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S. 851
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Bryant
Document Path: l:\s-res\klb\014edop.dag.doc
Introduced in the Senate on June 21, 2007
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Education
Summary: Educational Opportunity Act
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS
Date Body Action Description with journal page number ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6/21/2007 Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-2 6/21/2007 Senate Referred to Committee on Education SJ-2
View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
TO AMEND CHAPTER 63, TITLE 59, BY ADDING ARTICLE 6 RELATING TO THE EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP, TO PROVIDE THAT A STUDENT WHO QUALIFIES FOR A SPECIAL PROGRAMS FOR EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS WEIGHTINGS IS ELIGIBLE TO TRANSFER TO AN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL IF THE STUDENT RESIDES IN THE ATTENDANCE AREA OF A FAILING PUBLIC SCHOOL, TO PROVIDE THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MUST ISSUE A CHECK TO THE PARENTS OF THE TRANSFERRING STUDENT AND THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL IN AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE STATE'S BASE STUDENT COST, TO PROVIDE THAT IF THE STUDENT'S ENROLLMENT IS TERMINATED PRIOR TO THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR, THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL MUST REFUND A PRO-RATA BASIS OF THE AMOUNT OF THE CHECK TO THE STATE, TO PROVIDE GUIDELINES FOR INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS, AND TO PROVIDE THAT THE BUDGET AND CONTROL BOARD SHALL ISSUE AN ANNUAL REPORT REGARDING THE IMPACT OF THIS ACT.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Chapter 63, Title 59 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 59-63-600. This article may be referred to and cited as the "South Carolina Educational Opportunity Act"
Section 59-63-610. As used in this article:
(1) 'Failing public school' means a public school in the State that has received a rating of 'below average' or 'unsatisfactory' as its absolute grade on its most recent annual report card under the education accountability act.
(2) 'Parent' means the natural or adoptive parent or legal guardian of a child.
(3) 'Independent school' means a school, other than a public school, at which the compulsory attendance requirements of Section 59-56-10 may be met and that does not discriminate based on the grounds of race, color, or national origin. 'Independent school' includes home schools as provided in Article 1, Chapter 65, Title 59.
(4) 'Public school' means a public school in the State as defined in Section 59-1-120.
Section 59-63-620. (A) A student who qualifies for a Special Programs for Exceptional Students Weightings pursuant to Section 59-20-40 is eligible to transfer to an independent school pursuant to this article if the student resides in the attendance zone of a failing public school, submitted an application pursuant to Section 59-62-70(D), and that application was denied or it has been deemed to have been denied.
(B) A student eligible to transfer to an independent school pursuant to this section may contact the Department of Education for a list of independent schools to which the student may transfer.
Section 59-63-630. (A) A student that is eligible to transfer to an independent school pursuant to this article must choose the independent school that he would like to attend and apply for admission to that school. When the student's application has been accepted, the student must give the Department of Education written notice that his application for admission to an independent school has been accepted, identify the school, and provide the expected date of enrollment.
(B) When the Department of Education receives the notice required in subsection (A), it must issue a check payable to the parents or guardians and the independent school they select equal to one hundred percent of the base student cost from the State as provided for in the annual Appropriations Act.
(C) A student who is taught at home is not eligible to receive a scholarship pursuant to this article.
Section 59-63-640. An independent school that accepts scholarship students pursuant to this article:
(1) shall comply with federal anti-discrimination law pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1981;
(2) shall meet state and local health and safety laws and codes;
(3) shall comply with state statutes relating to independent schools;
(4) shall employ or contract with teachers who hold a baccalaureate or higher degree, or have at least three years of teaching experience in a public or independent school, or have special skills, knowledge, or expertise that qualifies them to provide instruction in subjects taught;
(5) must be academically accountable to the parent or guardian for meeting the education needs of the student;
(6) shall administer to all scholarship students a nationally recognized achievement test and report the school's aggregate score to all parents in accordance with Section 59-63-650;
(7) shall adhere to the tenets of the school's published disciplinary procedures prior to the expulsion of an educational opportunity scholarship program participant;
(8) shall accept scholarship students who meet the admissions criteria of the school on a random, religious neutral basis, without regard to the student's past academic history, with preference given to siblings of other scholarship students;
(9) may not compel a scholarship student to profess a specific ideological belief, to pray, or to worship;
(10) must have a physical location in the State of South Carolina where the students attend classes;
(11) shall demonstrate their financial viability by showing they can repay any funds that might be owed to the State, if they are to receive more than fifty thousand dollars in scholarship payments during the school year by filing with the department of revenue, before the beginning of the school year:
(a) a surety bond payable to the State in an amount equal to the aggregate amount of scholarship revenue expected to be paid to the school by participating families during the school year; or
(b) Financial information that demonstrates that the school has the ability to pay an aggregate amount equal to the amount of scholarship revenue expected to be paid to the school by participating families during the school year.
Section 59-63-650. To ensure that schools provide academic accountability to parents of students in the educational opportunity scholarship program, the General Assembly, and the Governor, participating schools annually shall administer either the state's Palmetto Achievement Test (PACT) test or it's equivalent, or a nationally recognized norm-referenced test, such as the Stanford Achievement, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, or both, in math and language arts to each student participating in the program. Participating schools publicly shall disclose the aggregate results of the tests by grade level, but only if the disclosure of the aggregate results is in compliance with 20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, and shall provide the parents of each student with a copy of the results. Participating schools shall also provide aggregate results by grade level to the Chairman of the House Education and Public Works Committee, the Senate Education Committee, and the Governor no later than August 31 of the school year in which the tests are administered.
Section 59-63-660. The Department of Education shall make scholarship payment by check payable to the transferring student's parent or legal guardian and to the school at which the scholarship is to be used. The check may be delivered or mailed by the Department of Education to the school at which the scholarship is to be used. All payees must endorse the check. The check may be endorsed by the school on behalf of the student's parent or legal guardian if the parent or legal guardian has placed on file with the school written authorization to endorse the check.
Section 59-63-670. Once a student transfers from a failing school pursuant to this article, the student is eligible for the scholarship program until he graduates from high school regardless of a subsequent change in the rating of the school from which he transferred.
Section 59-63-680. If a qualifying student's enrollment in an independent school is terminated before the end of the school year, the independent school shall pay to the state on a pro rata basis any excess tuition paid. At the time of making the refund, the independent school shall issue a receipt reflecting the date, amount, and payee for each refund and shall provide a copy of the receipt to the Department of Revenue.
Section 59-63-690. The Department of Revenue may promulgate regulations to aid in the performance of its duties pursuant to this chapter; however, its power does not extend to matters of school governance, curriculum, hiring or firing, or religious beliefs or practices.
Section 59-63-700. The Department of Revenue may conduct examinations and investigations whenever it believes that the provisions of this chapter have been evaded or violated in any manner. All powers possessed by the department as provided in Title 12 to conduct examinations and investigations apply to examinations and investigations conducted pursuant to this section.
Section 59-63-710. (A) Annually, the State Budget and Control Board shall provide for the preparation of a report on the impact of the implementation of this chapter on school enrollment and state and local funding of public schools for the fiscal year most recently completed. The report must include, but need not be limited to, an analysis of and statement on the:
(1) change in public school enrollment, by school district, attributable to this chapter; and
(2) amount of funds the State would have had to expend for public schools under the education funding formula in existence on or before the enactment of this chapter and the amount actually expended by the State in public schools.
(B) The report must be submitted by December first of each year to the Governor, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Chairman of the House Education and Public Works Committee.
Section 59-63-720. (A)(1) In addition to the annual report as provided in Section 59-63-710, the State Budget and Control Board shall provide for a long-term evaluation of the impact of this chapter. The evaluation must be conducted by contract with one or more qualified persons or entities with previous experience evaluating school choice programs and must be conducted for a minimum of five years beginning five years after enactment of this section. The evaluation must include an assessment of the:
(a) level of parental satisfaction for parents of students participating in the scholarship program provided for in this chapter;
(b) level of parental satisfaction for parents of students in failing public schools;
(c) academic performance of participating independent schools and failing public schools;
(d) level of student satisfaction with the scholarship program provided for in this chapter;
(e) level of student satisfaction for students attending failing public schools;
(f) impact of the provisions of this chapter on public school districts, public school students, independent schools, and independent school students; and
(g) impact of the provisions of this chapter on school capacity, availability, and quality.
(2) The evaluation must be conducted using appropriate analytical and behavioral science methodologies and must protect the identity of participating schools and students by, at a minimum, keeping anonymous all disaggregated data other than that for the categories of grade, gender, race, and ethnicity. The evaluation of public and independent school students must compute the relative efficiency of public and independent schools, the value added to educational performance by independent schools relative to failing public schools, and a comparison of acceptance rates into college, while adjusting or controlling for student and family background.
(B) State and local government entities shall cooperate with the persons or entities conducting the evaluation provided for in subsection (A). Cooperation includes providing available student assessment results and other information needed to complete the evaluation.
(C) The State Budget and Control Board shall pay the cost of the evaluation from funds available to it for that purpose except that state funds used must not exceed four hundred thousand dollars per year.
(D) By January thirty-first of each year, the State Budget and Control Board shall provide to each member of the General Assembly interim reports of the results of the evaluation. Upon completion of the evaluation, the State Budget and Control Board shall provide a final report to each member of the General Assembly. At the same time as the final report is made public, the persons or entities who conducted the evaluation must make their data and methodology available for public review and inspection, but only if the release of the data and methodology is in compliance with 20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.
Section 59-63-730. The provisions of this article regarding independent schools only apply to independent schools that choose to accept scholarship students."
SECTION 2. (A) A qualifying school that accepts students benefiting from scholarships, grants, or tax credits is not an agent or arm of the state or federal government.
(B) Except as provided by this act, the Department of Education, Department of Revenue, Budget and Control Board, or any other state agency may not regulate the educational program of a qualifying school that accepts students pursuant to this act.
(C) One purpose of this act is to allow maximum freedom to parents and independent schools to respond to and provide for the educational needs of children without governmental control, and this act must be liberally construed to achieve that purpose.
SECTION 3. If a section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this act is for any reason held to be unconstitutional or invalid, this holding does not affect the constitutionality or the validity of the remaining portions of this act, the General Assembly hereby declaring that it would have passed this act, and each section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, and word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words thereof may be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.
SECTION 4. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor and applies at the start of the first school year beginning one year after approval of this act.
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