provided with additional or
6	4 continued interventions, the student is likely to perform at
6	5 grade level.
6	6	The bill requires the director of the department of
6	7 education to conduct a review of school district student
6	8 promotion policies and to submit findings and recommendations
6	9 resulting from the review to the general assembly by December
6 10 1, 2010, and biennially thereafter.	The bill requires the
6 11 state board of education to submit recommendations for
6 12 modifications relating to student promotion in a report to the
6 13 general assembly by December 1, 2011.
6 14	The bill may include a state mandate as defined in Code
6 15 section 25B.3.	The bill requires that the state cost of any
6 16 state mandate included in the bill be paid by a school
6 17 district from state school foundation aid received by the
6 18 school district under Code section 257.16.	The specification
6 19 is deemed to constitute state compliance with any state
6 20 mandate funding=related requirements of Code section 25B.2.
6 21 The inclusion of this specification is intended to reinstate
6 22 the requirement of political subdivisions to comply with any
6 23 state mandates included in the bill. 6 24 LSB 1659XS 83
6 25 kh/nh/24