FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Reported from the Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education February 3, 2005, with recommendation that the House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 297 Do Pass by Consent.
STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 160.522, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to school accountability report cards.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 160.522, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 160.522, to read as follows:
160.522. 1. [School districts shall provide, at least annually, a school accountability report card for each school building to any household with a student enrolled in the district. Methods of distribution of the school accountability report card may include, but are not restricted to:
(1) Distribution at the time and place of student enrollment;
(2) Inclusion with student grade reports;
(3) Newspaper publication;
(4) Posting by the school district by Internet or other electronic means generally accessible to the public; or
(5) Making copies available upon request at all school or administrative buildings in any school district.
The school district reports shall be distributed to all media outlets serving the district, and shall be made available, upon request, to all district patrons and to each member of the general assembly representing a legislative district which contains a portion of the school district] The department of elementary and secondary education shall produce or cause to be produced, at least annually, a school accountability report card for each public school district, each public school building in a school district, and each charter school in the state. The report card shall be designed to satisfy state and federal requirements for the disclosure of statistics about students, staff, finances, academic achievement, and other indicators. The purpose of the report card shall be to provide educational statistics and accountability information for parents, taxpayers, school personnel, legislators, and the print and broadcast news media in a standardized, easily accessible form.
2. The department of elementary and secondary education shall develop a standard form for the school accountability report card [which may be used by school districts]. The information reported shall include, but not be limited to, the district's most recent accreditation rating, enrollment, rates of pupil attendance, high school dropout rate[, the rates and durations of, and reasons for,] and graduation rate, the number and rate of suspensions of ten days or longer and expulsions of pupils, [staffing ratios, including] the district ratio of students to [all teachers, to] administrators[,] and students to classroom teachers, the average years of experience of professional staff and advanced degrees earned, student achievement as [determined] measured through the assessment system developed pursuant to section 160.518, student scores on the [SAT or] ACT, [as appropriate,] along with the percentage of [students] graduates taking [each] the test, average teachers' and administrators' salaries compared to the state averages, [average salaries of noncertificated personnel compared to state averages,] average per pupil current expenditures for the district [as a whole and by attendance center as reported to the department of elementary and secondary education], [voted and] the adjusted tax [rates levied] rate of the district, assessed valuation of the district, percent of the district operating budget received from state, federal, and local sources, the [number] percent of students eligible for free or [reduced] reduced-price lunch, [school calendar information, including days of student attendance, parent-teacher conferences, and staff development or in-service training, data on course offerings and rates of participation in parent-teacher conferences, special education programs, early childhood special education programs, parents as teachers programs, vocational education programs, gifted or enrichment programs, and advanced placement programs,] data on the [number] percent of students continuing their education in postsecondary programs, and information about the job placement rate for students who complete district vocational education programs[, and the district's most recent accreditation by the state board of education, including measures for school improvement].
3. The [public reporting] report card shall permit the disclosure of data on a school-by-school basis, but the reporting shall not be personally identifiable to any student or education professional in the state.
4. [The annual report made by the state board of education pursuant to section 161.092, RSMo, shall include a summary of school districts accredited, provisionally accredited, and unaccredited under the Missouri school improvement program, including an analysis of standards met and not met, and an analysis of state program assessment data collected pursuant to section 160.526, describing the kinds of tasks students can perform.] The report card shall identify each school or attendance center that has been identified as a priority school under sections 160.720 and 161.092, RSMo. The report also shall identify attendance centers that have been categorized under federal law as needing improvement or requiring specific school improvement strategies.
5. The report card shall not limit or discourage other methods of public reporting and accountability by local school districts. Districts shall provide information included in the report card to parents, community members, the print and broadcast news media, and legislators by December first annually or as soon thereafter as the information is available to the district, giving preference to methods that incorporate the reporting into substantive official communications such as student report cards. The school district shall provide a printed copy of the district level or school level report card to any patron upon request and shall make reasonable efforts to supply businesses such as, but not limited to, real estate and employment firms with copies or other information about the reports so that parents and businesses from outside the district who may be contemplating relocation have access.