SS#2/SB 360 - This act establishes the "Education Freedom Act" and creates and modifies provisions relating to the statewide assessment system, school accountability report cards, and the powers and duties of the State Board of Education. The act repeals provisions of current law authorizing the State Board of Education to develop a statewide assessment system and a standardized assessment instrument based on academic performance standards. Instead, the State Board shall develop a statewide summative assessment system that satisfies the requirements of federal law, and the State Board shall use the results of the assessments only for the purpose of compliance with federal law and the determination of performance districts in the calculation of state aid. The State Board shall not use assessment results to classify school districts and charter schools.
The act repeals a provision of current law that the statewide assessment system shall permit the academic performance of students in each school to be tracked only against prior academic performance in the same school.
Under the act, school districts and charter schools shall create, purchase, or adopt a local assessment system that meets certain criteria outlined in the act, such as being related to curriculum taught in the school and being evaluated and graded in a manner that provides students and teachers with meaningful feedback.
The act repeals provisions relating to the State Board of Education's authority to suggest criteria for a school to demonstrate that its students learn the knowledge, skills, and competencies measured by the statewide assessment system at exemplary levels. The act further repeals provisions relating to "Outstanding School Waivers" that exempt certain schools from requirements relating to the authority of the State Board to classify school districts. (Section 160.518)
The act repeals provisions requiring the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to produce a school accountability report card for each public school district, public school building, and charter school. Instead, school districts and charter schools shall report certain information annually on a data dashboard on their websites, and shall separately share such information with DESE.
The act also repeals provisions relating to the identification of priority schools that fail to meet acceptable standards of student achievement, as well as repealing provisions relating to the identification of attendance centers that are categorized as requiring school improvement strategies.
The act repeals the requirement for school districts and charter schools to provide their school accountability report cards to legislators by December first annually, as well as the requirement for the State Board of Education to approve the inclusion of charter school data in a school district's school accountability report card. (Section 160.522)
The act modifies provisions of current law authorizing the State Board of Education to classify public schools by specifying that these provisions shall expire on August 28, 2025, and shall subsequently be effective beginning on August 28, 2030.
Beginning on August 28, 2025, the act requires the State Board of Education to identify a minimum of two national school accreditation agencies from which any school district may seek to obtain accreditation. Although the State Board may adopt a system of accreditation school districts may choose to utilize, the State Board shall accept any accreditation status a school district obtains from an approved national school accreditation agency, provided that the accreditation status is in accordance with the documented guidelines of such agency. However, the State Board shall still determine whether a school district accredited by such an agency shall be considered accredited, provisionally accredited, or unaccredited solely for the purposes of determining whether a charter school may be operated in the school district. This provision shall expire on August 28, 2030. (Section 161.092)
This act is similar to SB 814 (2024), SS/SCS/SB 85 (2023), and provisions in SB 1006 (2024), HB 1851 (2024), HB 2147 (2024), and in SS/SB 304 (2023).
OLIVIA SHANNON