Bill Text: MS HB205 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Online learning programs; improve oversight and quality assurance of in public schools.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2012-03-06 - Died In Committee [HB205 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2012-HB205-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2012 Regular Session
To: Education; Appropriations
By: Representative Scott
House Bill 205
AN ACT TO IMPROVE OVERSIGHT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF ONLINE LEARNING PROGRAMS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS; TO DEFINE TERMS RELATING TO ONLINE COURSES AND ONLINE SCHOOL PROGRAMS; TO DIRECT THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT APPROVAL CRITERIA AND A PROCESS FOR APPROVING MULTIDISTRICT ONLINE PROVIDERS, A PROCESS FOR MONITORING AND RESCINDING THE APPROVAL OF COURSES OR PROGRAMS OFFERED BY AN ONLINE COURSE PROVIDER, AND AN APPEALS PROCESS; TO DIRECT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO ESTABLISH AN ONLINE LEARNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE; TO DIRECT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO ESTABLISH AN OFFICE OF ONLINE LEARNING WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT; TO PRESCRIBE THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE; TO REQUIRE THE OFFICE TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN A WEBSITE THAT PROVIDES OBJECTIVE INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS, PARENTS, AND EDUCATORS REGARDING ONLINE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY MULTIDISTRICT ONLINE PROVIDERS; TO DIRECT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO DEVELOP MODEL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES THAT MAY BE USED BY LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES; TO DIRECT LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARDS TO DEVELOP POLICIES AND PROCEDURES REGARDING STUDENT ACCESS TO ONLINE COURSES AND ONLINE LEARNING PROGRAMS; TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH INFORMATION REGARDING ONLINE COURSES THAT ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT; TO PROVIDE THAT SCHOOL DISTRICTS MAY CLAIM ADEQUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM FUNDING FOR STUDENTS ENROLLED IN ONLINE COURSES OR PROGRAMS ONLY IF THE ONLINE COURSES OR PROGRAMS MEET CERTAIN CRITERIA; TO REQUIRE THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO REVISE THE DEFINITION OF A FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT STUDENT TO INCLUDE STUDENTS WHO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION THROUGH ALTERNATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE ONLINE PROGRAMS; TO DEFINE "ALTERNATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE ONLINE PROGRAM"; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 37-161-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH CREATES THE MISSISSIPPI VIRTUAL PUBLIC SCHOOL PROGRAM, FOR THE PURPOSES OF AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) The Legislature finds that online learning provides tremendous opportunities for students to access curriculum, courses and a unique learning environment that otherwise might not be available. The Legislature supports and encourages online learning opportunities.
(2) The Legislature also finds that there is a need to assure quality in online learning, both for the programs and the administration of those programs. The Legislature further finds that as the steward of public funds that support students enrolled in online learning, it must ensure an appropriate accountability system at the state level.
(3) By passage of this act, the Legislature intends to take a first step in improving oversight and quality assurance of online learning programs. The Legislature further intends to examine possible additional steps that may need to be taken to improve financial accountability.
(4) The Legislature declares that the first step in improving quality assurance is to:
(a) Provide objective information to students, parents and educators regarding available online learning opportunities, including program and course content, how to register for programs and courses, teacher qualifications, student-to-teacher ratios, prior course completion rates and other evaluative information;
(b) Create an approval process for multidistrict online providers;
(c) Enhance statewide equity of student access to high quality online learning opportunities; and
(d) Require local school boards to develop policies and procedures for student access to online learning opportunities.
SECTION 2. As used in this act, the following words and phrases have the meanings ascribed in this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
(a) "Multidistrict online provider" means:
(i) A private or nonprofit organization that enters into a contract with a school district to provide online courses or programs to K-12 students from more than one (1) school district;
(ii) A private or nonprofit organization that enters into contracts with multiple school districts to provide online courses or programs to K-12 students from those districts; or
(iii) Except as provided below in this paragraph, a school district that provides online courses or programs to students who reside outside the geographic boundaries of the school district.
The term "multidistrict online provider" does not include a school district online learning program in which fewer than ten percent (10%) of the students enrolled in the program are from other districts under the interdistrict student transfer provisions of Section 37-15-31. "Multidistrict online provider" also does not include regional online learning programs that are jointly developed and implemented by two (2) or more school districts or an educational service district through an interdistrict cooperative program agreement that addresses, at a minimum, how the districts share student full-time equivalency for adequate education program funding purposes and how categorical education programs, including special education, are provided to eligible students.
(b) "Online course" means a course that:
(i) Is delivered primarily electronically using the Internet or other computer-based methods; and
(ii) Is taught by a teacher primarily from a remote location. Students enrolled in an online course may have access to the teacher synchronously, asynchronously or both.
(c) "Online school program" means a school program that:
(i) Is delivered primarily electronically using the Internet or other computer-based methods;
(ii) Is taught by a teacher primarily from a remote location. Students enrolled in an online program may have access to the teacher synchronously, asynchronously or both; (iii) Delivers a part-time or full-time sequential program; and
(iv) Has an online component of the program with online lessons and tools for student and data management.
An online course or online school program may be delivered to students at school as part of the regularly scheduled school day. An online course or online school program also may be delivered to students, in whole or in part, independently from a regular classroom schedule, but such courses or programs must comply with Section 8 of this act to qualify for adequate education program funding.
SECTION 3. (1) The State Board of Education shall develop and implement: approval criteria and a process for approving multidistrict online providers; a process for monitoring and, if necessary, rescinding the approval of courses or programs offered by an online course provider; and an appeals process.
(2) When developing the approval criteria, the State Board of Education shall require that providers offering online courses or programs have accreditation through national, regional or state accreditation programs. In addition to other criteria, the approval criteria must include the degree of alignment with state academic standards and require that all teachers be licensed. When reviewing multidistrict online providers that offer high school courses, the State Department of Education shall assure that the courses offered by the provider are eligible for high school credit.
(3) Initial approval of multidistrict online providers by the State Department of Education is for four (4) years. The State Department of Education shall develop a process for the renewal of approvals and for rescinding approvals based on noncompliance with approval requirements.
(4) The State Department of Education shall make the first round of decisions regarding approval of multidistrict online providers before April 1, 2013. Thereafter, the department shall make annual approval decisions before November 1 of each year. (5) The State Department of Education shall establish an online learning advisory committee within existing resources to provide advice to the State Superintendent of Public Education regarding the approval criteria, major components of the website, the model school district policy, model agreements and other related matters. The committee must include a representative of each of the following groups: private and public online providers; parents of online students; accreditation organizations; school principals; teachers; school administrators; school board members; institutions of higher education; and other individuals, as determined by the superintendent. Members of the advisory committee must be selected by the superintendent based on nominations from statewide organizations, shall serve three-year terms, and may be reappointed. The superintendent shall select the chair of the committee.
SECTION 4. The State Department of Education shall establish an Office of Online Learning within the department. The office shall:
(1) Develop and maintain a website that provides objective information for students, parents and educators regarding online learning opportunities offered by multidistrict online providers that have been approved in accordance with Section 3 of this act. The website must include information regarding the online course provider's overall instructional program, specific information regarding the content of individual online courses and online school programs, a direct link to each online course provider's website, how to register for online learning programs and courses, teacher qualifications, student-to-teacher ratios, course completion rates, and other evaluative and comparative information. The website also must provide information regarding the process and criteria for approving multidistrict online providers;
(2) Develop model agreements with approved multidistrict online providers that address standard contract terms and conditions that may apply to contracts between a school district and the approved provider. The purpose of the agreements is to provide a template to assist individual school districts, at the discretion of the district, in contracting with multidistrict online providers to offer the multidistrict online provider's courses and programs to students in the district. The agreements may address billing, fees, responsibilities of online course providers and school districts, and other issues; and
(3) In collaboration with the educational service districts:
(a) Provide technical assistance and support to school district personnel through the educational technology centers in the development and implementation of online learning programs in their districts; and
(b) To the extent funds are available, provide online learning tools for students, teachers, administrators and other educators.
SECTION 5. The State Department of Education shall:
(a) Develop model policies and procedures that may be used by local school boards in the development of the school district policies and procedures. The model policies and procedures must be disseminated to school districts before February 1, 2013;
(b) Before December 1, 2012, modify the standards for school districts to report course information to the State Department of Education to designate if the course was an online course. The reporting standards shall be required beginning with the 2013-2014 school year; and
(c) Beginning January 15, 2014, and annually thereafter, submit a report regarding online learning to the State Board of Education, the Governor and the Legislature. The report must cover the previous school year and include, but not be limited to, student demographics, course enrollment data, aggregated student course completion and passing rates, and activities and outcomes of course and provider approval reviews.
SECTION 6. (1) Before August 31, 2013, all local school district boards shall develop policies and procedures regarding student access to online courses and online learning programs. The policies and procedures must include, but need not be limited to:
(a) Student eligibility criteria;
(b) The types of online courses available to students through the school district;
(c) The methods districts will use to support student success, which may include a local advisor;
(d) When the school district will and will not pay course fees and other costs;
(e) The granting of high school credit; and
(f) A process for students and parents or guardians to formally acknowledge any course taken for which no credit is given.
The policies and procedures must take effect beginning with the 2013-2014 school year. School districts shall submit their policies to the State Department of Education by September 30, 2013. Before December 1, 2013, the department shall summarize the school district policies regarding student access to online courses and submit a report to the Legislature.
(2) School districts shall provide students with information regarding online courses that are available through the school district. The information must include the types of information described in subsection (1) of this section.
(3) When developing local or regional online learning programs, school districts shall incorporate into the program design the approval criteria developed by the State Board of Education under Section 3 of this act.
SECTION 7. (1) Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, school districts may claim adequate education program funding, to the extent otherwise allowed by state law, for students enrolled in online courses or programs only if the online courses or programs are:
(a) Offered by a multidistrict online provider approved under Section 3 of this act by the State Department of Education;
(b) Offered by a school district online learning program if the program serves students who reside within the geographic boundaries of the school district, including school district programs in which fewer than ten percent (10%) of the program's students reside outside the school district's geographic boundaries; or
(c) Offered by a regional online learning program where courses jointly are developed and offered by two (2) or more school districts or an educational service district through an interdistrict cooperative program agreement.
(2) Criteria must be established by the State Department of Education to allow online courses that have not been approved by the department to be eligible for adequate education program funding if the course is in a subject matter in which no courses have been approved and, if it is a high school course, the course meets Mississippi high school graduation requirements.
SECTION 8. The State Department of Education shall revise the definition of a full-time equivalent student to include students who receive instruction through alternative learning experience online programs. As used in this section, an "alternative learning experience online program" is a set of online courses or an online school program, as defined in Section 2 of this act, that is delivered to students, in whole or in part, independently from a regular classroom schedule. The State Department of Education may adopt rules to implement the revised definition beginning with the 2013-2014 school year for school districts claiming adequate education program funding for the programs. The rules must include, but need not be limited to, the following:
(a) Defining a full-time equivalent student or part-time student, to be based upon the district's estimated average weekly hours of learning activity as identified in the student's learning plan, as long as the student is found, through monthly evaluation, to be making satisfactory progress. The rules must require districts providing programs under this section to nonresident students to establish procedures that address, at a minimum, the coordination of student counting for adequate education program funding so that no student is counted for more than one (1) full-time equivalent in the aggregate;
(b) Requiring the school board of a school district offering or contracting to offer an alternative learning experience online program to adopt and annually review written policies for each program and program provider and to receive an annual report on its alternative learning experience online programs from its staff;
(c) Requiring each school district offering or contracting to offer an alternative learning experience online program to report annually to the department on the types of programs and course offerings and number of students participating;
(d) Requiring completion of a program self-evaluation;
(e) Requiring documentation of the district of the student's physical residence;
(f) Requiring that supervision, monitoring, assessment and evaluation of the alternative learning experience online program be provided by licensed instructional staff;
(g) Requiring each school district offering courses or programs to identify the ratio of licensed instructional staff to full-time equivalent students enrolled in those courses or programs, and to include a description of their ratio as part of the reports required under paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section;
(h) Requiring reliable methods to verify a student is doing his or her own work. The methods may include proctored examinations or projects, including the use of webcams or other technologies. "Proctored" means directly monitored by an adult authorized by the school district;
(i) Requiring, for each student receiving instruction in an alternative learning experience online program, a learning plan that includes a description of course objectives and information on the requirements a student must meet to successfully complete the program or courses. The rules must allow course syllabi and other additional information to be used to meet the requirement for a learning plan;
(j) Requiring that the school district assess the educational progress of enrolled students at least annually, using, for full-time students, the state assessment for the student's grade level and using any other annual assessments required by the school district. Part-time students also shall be assessed at least annually.
(k) Requiring that each student enrolled in the program have direct personal contact with licensed instructional staff at least weekly until the student completes the course objectives or the requirements in the learning plan. Direct personal contact is for the purposes of instruction, review of assignments, testing, evaluation of student progress or other learning activities. Direct personal contact may include the use of telephone, email, instant messaging, interactive video communication or other means of digital communication;
(l) Requiring state-funded public schools or public school programs whose primary purpose is to provide alternative learning experience online learning programs to receive accreditation through the state accreditation program or through a national or regional accreditation program listed by the State Department of Education;
(m) Requiring state-funded public schools or public school programs whose primary purpose is to provide alternative learning experience online learning to provide information to students and parents on whether or not the courses or programs cover one or more of the school district's learning goals or the state's essential academic learning requirements or whether they permit the student to meet one or more of the state's or district's graduation requirements; and
(n) Requiring that a school district that provides one or more alternative learning experience online courses to a student and provides the parent or guardian of the student, before the student's enrollment, with a description of any difference between home-based education and the enrollment option selected by the student. The parent or guardian must sign documentation attesting to his or her understanding of the difference, and the documentation must be retained by the district and made available for audit.
SECTION 9. Section 37-161-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
37-161-3. (1) The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) Meeting the educational needs of children in our state's schools is of the greatest importance to the future welfare of the State of Mississippi;
(b) Closing the achievement gap between high-performing students, including the achievement gap among at-risk students, is a significant and present challenge;
(c) Providing a broader range of educational options to parents and utilizing existing resources, along with technology, may help students in the state improve their academic achievement; and
(d) Many of the state's school districts currently lack the capacity to provide other public school choices for students whose schools are low performing.
(2) There is created the Mississippi Virtual Public School Program, which is the responsibility of the State Department of Education. It is the intent of the Legislature that the Mississippi Virtual Public School established under this section provides Mississippi families with an alternative choice to access additional educational resources in an effort to improve academic achievement. The Mississippi Virtual Public School must be recognized as a public school and provide equitable treatment and resources as are other public schools in the state. Private providers, overseen by the State Department of Education, may be selected by the State Board of Education to administer, manage or operate virtual school programs in this state, including the total operation of the Mississippi Virtual Public School Program. Any private provider chosen to provide services under the provisions of this subsection shall be chosen through a competitive RFP process.
(3) Nothing in this section may be interpreted as precluding the use of computer- and Internet-based instruction for students in a virtual or remote setting utilizing the Mississippi Virtual Public School.
(4) As used in this section, the following words and phrases have the meanings respectively ascribed unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
(a) "Mississippi Virtual Public School" means a public school in which the state uses technology in order to deliver instruction to students via the Internet in a virtual or remote setting.
(b) "Sponsor" means the public school district is responsible for the academic process for each student including, but not limited to, enrollment, awarding of credit and monitoring progress.
(5) (a) The State Board of Education shall establish the Mississippi Virtual Public School beginning in school year 2006-2007.
(b) Students who enroll in the Mississippi Virtual Public School may reside anywhere in the State of Mississippi.
(6) Subject to appropriation, the Mississippi Virtual Public School shall provide to each student enrolled in the school all necessary instructional materials. Subject to appropriation, the sponsored school must ensure that each student is provided access to the necessary technology, such as a computer and printer, and to an Internet connection for school work purposes.
(7) The State Board of Education shall have approval authority for all coursework and policy of the Mississippi Virtual Public School.
(8) Each teacher employed by or participating in the delivery of instruction through the Mississippi Virtual Public School must meet all qualifications for licensure in the State of Mississippi.
(9) Any student who meets state residency requirements may enroll in the Mississippi Virtual Public School.
(10) Enrollment in the Mississippi Virtual Public School must be free of charge to students. The costs associated with the operations of the virtual school must be shared by the State Department of Education, subject to appropriation, and/or the local school districts.
SECTION 10. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2012.
