Dr. Chuck Essigs, AASBO Director of Governmental Relations

Dr. Deb Duvall, ASA Executive DirectorJanice Palmer, ASBA Director of

Governmental Relations & Public Affairs

**Unless an emergency clause is included

Creates an additional tax credit for private schools ($500/single; $1000/joint)

Includes an annual inflationary increase for the tax credit, except that they cannot be adjusted downward

Removes the requirement that a school annually administers and make available to the public aggregate test scores of its students on a nationally norm-referenced test, preferably AIMS

Fiscal note -- will cost the State $4 million or 800 students would need to leave public schools to private schools for this to be revenue neutral

Provides schools immunity from liability for injuries sustained by recreational users of outdoor school grounds, excluding swimming pools and other aquatic features• Exempts students registered at a school in

transit to or from school and who are on school grounds during designated allowed times or a school sanctioned activity from the recreational user definition

Eliminates the restriction that the Treasurer may invest only in bonds, debentures and notes issued by companies organized and doing business in the United States.

Establishes bonds, debentures, notes or other evidences of indebtedness that are denominated in United States dollars as an option of the items the Treasurer is allowed to invest and reinvest trust and treasury monies in.

Creates a specialized teaching certificate for classroom teachers with expertise in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields

Charges the State Board of Education with its administration

Repeals the Public School Information Hot Line Program and the School Safety Clearinghouse Program

Repeals the AIMS Intervention and Dropout Prevention Program and the Instructional Technology Systems Pilot Program.

Makes various changes to the dropout recovery programs statute.

Retroactive to June 30, 2011

Removes the requirement for a 12th-grade student to have taken AIMS each time it was administered in order to substitute a minimum SBE-determined score on a national college entrance exam for a passing score on AIMS for the purpose of high school graduation.

Makes changes to the Move on When Ready Grand Canyon Diploma (GCD)

• Allows GCD recipients who have been accepted into an Arizona public university to enroll in the university after completing additional high school coursework that is designed to prepare the student for admission to a selective postsecondary institution that offers baccalaureate degrees.

Requires the district or charter school that granted the GCD to include that student in the district’s or charter school’s student count.

• The school district or charter school will continue to receive per-pupil funding until that student would otherwise have graduated at the end of grade 12 as long as the student is enrolled full-time in the university.

ADM distribution:• 1/3 to the school district or the operator of the charter school.• 1/3 for use at the school site.• Remaining 1/3:

1/2 to a scholarship account established specifically for the GCD recipient. 1/2 to the university where the student is enrolled.

Allows the State Board to appoint a fiscal crisis team, in addition to a receiver, for a school district that the Board determines is insolvent or has grossly mismanaged its finances.

Requires that a school assigned a letter grade of D for two prior consecutive years and is required to participate in a mandatory school improvement process be assigned a letter grade of F.

In school year 2012 – 2013 a school, school district or charter school may be assigned a letter grade of F if the school's classification was previously underperforming.

Self-repeals July 1, 2014.

Allows the State Board to assign a letter grade of F to a school that has been assigned a letter grade of D for less than three consecutive years if the Board determines that there is no reasonable likelihood that the school will achieve an average level of performance within the next two years.

Allows a taxpayer to designate all or any amount of their refund as a voluntary contribution to the Assistance for Education Fund.

Creates the 11-member Joint Legislative Study Committee on Charter School Funding Options for School Districts

Directs the Committee to evaluate methods to give school districts the option to transfer to a funding model that is similar to the funding currently provided to charter schools and to recommend statutory changes that will be necessary to allow districts to transfer to that funding model.

Requires the Committee to submit a report of its activities and recommendations for legislative action to the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House

of Representatives, and to provide a copy to the Secretary of State, by December 31, 2013.

Repealed as of September 30, 2014

Allows an elementary school district that is not within the boundaries of a union high school district to withdraw from a JTED with a majority vote of its school board.

Requires the question for withdrawal be sent to the ballot at the next general election for the voters of the elementary school district if approved by the district governing board.

Requires the elementary school governing board to notify the JTED governing board within 10 days of approving the withdrawal.

Prohibits an elementary school district from changing its QTR for the remainder of the year after it withdraws from the JTED.

Contains an emergency clause.

Provides ASRS with the ability to recover collection costs, allows the Director to prescribe procedures for remitting data and monies to the ASRS and the annual accounting for members can now be electronic or online

Allows a charter school to give enrollment preference to the siblings of a student that previously attended a charter school that has the identical charter holder, board and governing board membership as the enrolling school.

Establishes the 13-member Transaction Privilege Tax Reform Committee

Directs the Committee with studying and proffering recommendations related to: Individual and corporate income tax; TPT; and mitigating the fiscal impact to counties and municipalities.

Requires the Committee to report their findings and recommendations to the Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House of Representatives no later than October 31, 2012.

Repealed as of October 31, 2013. Contains an emergency clause.

Requires the Department of Revenue to provide the governing board of the school district and the county superintendent with the current secondary assessed valuation of the school district.

Requires an override informational report to include the following:• The names of persons and entities submitting written arguments;

and• The current full cash value and current assessed valuation

provided by DOR Requires the governing board of the school district to

publically declare a deadline for submitting arguments at the time an election is ordered.• Deadline must be immediately posted in a prominent location on

the school district’s website. Requires the governing body of a political subdivision to

set a deadline to submit arguments for and against the authorization of a bond proposition at a public meeting.• Deadline must be published in a newspaper of general circulation.

Requires the School Safety Program Oversight Committee to include in the school safety program guidance manual a dispute resolution process in the service agreement between a school district or charter school and the law enforcement agency providing services.

Removes the requirement for charter schools to contract with a different auditor at least once every six years to conduct required annual audits.

Requires multiple pathways to be made available to students who are eligible for a high school diploma through a defined, competency-based college-ready educational pathway.

Requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules to define competency-based educational pathways for college and career readiness

Removes the following good cause exemptions:• A student with a disability who did not take AIMS.• A student with a disability who has taken AIMS and was previously retained in a grade.• A student with a reading deficiency who has been retained twice in a grade.• A student who has shown reading proficiency on another reading assessment approved by the

State Board of Education (SBE).• The parent of a student requests an exemption within 30 days of receiving notification that the

child is recommended to be retained and the district or charter school governing board approves the parent’s request.

Replaces the current good cause exemptions listed above with a mechanism to allow a school board or the governing body of a charter school to promote a student with a disability whose reading score falls far below the third grade level if the student’s guardian and IEP team agree that promotion is appropriate based on the IEP.

Directs the SBE to develop intervention and remedial strategies for students in K-3 who have reading deficiencies and requires each school district or charter school to offer at least one intervention strategy and one remedial strategy.

Adds the following information for inclusion in a written notification to parents of K-3 students who have a reading deficiency:

• A list of the intervention and remedial strategies offered.• Instruction for the parent or guardian to choose the strategy that will be implemented for that

child. Requires ADE to post examples of best practices for reading intervention and

remedial reading strategies on its website.

Establishes a performance framework for charter school sponsors and makes changes to statute relating to charter renewal and revocation.

Establishes the New Charter Application Processing Fund under the administration of the State Board of Charter Schools.

Prohibits any person, including a medical marijuana cardholder, from using or possessing marijuana on a school campus or in a child care facility.

Contains a Proposition 105 clause.

Allows the State Board to exempt persons applying for a secondary education certificate from taking the subject knowledge portion of the proficiency exam if the Board determines that the person has work experience in a STEM field and can demonstrate adequate knowledge of a particular subject through a postsecondary degree or 24 credit hours of relevant coursework.

Requires a public school with public access computer to deploy and enforce technology protection measures to block access to material harmful to minors.

Allows governing school boards to lease, sell or purchase school property obtained through renewable energy development agreements without an election.

Provisions effective July 1, 2013

A school that is assigned a letter grade of D or F for two consecutive years must implement a STEM intervention strategy under the supervision of the State Board of Education.

Allows charter schools to employ teachers whose certificate has been surrendered or revoked if the certificate has been subsequently reinstated.

Allows a school district, or two or more school districts to enter a financing agreement with a qualified provider or a financial institution when implementing energy cost savings measures.

Requires that a school district energy savings project must pay for itself in 15 years or less.

Makes various changes to principal and teacher evaluations including:• Designates the four performance

classifications as highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective. Requires governing boards to at least annually

discuss aggregated performance of teachers and principals at a public meeting

• Delineates teacher and principal evaluation policies that must be adopted and implemented in school year 2013-14

Allows for an alternative timeline if various provisions are met – must take action by September 30, 2012

Requires individual teacher performance to be a component of Prop. 301 monies (40% for performance pay) beginning in SY 14-15

Requires ADE to identify and prominently post on its website best practices for the implementation and assessment of teacher and principal evaluation systems by September 1, 2012.

Allows ADE to develop an evaluation instrument to be pilot tested in school districts and charter schools that choose to participate in the 2012-13 school year.

Prohibits school districts and charter schools from endorsing or providing financial or instructional support to any program that prefers elective abortion over childbirth and adoption.

Restricts school districts and charter schools from giving presentations or instructional materials to students during instructional time that give preference, encouragement and support to elective abortion over childbirth and adoption.

Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to include concepts of the history and literature of the Old and New Testament in History or English Arts standards, or both.

Allows school districts and charter schools to offer a high school elective course pertaining to how the Bible has influenced Western culture.

Allows the maximum dollar amount of a single job order for job-order-contracting construction services to be $1 million or a higher or lower amount prescribed by a governing board policy• Limited to no more than 5 years unless the

governing board determines in writing that a longer contract is beneficial.

Adds a parent involvement strategy to the list of corrective procedures a school district that has been assigned a grade of “D” or “F” for two consecutive years must implement

Requires the strategy to be included in the improvement plan of each applicable school in the district.

Requires proceeds from the sale of buildings funded by SFB to be returned to the state.

Expands the scope and use of energy and water savings accounts and guaranteed energy cost savings contracts.

Makes other technical changes

Allows a school district that has been assigned a letter grade of “A” for three consecutive years, and do not have any schools within the district that have received a letter grade of “F” during the same three-year period, to receive exemptions from certain statutes and rules

Requires SBE to review and approve the school district’s proposed exemptions, except for statutes and rules that SBE determines directly apply to the following:• Certification.• Health and safety.• State academic standards and assessments.• Requirements for high school graduation.• Special education.• Financial compliance and procurement requirements.• School and school district accountability provisions.

Requires the court to award reasonable attorney fees to the successful party in any action filed against the state, and other governmental entities, by a governmental entity, agency, or political subdivision.

Requires the Ajo, Clifton and Cedar Unified School Districts to correct budgeting errors over specified periods of time.

Contains an emergency clause

Replaces the method for calculating ADM that relies on counting the total enrollment of students on four dates each year and dividing that number by four with the total enrollment of each school day through the first 100 or 200 days in session, as applicable.

Limits the window during which ADE can conduct audits to 3 years from the time the monitoring or audit activity begins.

Retroactive to June 30, 2012

Prohibits a school from displaying an achievement classification or ranking that is no longer current unless the year of issuance of the achievement, classification or ranking is prominently displayed.

Expands the current special education empowerment account by allowing empowerment accounts for students who:  • attends a school or school district labeled a D or F;• is a previous recipient; • is a child of parent or guardian who is an active member

of the US Armed Services; • a child in foster care; or • is a child who attended a public preschool program in the

previous school year.

Expands eligibility for the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program to:• Attends a D or F school or school district • Previously received an Arizona Scholarship for Pupils with

Disabilities.• Is the child or legal ward of a member of the United States

Armed Forces.• Has been identified as a gifted pupil.• Previously attended a public school and was deemed eligible to

receive a scholarship from an STO. Adds the following services to the list of qualifying

expenses that Account monies may be used for:• Educational therapy or services provided by licensed or

accredited paraprofessionals and educational aides.• Services provided by public schools, including individual classes

and extracurricular activities.

The State Board of Education and the Governor's Office would have been required to establish procedures to encourage students to perform 200 hours of community service in order to apply for a community service commendation from the Governor.

Items specific to K-12 education:• Specifies school personnel are not required

to report a non-accidental physical injury to a minor that is caused by another minor if certain conditions are met.

• Would have required a law enforcement agency or school district to expunge a student’s record regarding a non-accidental physical injury to a minor that was caused by another minor under specified situations.

Charter schools would have been authorized to provide a preschool program for children with disabilities who attend the charter school.

Would have established a process for students in grades 7 through 12 to enroll in up to 2 online courses as part of their regular course load beginning July 1, 2013.

Outlined the process and funding mechanism.

Would have required the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to compute and transmit truth in spending estimates

Would have required that the Estimates consist of the amount of the state General Fund (GF) appropriations and all appropriations from all sources for the current FY adjusted by the sum of population and cost of living

Beginning in FY14, would have allowed the Appropriations Committees to hold a joint truth in

spending hearing if the proposed GF appropriations or total appropriations exceed the Estimates.

Chris Thomas, ASBA General Counsel and Director of Policy and Legal Services