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CS/CS/SB 1108 — Education
by Appropriations Committee; Judiciary Committee; and Senator Diaz
This summary is provided for information only and does not represent the opinion of any Senator, Senate Officer, or Senate Office.
Prepared by: Judiciary Committee (JU)
The bill revises several areas of education law, primarily relating to graduation requirements and statewide standardized assessments. Specifically, the bill:
- Requires every school district, alternative school, and the Department of Juvenile Justice to offer either the SAT or ACT to every student in the 11th grade free of charge, subject to an appropriation for that purpose.
- Amends the civic literacy requirement for post-secondary education to include both an assessment and a course, as opposed to one or the other.
- Creates a process to allow students in high school to earn the civic literacy requirement before enrolling in a public college or university in this state.
- Requires the statewide, standardized math and English learning assessments in grades 3 through 6 to be paper-based.
- Deletes obsolete language relating to prior statewide standardized assessments, and updates the assessment publication requirement in anticipation of the implementation of new state standards.
- Authorizes the Department of Education (DOE) to hold certain intellectual property rights, including the right to patent, copyright, and trademark. This authority will allow the DOE to protect certain materials, such as state authored assessments, from being sold or distributed without authorization.
- Creates the Innovative Blended Learning and Real-Time Student Assessment Pilot Program, which involves the combination of in-person and remote students in the same classroom environment.
- Requires the character development curriculum for public school students in the 11th and 12th grades to include instructions on voting using the uniform primary and general election ballot.
- Allows certain students participating in the English for Speakers of Other Languages Program to demonstrate grade-level expectations on formative assessments in lieu of passing the grade 10 English Language Arts assessment.
If approved by the Governor, these provisions take effect July 1, 2021.
Vote: Senate 39-0; House 116-0