Public school grading

2025-2026 Bill 5073: Public school grading

South Carolina General Assembly

126th Session, 2025-2026

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This Bill
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A204, R254, H5073

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill

Sponsors: Reps. Pedalino, Erickson, Montgomery, McCravy, Pace, Bradley, D. Mitchell, Terribile, Robbins, T. Moore, Sessions, Neese, Brittain, Crawford, Lawson, Edgerton, Chumley, Brewer, Chapman, Vaughan, Guest, Guffey, Cox, W. Newton, McGinnis, B. Newton, McCabe, Rankin, Gagnon, Gibson, J.E. Johnson, Long, Moss, Schuessler, G.M. Smith, White, Oremus, Teeple, Lastinger, Burns, Hewitt, Haddon, Cromer, Gilreath, Hartnett and Ballentine

Document Path: LC-0597WAB26.docx

Introduced in the House on January 29, 2026

Introduced in the Senate on March 10, 2026

Last Amended on April 29, 2026

Currently residing in the House

Governor's Action: May 18, 2026, Signed

Summary: Public school grading

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

1/29/2026

House

Introduced and read first time (
House Journal-page 36
)

1/29/2026

House

Referred to Committee on
Education and Public Works
(
House Journal-page 36
)

2/10/2026

House

Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Oremus,
Teeple

2/17/2026

House

Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Lastinger

2/19/2026

House

Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Burns

2/26/2026

House

Committee report: Favorable with amendment
Education and Public Works
(
House Journal-page 4
)

3/3/2026

House

Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Hewitt,
Haddon, Cromer, Gilreath, Hartnett

3/3/2026

House

Amended (
House Journal-page 38
)

3/3/2026

House

Requests for debate-Rep(s). McDaniel, King, JL
Johnson, Reese Gilliard, Waters, Rivers,
Anderson, Dillard, and Jones (
House Journal-page 38
)

3/4/2026

House

Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Ballentine

3/4/2026

House

Read second time (
House Journal-page 73
)

3/4/2026

House

Roll call Yeas-110 Nays-2 (
House Journal-page 79
)

3/5/2026

House

Read third time and sent to Senate (
House Journal-page 13
)

3/10/2026

Senate

Introduced and read first time (
Senate Journal-page 14
)

3/10/2026

Senate

Referred to Committee on
Education
(
Senate Journal-page 14
)

4/21/2026

Senate

Committee report: Favorable with amendment
Education
(
Senate Journal-page 12
)

4/29/2026

Senate

Committee Amendment Adopted (
Senate Journal-page 94
)

4/29/2026

Senate

Amended (
Senate Journal-page 94
)

4/29/2026

Senate

Read second time (
Senate Journal-page 94
)

4/29/2026

Senate

Roll call Ayes-43 Nays-0 (
Senate Journal-page 94
)

4/30/2026

Senate

Read third time and returned to House with amendments (
Senate Journal-page 41
)

5/6/2026

House

Concurred in Senate amendment and enrolled (
House Journal-page 63
)

5/6/2026

House

Roll call Yeas-114 Nays-3 (
House Journal-page 63
)

5/6/2026

Scrivener's error corrected

5/15/2026

Ratified R 254

5/18/2026

Signed By Governor

6/2/2026

Effective date 07/01/26

6/2/2026

Act No. 204

View the latest
legislative information
at the website

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

01/29/2026
02/26/2026
03/03/2026
03/04/2026
04/21/2026
04/29/2026
05/06/2026

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

NOTE: THIS IS A TEMPORARY VERSION. THIS DOCUMENT WILL REMAIN IN THIS VERSION UNTIL FINAL APPROVAL BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

(A204, R254, H5073)

AN ACT TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING SECTION 59-29-250 SO AS TO PROVIDE REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADING SYSTEMS, TO CONDITION ELIGIBILITY FOR CREDIT RECOVERY AND CONTENT RECOVERY ON COMPLETION OF REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS, TO LIMIT THE USE OF CERTAIN ASSESSMENTS, TO PROVIDE ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS, TO DIRECT THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO ESTABLISH A TASK FORCE TO EVALUATE AND RECOMMEND REVISIONS TO THE UNIFORM GRADING POLICY, AND TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADOPT THE RECOMMENDED REVISIONS, AMONG OTHER THINGS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Public school grading practices

SECTION 1. Article 1, Chapter 29, Title 59 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

Section 59-29-250. (A) No public school district or public school may adopt any type of grading system that requires a teacher to assign a minimum grade or score that exceeds the student's actual performance on required assignments. If a school district is found to be in violation of this section, the State Department of Education shall withhold ten percent of the school district's State Aid to Classroom funding.

(B) In order for a student to be eligible to participate in a district-approved credit recovery course as defined in the South Carolina Uniform Grading Policy, a student must have submitted all required assignments for the course in a manner consistent with district policies for timely submission of student work.

(C) In order for a student to be eligible to participate in a district-approved content recovery program as defined in the South Carolina Uniform Grading Policy, a student must have completed all required assignments for the relevant subset of the course in a manner consistent with district policies for timely submission of student work.

(D) Public school districts shall not require the inclusion of student performance on the formative assessments required in Section 59-18-310(D) or on any district-selected benchmark assessment in calculating a student's final grade in any course or subject. District selected benchmark assessments may only be used as formative assessments for instructional purposes and shall not factor into a student's course grade unless the assessment is developed or directly accessible to the course instructor prior to administration of the assessment and exclusively measures content that has previously been taught in the course. These provisions do not apply to end of course assessments. This section does not prohibit a district from requiring administration of benchmark assessments for the purpose of informing and improving instructional practices through evaluation and monitoring of student mastery of state academic standards. Student results on district-developed benchmark assessments must be made available in a timely fashion to educators, students, and parents after administration of the assessment.

(E) Prior to the start of the 2026-2027 School Year, the State Board of Education is directed to establish a task force comprised of three superintendents, principals, teachers, representatives of public school boards each, and three high school students to evaluate potential revisions to the Uniform Grading Policy in order to enhance the utility of grades in evaluating college and career readiness, ensure high school grade point averages are meaningful indicators of academic achievement, and reduce the need for and use of credit recovery and content recovery programs. The task force shall make recommendations to the board for potential revisions in areas including, but not limited to, the use of term weighting in calculating final student grades, the method of awarding quality points on the basis of unique numeric final course averages when calculating student grade point averages, and the use of a 100-point grading scale. The task force shall report its findings to the State Board of Education before June 1, 2027. The State Board of Education shall consider the findings and adopt any updates to the Uniform Grading Policy. Public school districts shall implement any updates to the Uniform Grading Policy by no later than the 2028-2029 School Year. At a minimum thereafter, the uniform grading policy should be reviewed and updated every seven years.

(F) Nothing in this section shall restrain a public school district from adopting policies regarding credit or content recovery.

(G) For the purpose of this section, the use of "public school district" shall include charter school districts and the use of "public school" shall include charter schools.

Time effective

SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2026.

Ratified the 15th day of May, 2026.

Approved the 18th day of May, 2026.

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This web page was last updated on
June 2, 2026 at 11:02 AM