Legislative Session number- 85

Bill Name: SF3871

2E Modifying provisions relating to general education, education excellence,
special programs, libraries, state agencies, and self-sufficiency and lifelong
learning

ARTICLE 1 - GENERAL EDUCATION

Authorizing school boards to form
business entities for the sole purpose of producing and operating a wind energy
conversion system for the benefit of the district; modifying dates for school
district clerks to report district expenses and other financial information;
modifying dates and annual reporting requirements on district passage rates and
expenditures required to reflect students passage of GRAD to graduate; modifying
certain dates for audited financial data conversion by the commissioner;
clarifying certain provisions relating to debt verification, elimination and
certification of debt and changing the date for the commissioner to notify the
legislature of school districts failing to limit expenditures and in statutory
operating debt

ARTICLE 2 - EDUCATION EXCELLENCE

Designating ice hockey as the
official sport of the state; authorizing a parent or guardian to allow an
individual to participate in school conferences and receive student data,
providing a consent form, defining individual; providing for the sharing of
certain educational data between the department of education and the office of
higher education; increasing the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18 years
of age beginning in the 2011-2012 school year; modifying certain compulsory
attendance requirements for children under seven; modifying reporting
requirements for home school parents instructing children between the ages of
seven and 16; modifying certain educational expectations for high school
graduation, requiring students to successfully pass state graduation exams;
adding physical education as a required academic standard and graduation
requirement, permitting a waiver; aligning the timelines for the revised math
standards and state academic standards in science and language arts with the
statewide assessments; modifying certain statewide testing and reporting system
provisions, requiring schools selected for stand alone state field testing or
other national sampling by the department to participate as requested, requiring
schools and school districts to administer statewide assessments for evaluating
proficiency in the context of the state grade level academic standards;
expecting students to be present and participate in school safety drills;
requiring school districts to post the school wellness policy on the district
Web site; clarifying the definition of comprehensive, scientifically based
reading instruction; clarifying board of teaching composition requirements;
requiring the board of teaching to require teacher preparation programs to
include historical and cultural competencies relating to state American Indian
tribes, communities and contributions; requiring universities preparing
candidates for administrative licensure to provide opportunities for the
candidates to acquire competency in administering gifted and talented services,
specifying certain board of school administrators review and approval
requirements; modifying board of teaching licensure requirements to include a
reading instruction competence assessment; requiring an assessment of reading
instruction to measure prekindergarten and elementary licensure candidate
reading knowledge; specifying board of teaching review and approval requirements
for gifted and talented preparation programs; requiring the administrators
academy to provide opportunities to school administrators to acquire competency
in administering gifted and talented services; allowing a school district to
hold a hearing and invite public comment when proposed to temporarily close a
school or to lease the school to another entity to be used as a school for a
certain period of time; requiring a postsecondary institution enrolling a
secondary student in a course through the post secondary enrollment options
program for postsecondary credit to notify the student about payment; modifying
the online learning program (online learning option act) school district
reporting requirements and review criteria; specifying certain online learning
provider course and clarifying online learning standards; extending the sunset
for the online learning advisory council and the charter school advisory
council; modifying certain charter school formation requirements; imposing state
aid reductions for certain conflict of interest violations for charter schools;
modifying charter school contract requirements; modifying charter school audit
report content requirements; modifying charter school exemptions from statutes
and rules and specifying certain federal, state and local health and safety
requirements; modifying the time period for a teacher employed by a school
district to request a leave or extension of leave to teach at a charter school;
modifying certain termination of charter school contract requirements;
clarifying charter school related party lease cost requirements and defining
certain terms; requiring the commissioner, the Minnesota education technology
task force and representatives of school districts to jointly identify robust
technology tools and systems to improve students educational achievement and to
establish a foundation of services, specifying use requirements, requiring the
establishment of district technology standards, allowing the use of an expedited
rulemaking process for adoption of the standards; updating the eligibility for
the building lease levy for desegregation districts; establishing a P-20 (P20)
education partnership to create a seamless system of education to maximize
student achievements from early childhood through postsecondary education and
promotes the efficient use of financial and human resources, specifying certain
powers and duties, requiring annual report to the legislature; modifying the
definition of habitual truant; encouraging school districts experiencing
disparities in academic achievement among groups of students defined by race,
ethnicity and income to develop a plan to significantly improve academic
achievement using concrete measures to eliminate differences in academic
performance, specifying certain plan content requirements, requiring plan
submittal to the commissioner by a certain date, creating an advisory task force
on improving students academic achievement to review plans submitted to the
commissioner and submit a proposal for improving student academic achievement to
the legislature by a certain date, sunset provision; establishing an advisory
task force on improving teacher quality and identifying institutional structures
and strategies for effectively integrating secondary and postsecondary academic
and career education, requiring a report to the legislature, sunset provision;
requiring the board of teaching by a certain date to adopt a reading instruction
assessment for all prekindergarten and elementary licensure candidates,
requiring a legislative report and legislature submission of reading instruction
licensure board proposed rule changes; providing for the retroactive revival and
reenactment of the charter school advisory council; repealing certain compulsory
education requirements

ARTICLE 3 - SPECIAL PROGRAMS

Extending the time for
school district notification to parents of enrollment of
a child in the limited
English proficiency (LEP) program; specifying notification responsibilities for
special instruction and services for a child placed in another district for a
day care and treatment program, requiring a nonresident district to notify the
resident district of an emergency placement of a child without disabilities
within a certain number of days, authorizing a resident district to establish
certain reasonable restrictions on transportation subject to a court or agency
order; eliminating the fiscal year cap on administrative costs for the
department of human services to administer individual education plan
health-related services; repealing certain provisions relating to aversive and
deprivation procedures, placing special education students in a state
institution on a temporary basis, tuition billing requirements for nonresident
students, transportation aid agreements, the definition of assistive technology
device and certain rulemaking authority

ARTICLE 4 - LIBRARIES

Modifying
certain department of education library responsibilities for the blind and
physically handicapped relating to the Braille and talking book library;
authorizing the advisory committee for the Minnesota Braille and talking book
library to conduct meetings by telephone and other electronic means under
certain conditions

ARTICLE 5 - STATE AGENCIES

Requiring the commissioner of
education to create an American Indian education committee to advise the
commissioner on administering certain programs, specifying certain duties and
membership requirements, sunset provision; including the unreimbursed cost of
providing behavioral management aides under a child's individual education plan
as part of the special education aid paid to the Minnesota state academies,
authorizing the retention of receipts received through mutual agreements for
school districts; modifying special education initial aid to include a certain
percentage of the salary for one-to-one behavioral management aides assigned to
a child attending the Minnesota state academy for the deaf or the Minnesota
state academy for the blind

ARTICLE 6 - SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND LIFELONG
LEARNING

Requiring school districts offering community education programs to
complete and file an annual program report to the department; modifying certain
grant limitation requirements to a single organization for adult basic education
supplemental service grants
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