wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 1289 > Substitute Bill
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The educational service districts shall jointly develop, periodically refine, and promote a voluntary online survey to determine how satisfied the families of current and former students are with the public education system. The survey must also gather feedback on families' overall experience, suggestions for improvement, and reasons for student enrollment and disenrollment in their local public schools.
The educational service districts may meet the requirements of (a) of this subsection by entering into an agreement with one another for joint or cooperative action pursuant to chapter 39.34 RCW.
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Each survey must include the statewide student identifier for at least one student who is currently or was recently enrolled in a public school.
Parents and guardians should only submit one survey per student for each public school per school year.
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Beginning September 1, 2025, the online survey must be maintained on at least one website maintained by the educational service districts.
By September 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, the educational service districts shall jointly distribute a link to the online survey to school districts, public schools, and the office of the superintendent of public instruction.
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On an annual basis, the educational service districts shall jointly use the statewide student identifiers to assign survey responses to the school district and public school that the associated students are currently enrolled in or were recently enrolled in. Before sharing the assigned responses with the school districts and public schools, the names of parents, guardians, and students must be stricken from the survey responses.
In addition to sharing the raw survey data as described in (a) of this subsection (4), the assigned survey responses must be disaggregated by the student categories and subcategories described in RCW 28A.300.042 (1) and (3), when applicable, by the primary reason for the student's disenrollment, and by whether the parent or guardian: Withdrew the student to receive home-based instruction in accordance with chapter 28A.200 RCW; transferred the student to a private school; transferred the student to a different public school in the same school district; or transferred the student to an out-of-district public school.
The educational service districts shall work in collaboration with the office of the superintendent of public instruction to develop and annually update a publicly available summary of the survey responses. This summary must be able to be sorted by school district, public school, and the student categories and subcategories described in RCW 28A.300.042 (1) and (3). Additionally, the survey responses must be able to be sorted, when applicable, by the primary reason for the student's disenrollment and by whether the parent or guardian: Withdrew the student to receive home-based instruction in accordance with chapter 28A.200 RCW; transferred the student to a private school; transferred the student to a different public school in the same school district; or transferred the student to an out-of-district public school. This summary must be published on the website of the office of the superintendent of public instruction and at least one website maintained by the educational service districts.
This section must be implemented in compliance with the federal family educational rights and privacy act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g), RCW 28A.605.030, and other federal and state laws governing the privacy of student education records.
For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
"Public schools" has the same meaning as in RCW 28A.150.010.
"Statewide student identifier" means the identifier required by RCW 28A.320.175.
Beginning August 1, 2023, public schools must:
Provide students and their parents or guardians with a description of the services available through the office of the education ombuds and the contact information for the office of the education ombuds at the time of initial enrollment or admission; and
Either: (i) Include on their website a description of the services available through the office of the education ombuds and a prominent link to the complaint resolution and referral access point maintained by the office of the education ombuds, described in RCW 43.06B.070; or (ii) provide a description of the services available through the office of the education ombuds and the contact information for the office of the education ombuds in existing materials that are shared annually with families, students, and school employees, such as welcome packets, orientation guides, and newsletters. This requirement as it relates to students and families may be satisfied by using the model student handbook language in RCW 28A.300.286.
Public schools are encouraged to comply with both subsection (1)(b)(i) and (ii) of this section.
By July 1, 2022, the office of the education ombuds must develop a template of the information described in subsection (1) of this section. The template must be translated into Spanish and into other languages as resources allow. The template must be made available upon request and updated as needed.
Beginning August 1, 2026, school districts and public schools must share a link to the online survey distributed under section 1 of this act with the parents or guardians of enrolled and recently disenrolled students using the communication methods described in subsection (1)(b) of this section.
For the purposes of this section, "public schools" has the same meaning as in RCW 28A.150.010.
Any board of directors may make agreements with adults choosing to attend school, and may charge the adults reasonable tuition.
A district is strongly encouraged to honor the request of a parent or guardian for his or her child to attend a school in another district or the request of a parent or guardian for his or her child to transfer as a student receiving home-based instruction.
A district shall release a student to a nonresident district that agrees to accept the student if:
A financial, educational, safety, or health condition affecting the student would likely be reasonably improved as a result of the transfer; or
Attendance at the school in the nonresident district is more accessible to the parent's place of work or to the location of child care; or
There is a special hardship or detrimental condition; or
The purpose of the transfer is for the student to enroll in an online course or online school program offered by an online provider approved under RCW 28A.250.020.
A district may deny the request of a resident student to transfer to a nonresident district if the release of the student would adversely affect the district's existing desegregation plan.
For the purpose of helping a district assess the quality of its education program, a resident school district may, in addition to providing the parent or guardian with a link to the online survey distributed under section 1 of this act, request an optional exit interview or questionnaire with the parents or guardians of a child transferring to another district. No parent or guardian may be forced to attend such an interview or complete the questionnaire.
Beginning with the 1993-94 school year, school districts may not charge transfer fees or tuition for nonresident students enrolled under subsection (3) of this section and RCW 28A.225.225. Reimbursement of a high school district for cost of educating high school pupils of a nonhigh school district shall not be deemed a transfer fee as affecting the apportionment of current state school funds.