Phasing out parental choice programs and the Special Needs Scholarship Program, repealing the achievement gap reduction program and the student achievement guarantee program, creating a new student achievement guarantee program, granting rule-making authority, and making an appropriation. (FE)

Current law provides that no contract may be entered into or renewed under the former SAGE program after July 3, 2015, but a school board that had a contract under the former SAGE program with respect to a school on July 3, 2015, could enter into a contract with DPI for that school under the AGR program.

Under current law, an AGR contract must require a participating school to do certain things, including implementing one or more of the following strategies in grades kindergarten to three:

1. Reduce class sizes to no more than 18 pupils or no more than 30 pupils in a class having at least two regular classroom teachers.

2. Provide data-driven instructional coaching for classroom teachers.

3. Provide data-informed, one-to-one tutoring to pupils who are struggling with reading or mathematics.

Currently, AGR contracts may be renewed for one or more terms of five school years.

Under the AGR program, DPI annually must pay to a school board a per pupil amount determined by 1) subtracting $125,000 from the total amount appropriated for the AGR and former SAGE programs for the school year; 2) adding the total number of low-income pupils enrolled in grades kindergarten to three in all schools participating in the AGR program and the total number of low-income pupils for whom DPI must make a payment under the former SAGE program; and 3) dividing the difference calculated under item 1 by the sum calculated under item 2.

Create a new SAGE program The bill creates a new SAGE program that, similar to the AGR and former SAGE programs, is a categorical aid program that provides funding to a participating school for certain low-income pupils enrolled in the school if the school complies with a five-year contract entered into between DPI and the school board of the school district in which the school is located.

Under the bill, beginning in the 2022-23 school year, a school is eligible to participate in the new SAGE program if at least 30 percent of the pupils enrolled in the school in the previous school year were low-income pupils. In addition, the school board of a school that is participating in the AGR or former SAGE program on the effective date of the bill may participate in the new SAGE program if the school board enters into a contract with DPI under the new SAGE program in the 2022-23 school year.

Under the bill, a contract under the new SAGE program must require a participating school to do certain things, including all of the following:

1. Reduce class sizes in the following manner: a) in the first school year of the contract, reduce the class size to no more than 18 pupils in each class in at least the two lowest grades taught in the school; b) in the second school year of the contract, reduce the class size to no more than 18 pupils in each class in at least the three lowest grades taught in the school; and c) in the third school year of the contract and in every other school year of the contract, reduce the class size to no more than 18 pupils in each class in each grade taught in the school. A school may meet the class size requirement by combining two classes if the combined class size is no more than 30 pupils and at least two regular classroom teachers are assigned to the combined class.

2. Collaborate with community organizations to make educational and recreational opportunities and community and social services available in the school.

3. Provide a rigorous academic curriculum designed to improve pupil academic achievement.

4. Provide certain staff development opportunities and evaluate staff performance and development.

The bill provides that contracts under the new SAGE program may be renewed for one or more terms of five school years.

Under the bill, DPI annually must pay to a school board $2,250 for each low-income pupil who is enrolled in a school subject to a contract under the new SAGE program and who is assigned to a class in the school in which the class size was reduced in the manner required under the school board's contract with DPI.

Under the bill, DPI must annually adjust the per pupil amount to reflect the percentage change in the consumer price index if that change is positive. The bill provides a sum sufficient appropriation for payments under the new SAGE program.

Phase out parental choice and SNSP programs The bill provides that, beginning in the 2022-23 school year, no private school may participate in a parental choice program unless the school was participating in the parental choice program in the 2021-22 school year, and no pupil may attend a private school under a parental choice program unless the pupil was attending that private school under the parental choice program in the 2021-22 school year.

Finally, the bill provides that, beginning in the 2022-23 school year, no private school may accept pupils under the SNSP unless the school was participating in the SNSP in the 2021-22 school year, and no pupil may attend a private school under the SNSP unless the pupil was attending that private school under the SNSP in the 2021-22 school year.