HB 2464 -- School Reform Measures

Sponsor:  Dieckhaus

This bill establishes the Teacher Continuing Contract Act and
changes the laws regarding charter schools, open school
enrollment, and student academic progression.

TEACHER CONTINUING CONTRACT ACT

The Teacher Continuing Contract Act is established which will
apply to teachers in all school districts, including St. Louis
City, beginning July 1, 2011.  In its main provisions, the bill:

(1)  Replaces the current standards of teacher evaluation with
the Teacher Advancement Program standards in the framework for
teaching rubric as developed by Charlotte Danielson;

(2)  Specifies that the current Teacher Tenure Act will remain in
effect until June 30, 2011;

(3)  Specifies that a contract between a school district and a
teacher will be known as a continuing contract and will continue
in effect for up to three years;

(4)  Sets the number of years to reach permanent teacher status
at four;

(5)  Allows elements other than years of service and highest
degree held to be added to salary schedules including, but not
limited to, additional certification areas, certification in
high-need subjects, mentoring, and demonstrated ability to
improve student performance;

(6)  Adds unsatisfactory performance to the list of reasons for
which a permanent teacher may be terminated and requires teacher
evaluations to be considered in determining professional
competence;

(7)  Requires 15 days between the issuance of a notice of
termination hearing and the hearing;

(8)  Allows appeals of school board termination decisions to the
circuit court of the county where the employing school district's
office is located;

(9)  Requires teachers to be evaluated regularly and twice in the
final year of a continuing contract, with a scale of 88 based on
the required teaching standards, and limits scores in the top two
quartiles to no more than 60% of a building's teachers; and

(10)  Sets the length of a continuing contract based on the
quartile scores, with the top quartile receiving three-year
contracts, the second quartile receiving two-year contracts, and
the lowest two quartiles receiving one-year contracts.

Many provisions of the current teacher tenure law will remain the
same in the new act, including but not limited to:

(1)  Modifications of continuing contracts;

(2)  Leaves of absence, except that a leave of absence due to
teacher reduction may be granted for two years rather than three
years;

(3)  Termination of probationary teachers;

(4)  Board member civil liability for charges against teachers;
and

(5)  Teacher participation in school board election campaigns.

CHARTER SCHOOLS

The bill:

(1)  Allows charter schools to be operated in an unaccredited
school district or in a school district that has a Title I school
in level 3, 4, or 5 of improvement.  Currently, charter schools
are permitted only in the St. Louis and Kansas City school
districts;

(2)  Expands those authorized to sponsor a charter school to
include a community college whose service area encompasses some
portion of an eligible school district; a private college or
university with its primary campus in Missouri that meets
specified enrollment and program requirements; and the mayor of
St. Louis City;

(3)  Requires a sponsor to develop policies and procedures for
the review of a charter school proposal; the granting of a
charter; and the closing of a charter school, including record
transfer and asset disposition;

(4)  Clarifies that the State Board of Education, when acting as
an interim sponsor, may revoke the charter of the school it is
sponsoring if the school fails to meet academic performance or
other goals as specified in the school's charter;

(5)  Revises the required contents of charters to include an
accountability plan that contains targets and measures for
academic performance, operation and governance, and the school's
mission, when applicable, as well as procedures if the school
should close;

(6)  Requires a proposed charter to be submitted to the sponsor
by August 15 of the year prior to the proposed opening date;

(7)  Specifies that employee criminal history background checks
and family care safety registry checks be required in the
charter;

(8)  Requires the establishment of baseline student performance
data during the first year of operation; collection of the data
throughout the duration of the charter; and participation in the
statewide assessment system to the extent applicable based on the
grade levels offered by the charter school;

(9)  Allows a high risk or alternative charter school to
establish alternative ways for students to obtain credit for
graduation, such as credit for off-campus instruction, work
experience, or embedded instruction.  The Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education, after three years, must
conduct a study of a school which was granted alternative
arrangements to assess student performance, graduation rates,
educational outcomes, and entry into the workforce or higher
education rates;

(10)  Clarifies that the biennial operational review must be
conducted during the first year of operation and every other year
after the most current review;

(11)  Removes the requirement that a charter school become a
local educational agency for the sole purpose of direct access to
federal grants and allows the school to become an agency if the
sponsor and the governing board reach a written agreement to
become an agency;

(12)  Requires, beginning January 1, 2011, a charter school
sponsor as part of the renewal process to demonstrate several
areas of compliance if the school falls below the specified
graduation rate or is in the lowest achieving 5% of Title I
schools.  If compliance cannot be established according to the
deadlines in the bill, the state board may vote to close the
school or to continue it under certain conditions;

(13)  Allows a charter school whose mission includes dropout
prevention or recovery to admit a nonresident student who is
considered high risk or is a dropout from the same or an adjacent
county when the student resides in a residential care facility, a
transitional living group home, or an independent living program.
Resident students will be given preference for admission over
nonresident pupils;

(14)  Requires charter schools operated by management companies
to make copies available for public inspection and upon the
request of specified district residents of the written contract
between the governing board of the charter school and the
educational or charter management organization;

(15)  Allows a charter school student who has moved out of the
school district to finish the current semester at the charter
school.  If school district boundaries change so that a student
attending a charter school no longer resides in the district, the
student may complete the current school year.  In both instances,
the student's parent or legal guardian will be responsible for
the student's transportation to and from the school; and

(16)  Allows the department to withhold funding during a charter
school's last year of operation until it determines that school
records, liabilities, and reporting requirements including a full
audit are satisfied.

OPEN SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

Beginning with the school year starting July 1, 2011, a student
currently enrolled in a public school in a district other than
the cities of Kansas City and St. Louis is allowed to enroll in a
public school in another school district.  The student's parent
or guardian must notify the child's school district of residence
and the receiving district by January 15 of the preceding school
year of the intent to change the child's enrollment on an
application prescribed by the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education.  If a parent or guardian fails to provide
notification by January 15, he or she may do so until the third
Friday in July of that calendar year if there is good cause as
specified in the bill.  An application for enrollment may be
granted at any time with the approval of the child's school
district of residence and the receiving district.

Each school district must adopt a policy for appropriate class
size and teacher-pupil ratios for all grade levels.  No district
is required to admit a student if doing so would violate its
class size and teacher-pupil ratio.  If a district denies entry
to any student, it must state the grounds for the denial.  Each
district must maintain records on the number of transfers
requested into and out of the district, the number of pupils
accepted, and the number of pupils denied.

A parent or guardian may return his or her child to the school
district of residence at a later time upon proper notification to
both districts.  If the parent or guardian returns the child to
the school district of residence, he or she cannot re-enroll the
child in the other school district but may request enrollment in
a different school district by following the procedures in the
bill.

For a student receiving special education services, a request to
enroll in another school district will only be approved if the
receiving district maintains a special education program
appropriate for the child and the enrollment would not cause the
established maximum class size to be exceeded.  A member of the
individualized education program (IEP) team in the school
district of residence must be part of the IEP team in the
receiving district for any initial planning sessions.  The board
of education of the school district of residence must pay the
receiving district the actual costs incurred in providing the
appropriate special education.

The department will calculate the per-pupil cost for the
residence and receiving districts.  If the cost is greater in the
receiving district, the board of the receiving district may
calculate an amount, not to exceed 25% of the difference between
the costs of the two districts or $1,000, whichever is less, to
be paid by the parents.  If the cost is greater in the residence
district, the board of the receiving district may calculate a
payment by the above method for the residence district to pay the
receiving district.  The school district of residence must also
pay the receiving district any other federal or state aid that
the district receives on account of the child.  If a student
enrolled in another school district moves to a different school
district during the academic year, the first school district of
residence must continue paying the receiving district for the
remainder of the school year.  The new school district of
residence must pay for any subsequent years.  The bill specifies
the calculation of a late payment fee and the withholding of the
amount if it is overdue for more than three months from a school
district of residence, certain changes of residence, and
enrollment variations that may affect eligibility for the small
schools grant.

The parent or guardian is responsible for transporting the
student to the receiving school district without reimbursement.
A district may provide transportation to and from a point on an
existing bus route if the parent or guardian transports the child
to that point.  Participation in interscholastic athletics will
be governed by the requirements and eligibility criteria and
standards of the Missouri State High School Activities
Association (MSHSAA).

STUDENT ACADEMIC PROGRESSION

Each school district must establish requirements for student
academic progression.  A district must develop standards for
evaluating performance; specify reading levels, including when
remediation will be required; and provide appropriate alternative
placement for students retained for two or more years.  A
district must allocate its remedial and supplemental instruction
resources to readers who are struggling at the end of third grade
and to students who do not meet the district's standards for
progression.  Student progress will be monitored using district
performance levels and the state assessment for reading; and if a
student is not meeting proficiency requirements, a plan for
targeted instruction must be developed.  If a student's
deficiency remains unremediated, he or she may be retained.  All
students who do not meet grade level standards for reading will
continue to receive additional instruction until they are reading
at grade level, graduate from high school, or are no longer
subject to compulsory school attendance.

Any student in kindergarten through third grade who exhibits a
substantial deficiency in reading will be given intensive
instruction as soon as the deficiency is identified.  Beginning
in the 2012-2013 school year, retention will be required of
students who are not proficient in reading by the end of third
grade.  Parents must be notified in writing about the deficiency,
the type of services currently being provided, the services that
are proposed, and other specified information.  Promotion
decisions must not be made solely on age or other factors that
constitute social promotion except for good cause.  Good cause
exemptions from retention are specified as well as the procedure
for requesting an exemption.

Students who are retained must be given intensive intervention
for their specific deficiencies.  By school year 2014-2015, each
district must review student progress monitoring plans for
struggling readers and intensive programs for others.  Midyear
promotion to fourth grade is allowed under certain specified
circumstances.  The bill lists instructional options that parents
may choose including an initiative targeted to third graders at
risk of being retained and an intensive acceleration class for
students who score below the basic level on the reading portion
of the state assessment.

Each district must annually report individual results to each
parent and the aggregated data to the State Board of Education.
The state board is authorized to enforce the bill's provisions,
and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must
provide any needed technical assistance to district school
boards.

Missouri House of Representatives
95th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated September 14, 2010 at 3:14 pm