SECOND REGULAR SESSION
97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES SWAN (Sponsor), JONES (110), PARKINSON, LICHTENEGGER, ANDERSON, HICKS, FUNDERBURK, COOKSON, SPENCER, SCHARNHORST, MORRIS, KEENEY, CIERPIOT, BARNES, BAHR, AUSTIN, KOENIG AND HAAHR (Co-sponsors).
5050L.01I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To amend chapter 171, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to school report cards.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 171, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 171.415, to read as follows:
171.415. 1. The provisions of this section shall be known as the "Parent and Community School Information Act" and shall apply to each public school attendance center in a school district and to each charter school in the state except for any attendance center or charter school that includes only grades lower than third grade. For purposes of this section, "school" means public school attendance center or charter school, as applicable.
2. The department of elementary and secondary education shall produce a simplified school report card each year, separately from the information required by section 160.522.
3. The simplified school report card shall not be construed to be part of the school improvement program; the report card shall be for informational rather than evaluative purposes.
4. The department of elementary and secondary education shall provide a link between the report card referred to in section 160.522 and the simplified school report card. The department shall make a report to the joint committee on education of its progress in establishing the simplified school report card by December 31, 2014, and shall make a separate report about simplifying access to the school information in the department's data portal by June 1, 2015.
5. The first simplified school report card shall be distributed before December 1, 2015. The school shall notify parents and the community about the contents of the report and provide directions for accessing the information. The department shall include a direct link from its home page to the instructions for accessing the simplified school report card.
6. In order to implement the provisions of this section, the department of elementary and secondary education shall promulgate rules establishing a report card that is easy for the general public to understand, in a format that does not exceed 8 1/2 by 11 inches, and contains information from the school improvement program that accurately reflects the performance level of individual schools by indicating the standards applicable to each school, overall score for the standard and the corresponding letter grade for each applicable standard and, where applicable, the scores on the components and the corresponding letter grade for each applicable component that comprises the standard. In addition, the simplified school report card shall contain a letter grade that is the average of all applicable standards.
7. The principal of each school may include a statement not to exceed two hundred fifty words that provides context or background information that he or she deems necessary to a full understanding of the school's scores and which contains the following, when applicable to the grade range of the school:
(1) The percentage of third grade students scoring at proficient or above on the statewide assessment of reading; and
(2) A clickable link to or universal resource locator (URL) for information relating to a school's dual credit or advanced placement program, entrepreneurship program, alternative program, virtual courses, and remedial or credit recovery programs.
8. Any school that scores less than seventy percent overall on its annual performance report shall be required to submit an action plan to the department of elementary and secondary education for its approval, describing the steps the school will take to improve its grade during the next academic year after the grade is assigned.
9. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, that is created under the authority delegated in this section shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536 and, if applicable, section 536.028. This section and chapter 536 are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536 to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2014, shall be invalid and void.
•