This bill amends existing laws regarding career and technical education (CTE) in Washington State, specifically focusing on sixth-grade students. It introduces new funding provisions for exploratory CTE courses for sixth graders, in addition to the existing funding for grades seven through twelve. School districts will only receive funding for middle school CTE courses if they are part of a planned program of study that ensures a coherent progression of CTE opportunities from middle to high school. The bill also revises the funding formula for basic education instructional allocations, emphasizing transparency and requiring the superintendent of public instruction to report per-pupil allocations in a user-friendly format.

Additionally, the bill establishes specific allocations for supplemental instruction for students who have exited transitional bilingual programs and for highly capable students, ensuring a minimum of 3.0 hours of extra instruction per week for every 15 exited students per teacher, and 2.1590 hours for highly capable students. It mandates biennial reviews of the distribution formula for basic education funds, allowing the legislature to approve or amend recommendations. The bill also allows school districts to use excess allocations for CTE purposes and clarifies that for accounting and calculating minimum expenditures, the CTE program funded through a specific section must be treated as a single program.

Statutes affected:
Original Bill: 43.62.050