REVISED SCHOOL CODE                                                                                                           S.B. 265 (S-1) & 268 (S-2):

                                                                                                                                                                                                      SUMMARY OF BILL

                                                                                                                                                                        REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE

Senate Bill 265 (Substitute S-1 as reported)

Senate Bill 268 (Substitute S-2 as reported)

Sponsor:   Senator Ken Horn (S.B. 265)

                            Senator Michael D. MacDonald (S.B. 268)

Committee:   Education

CONTENT

Senate Bill 265 (S-1) would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:

 --       Require a school district or public school academy (PSA) to submit a retention report to the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) beginning in 2022 and no later than September 1 of each year.  

 --       Prescribe the information that would have to be included in the 2022 retention report.

 --       Prescribe the conditions that would have to be met by a pupil enrolled in grade 3 or 4 in order for that pupil to be enrolled in grade 4 or 5, as applicable, during the 2021-2022 school year.

 --       Require the Department of Education (MDE) to provide CEPI with the finalized scoring for the grade 3 and 4 State assessments for 2021-2022 by May 23, 2022, or no later than 14 after the scores were finalized.

 --       Require CEPI, by June 1, 2022, or no later than 14 days after receiving the grade 3 and 4 State assessment results, to identify each pupil who had completed grade 3 or 4 during the 2021-2022 school year who was subject not to being advanced to grade 4 or 5, as applicable, as a result of not meeting the reading proficiency requirements required under the Code.

 --       Require CEPI to notify the parent or legal guardian and the school district or PSA of each pupil who was subject to being retained in grade 3 or 4.

 --       Prescribe the information that would have to be included in the notice provided by CEPI, including ways in which a pupil could be promoted to the next grade despite reading deficiencies.

 --       Require a parent or guardian of a pupil who was subject to being retained in grade 3 or 4 to request a good cause exemption from a district or PSA within 30 days after the date of the notification by CEPI.

 --       Require a school district or PSA to provide written notification to the parent or guardian of a pupil that he or she could be promoted to grade 4 or 5 if the pupil were not enrolled in grade 4 or 5 at the beginning of the school year but met specified conditions for promotion.

 --       Require a district or PSA to provide a reading intervention program for eligible pupils and prescribe requirements an intervention program would have to meet.

 --       Prescribe the procedures that a superintendent of a school district or chief administrator of a PSA, or a designee, would have to follow in order to grant a good cause exemption.

 --       Require a pupil enrolled in grade 3 during the 2020-2021 school year who was determined to be one or more grade levels behind in reading to be provided a reading intervention program beginning in the 2021-2022 school year unti