CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT
ENGROSSED SENATE BILL 5462
Chapter 157, Laws of 2024
68th Legislature
2024 Regular Session
PUBLIC SCHOOLS—INCLUSIVE LEARNING STANDARDS AND INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS
EFFECTIVE DATE: June 6, 2024
Passed by the Senate March 4, 2024 CERTIFICATE
Yeas 28 Nays 20
I, Sarah Bannister, Secretary of
the Senate of the State of
DENNY HECK Washington, do hereby certify that
President of the Senate the attached is ENGROSSED SENATE
BILL 5462 as passed by the Senate
and the House of Representatives on
the dates hereon set forth.
Passed by the House February 29, 2024
Yeas 56 Nays 37
SARAH BANNISTER
LAURIE JINKINS Secretary
Speaker of the House of
Representatives
Approved March 18, 2024 3:25 PM FILED
March 19, 2024
Secretary of State
JAY INSLEE State of Washington
Governor of the State of Washington
 ENGROSSED SENATE BILL 5462
AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
Passed Legislature - 2024 Regular Session
State of Washington 68th Legislature 2023 Regular Session
By Senators Liias, C. Wilson, Kuderer, Lovelett, Nguyen, Pedersen,
Randall, Saldaña, and Valdez
Read first time 01/19/23. Referred to Committee on Early Learning &
K-12 Education.
1 AN ACT Relating to promoting inclusive learning standards and
2 instructional materials in public schools; amending RCW 28A.320.230
3 and 28A.655.070; adding a new section to chapter 28A.345 RCW; adding
4 new sections to chapter 28A.300 RCW; creating a new section; and
5 providing an expiration date.
6 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
7 NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature recognizes that
8 Washington state law prohibits discrimination in public schools for
9 certain protected classes. The legislature also acknowledges that
10 school districts are required to adopt a policy related to the
11 selection or removal of instructional materials. Under state rule,
12 the instructional materials policy of each school district must
13 establish and use appropriate screening criteria to identify and
14 eliminate bias pertaining to protected classes.
15 (2) The legislature intends to expand these requirements by
16 requiring school districts to adopt policies and procedures that
17 incorporate adopting inclusive curricula and selecting inclusive
18 instructional materials that include the histories, contributions,
19 and perspectives of historically marginalized and underrepresented
20 groups. The legislature recognizes that inclusive curricula have been
21 shown to often improve the mental health, academic performance,
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 1 attendance rates, and graduation rates of historically marginalized
2 and underrepresented communities. Research on students' sense of
3 belonging and community in the school setting confirms that inclusive
4 curricula and learning environments contribute to increased school
5 motivation, participation, and achievement.
6 (3) The legislature intends to promote culturally and
7 experientially representative learning opportunities for all students
8 by directing the office of the superintendent of public instruction,
9 when revising or developing state learning standards, to screen for
10 inappropriate bias in the proposed state learning standards and to
11 ensure that the histories, contributions, and perspectives of
12 historically marginalized and underrepresented peoples and
13 communities are included in the standards.
14 (4) The legislature believes that promoting inclusive learning
15 standards, curricula, and instructional materials will improve
16 student achievement, attendance, parent and family engagement, and
17 other dimensions that contribute to student success.
18 NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 28A.345
19 RCW to read as follows:
20 (1) By June 1, 2025, the Washington state school directors'
21 association, with the assistance of the office of the superintendent
22 of public instruction, must review and update a model policy and
23 procedure regarding course design, selection, and adoption of
24 instructional materials.
25 (2) The model policy and procedure must require that school
26 district boards of directors, within available materials, adopt
27 inclusive curricula and select diverse, equitable, inclusive, age-
28 appropriate instructional materials that include the histories,
29 contributions, and perspectives of historically marginalized and
30 underrepresented groups including, but not limited to, people from
31 various racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, people with
32 differing learning needs, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people as
33 the term is defined in RCW 43.114.010, and people with various
34 socioeconomic and immigration backgrounds.
35 (3) The model policy and procedure must require that, in adopting
36 curricula and selecting instructional materials in accordance with
37 this section, school district boards of directors must seek curricula
38 and instructional materials that are as culturally and experientially
39 diverse as possible, recognizing that the availability of materials
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 1 that include the histories, contributions, and perspectives of
2 historically marginalized and underrepresented groups may vary.
3 (4) By October 1, 2025, school district boards of directors must
4 amend the policy and procedures required under RCW 28A.320.230 to
5 conform with the model policy and procedure required by this section.
6 Additionally, by October 1, 2025, charter school boards and schools
7 subject to state-tribal education compacts must adopt or amend their
8 policies and procedures governing curricula adoption and the
9 selection of instructional materials to conform with the model policy
10 and procedure required by this section. For the purpose of
11 documenting compliance with this section and assisting school
12 districts in accordance with section 6 of this act, school district
13 boards of directors, within 10 days of completing the policy and
14 procedure updates required by this subsection (4), shall provide
15 notice of the completed actions and electronic copies of the
16 applicable policies and procedures to the office of the
17 superintendent of public instruction.
18 (5) This section governs school operation and management under
19 RCW 28A.710.040 and 28A.715.020, and applies to charter schools
20 established under chapter 28A.710 RCW and state-tribal education
21 compact schools subject to chapter 28A.715 RCW to the same extent as
22 it applies to school districts.
23 Sec. 3. RCW 28A.320.230 and 1989 c 371 s 1 are each amended to
24 read as follows:
25 Every board of directors, unless otherwise specifically provided
26 by law, shall:
27 (1) ((Prepare)) In accordance with section 2 of this act,
28 prepare, negotiate, set forth in writing and adopt, policy relative
29 to the selection or deletion of instructional materials. Such policy
30 shall:
31 (a) State the school district's goals and principles relative to
32 instructional materials;
33 (b) Delegate responsibility for the preparation and
34 recommendation of teachers' reading lists and specify the procedures
35 to be followed in the selection of all instructional materials
36 including text books;
37 (c) Establish an instructional materials committee to be
38 appointed, with the approval of the school board, by the school
39 district's chief administrative officer. This committee shall consist
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 1 of representative members of the district's professional staff,
2 including representation from the district's curriculum development
3 committees, and, in the case of districts which operate elementary
4 school(s) only, the educational service district superintendent, one
5 of whose responsibilities shall be to assure the correlation of those
6 elementary district adoptions with those of the high school
7 district(s) which serve their children. The committee may include
8 parents at the school board's discretion: PROVIDED, That parent
9 members shall make up less than one-half of the total membership of
10 the committee;
11 (d) Provide for reasonable notice to parents of the opportunity
12 to serve on the committee and for terms of office for members of the
13 instructional materials committee;
14 (e) Provide a system for receiving, considering and acting upon
15 written complaints regarding instructional materials used by the
16 school district;
17 (f) Provide free text books, supplies and other instructional
18 materials to be loaned to the pupils of the school, when, in its
19 judgment, the best interests of the district will be subserved
20 thereby and prescribe rules and regulations to preserve such books,
21 supplies and other instructional materials from unnecessary damage.
22 Recommendation of instructional materials shall be by the
23 district's instructional materials committee in accordance with
24 district policy. Approval or disapproval shall be by the local school
25 district's board of directors.
26 Districts may pay the necessary travel and subsistence expenses
27 for expert counsel from outside the district. In addition, the
28 committee's expenses incidental to visits to observe other districts'
29 selection procedures may be reimbursed by the school district.
30 Districts may, within limitations stated in board policy, use and
31 experiment with instructional materials for a period of time before
32 general adoption is formalized.
33 Within the limitations of board policy, a school district's chief
34 administrator may purchase instructional materials to meet deviant
35 needs or rapidly changing circumstances.
36 (2) Establish a depreciation scale for determining the value of
37 texts which students wish to purchase.
38 Sec. 4. RCW 28A.655.070 and 2019 c 252 s 119 are each amended to
39 read as follows:
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 1 (1) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop state
2 learning standards that identify the knowledge and skills all public
3 school students need to know and be able to do based on the student
4 learning goals in RCW 28A.150.210, develop student assessments, and
5 implement the accountability recommendations and requests regarding
6 assistance, rewards, and recognition of the state board of education.
7 (2) The superintendent of public instruction shall:
8 (a) Periodically revise the state learning standards, as needed,
9 based on the student learning goals in RCW 28A.150.210. Goals one and
10 two shall be considered primary. To the maximum extent possible, the
11 superintendent shall integrate goal four and the knowledge and skill
12 areas in the other goals in the state learning standards; ((and))
13 (b) Include a screening for biased content in each development or
14 revision of a state learning standard and ensure that the concepts of
15 diversity, equity, and inclusion, as those terms are defined in RCW
16 28A.415.443, are incorporated into each new or revised state learning
17 standard. In meeting the requirements of this subsection (2)(b), the
18 superintendent of public instruction shall consult with the
19 applicable commissions established in Title 43 RCW and other persons
20 and organizations with relevant expertise; and
21 (c) Review and prioritize the state learning standards and
22 identify, with clear and concise descriptions, the grade level
23 content expectations to be assessed on the statewide student
24 assessment and used for state or federal accountability purposes. The
25 review, prioritization, and identification shall result in more focus
26 and targeting with an emphasis on depth over breadth in the number of
27 grade level content expectations assessed at each grade level. Grade
28 level content expectations shall be articulated over the grades as a
29 sequence of expectations and performances that are logical, build
30 with increasing depth after foundational knowledge and skills are
31 acquired, and reflect, where appropriate, the sequential nature of
32 the discipline. The office of the superintendent of public
33 instruction, within seven working days, shall post on its website any
34 grade level content expectations provided to an assessment vendor for
35 use in constructing the statewide student assessment.
36 (3)(a) In consultation with the state board of education, the
37 superintendent of public instruction shall maintain and continue to
38 develop and revise a statewide academic assessment system in the
39 content areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and science for use
40 in the elementary, middle, and high school years designed to
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 1 determine if each student has mastered the state learning standards
2 identified in subsection (1) of this section. School districts shall
3 administer the assessments under guidelines adopted by the
4 superintendent of public instruction. The academic assessment system
5 may include a variety of assessment methods, including criterion-
6 referenced and performance-based measures.
7 (b) Effective with the 2009 administration of the Washington
8 assessment of student learning and continuing with the statewide
9 student assessment, the superintendent shall redesign the assessment
10 in the content areas of reading, mathematics, and science in all
11 grades except high school by shortening test administration and
12 reducing the number of short answer and extended response questions.
13 (c) By the 2014-15 school year, the superintendent of public
14 instruction, in consultation with the state board of education, shall
15 modify the statewide student assessment system to transition to
16 assessments developed with a multistate consortium, as provided in
17 this subsection:
18 (i) The assessments developed with a multistate consortium to
19 assess student proficiency in English language arts and mathematics
20 shall be administered beginning in the 2014-15 school year, and
21 beginning with the graduating class of 2020, the assessments must be
22 administered to students in the tenth grade. The reading and writing
23 assessments shall not be administered by the superintendent of public
24 instruction or schools after the 2013-14 school year.
25 (ii) The high school assessments in English language arts and
26 mathematics in (c)(i) of this subsection shall be used for the
27 purposes of federal and state accountability and for assessing
28 student career and college readiness.
29 (d) The statewide academic assessment system must also include
30 the Washington access to instruction and measurement assessment for
31 students with significant cognitive challenges.
32 (4) If the superintendent proposes any modification to the state
33 learning standards or the statewide assessments, then the
34 superintendent shall, upon request, provide opportunities for the
35 education committees of the house of representatives and the senate
36 to review the assessments and proposed modifications to the state
37 learning standards before the modifications are adopted.
38 (5) The assessment system shall be designed so that the results
39 under the assessment system are used by educators as tools to
40 evaluate instructional practices, and to initiate appropriate
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 1 educational support for students who have not mastered the state
2 learning standards at the appropriate periods in the student's
3 educational development.
4 (6) By September 2007, the results for reading and mathematics
5 shall be reported in a format that will allow parents and teachers to
6 determine the academic gain a student has acquired in those content
7 areas from one school year to the next.
8 (7) To assist parents and teachers in their efforts to provide
9 educational support to individual students, the superintendent of
10 public instruction shall provide as much individual student
11 performance information as possible within the constraints of the
12 assessment system's item bank. The superintendent shall also provide
13 to school districts:
14 (a) Information on classroom-based and other assessments that may
15 provide additional achievement information for individual students;
16 and
17 (b) A collection of diagnostic tools that educators may use to
18 evaluate the academic status of individual students. The tools shall
19 be designed to be inexpensive, easily administered, and quickly and
20 easily scored, with results provided in a format that may be easily
21