House Bill No. by Representative Mandie Landry amends the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise (LA GATOR) Scholarship Program, focusing on student assessments and school accountability. The bill mandates the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE) to develop a process for the annual administration of all examinations required by the school and district accountability system at prescribed grade levels, replacing the previous option for schools to select assessments. Additionally, the DOE is tasked with creating a scholarship cohort index that mirrors the criteria used for public school performance scores, assigning letter grades to nonpublic participating schools based on assessment scores, and publishing these grades alongside those of public schools.

The bill also introduces specific accountability measures for participating schools, including sanctions for those that score below fifty on the scholarship cohort index for two consecutive years, which would prevent them from enrolling new scholarship recipients until they achieve a satisfactory score. Furthermore, schools that receive a score below fifty for three consecutive years would become ineligible for the program. The legislation retains existing provisions that exempt certain students from assessments and requires the DOE to ensure that assessment results are reported to parents and the public.

Statutes affected:
HB243 Original: