AB 286

This bill requires certain schools to provide school extension learning recovery

programs following the end of each school's 2020-21 school term to address learning

losses and negative academic impacts pupils experienced during the 2020-21 school

year due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Under the bill, a school must provide

the program if, during the 2020-21 school year, less than 75 percent of all pupils

enrolled in or attending the school attended classes in person for at least 50 percent

of the hours of instructions the school provided between the first day of the school

term and April 15, 2021. The requirement applies to all public schools, including

charter schools, and to private schools participating in a parental choice program or

in the Special Needs Scholarship Program. Such a school must provide the program

only to the extent the school receives moneys under the federal American Rescue

Plan Act of 2021.

Under the bill, 1) the school must make the program available to all pupils

enrolled in or attending the school during the 2020-21 school year; 2) pupil

participation in the program is voluntary; 3) the program must provide only

in-person instruction; and 4) the program must consist of at least six weeks of

coursework and curriculum similar to that offered during regular school days during

a regular school term, including academic instruction in mathematics, science, and

reading. At the end of the program, the school must reevaluate whether pupils who

participated in the program meet the criteria to advance to the next grade or to

receive a high school diploma.

Each school must develop and submit a plan for the school's program to the

Department of Public Instruction no later than 30 days before the last day of the

school's 2020-21 school term, and DPI must notify the school no later than 21 days

after receiving the plan of any necessary changes to the plan.