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25LSO-0347
2025
STATE OF WYOMING
25LSO-0347
Numbered
2.0
SENATE FILE NO. SF0173
Educational bankruptcy act.
Sponsored by: Senator(s) Scott
A BILL
for
AN ACT relating to education; creating the educational bankruptcy act; establishing a cause of action for educational bankruptcy; specifying requirements to petition for educational bankruptcy; specifying duties of the state superintendent of public instruction; authorizing parents and guardians to petition for educational bankruptcy; specifying duties of the district court; providing for the appointment of educational bankruptcy trustees; specifying conditions for dismissal or release of jurisdiction in educational bankruptcy; modifying teacher certification; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1
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W.S. 21
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1001 through 21
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1003 are created to read:
ARTICLE 10
EDUCATIONAL BANKRUPTCY
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1001.
Educational bankruptcy act.
This act may be cited as the "Wyoming Educational Bankruptcy Act."
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1002.
Petition for educational bankruptcy; school district eligibility; duties of the state superintendent of public instruction.
(a)
Effective May 1, 2027, the state superintendent of public instruction may petition the district court in the county in which a school district is located to make a determination that the school district is educationally bankrupt under this act if the school district meets all of the following criteria in two (2) of the last three (3) school years if the school district has a student enrollment of more than eight hundred (800) students or in three (3) of the last four (4) school years if the school district has a student enrollment of eight hundred (800) students or less:
(i)
Sixty percent (60%) or more of grade three (3) students enrolled in the school district score basic or below basic on the English language arts portion of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v);
(ii)
Fifty percent (50%) or more of grade eight (8) students enrolled in the school district score basic or below basic on the mathematics portion of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v);
(iii)
Twenty
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five percent (25%) or more of grade ten (10) students enrolled in the school district score below basic on the English language arts, mathematics and science portions of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v).
(b)
Effective May 1, 2027, with the support of twelve and one half percent (12.5%) or more of the students enrolled in a school district as evidenced by the written signatures of the students' parent or guardian, any parent or guardian of a student attending a public school in this state may petition the district court in the county in which a school district is located to make a determination that the school district is educationally bankrupt under this act if the school district meets the criteria specified in subsection (a) of this section. For purposes of demonstrating the parental and guardian support required by this subsection, the signatures shall be obtained between March 1 and May 1 and any petition filed under this subsection shall be filed not later than May 1 in the year the signatures were collected. Any parent or guardian that files a petition with the district court under this subsection, shall send a certified copy of the petition to the state superintendent of public instruction and the school district at issue within ten (10) business days of filing with the district court. The state superintendent may file a petition to intervene as a party to the proceeding.
(c)
In determining the application of subsection (a) of this section, students with disabilities as identified under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq., taking an alternative assessment in accordance with an individual education plan shall be excluded from the calculations.
(d)
For school districts with participation rates on any portion of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v) that are less than ninety percent (90%) of the total students enrolled in the school district, the district court, in consultation with the state superintendent of public instruction, may consider a portion of students who do not participate in the statewide assessment as scoring basic or below basic for determining the application of subsection (a) of this section.
(e)
The state superintendent of public instruction shall consider all of the following in determining whether to petition the district court under subsection (a) of this section:
(i)
The academic benefit to the students enrolled in the school district by placing the school district in educational bankruptcy;
(ii)
The negative implications for the students enrolled in the school district by placing the school district in educational bankruptcy;
(iii)
Cultural factors that may impact the effectiveness of educational bankruptcy and that may impact student performance on the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v);
(iv)
Actions taken by the school district to improve student performance on the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v).
(f)
The state superintendent of public instruction shall post publicly on the Wyoming department of education's website a list of school districts that meet one (1) or more of the criteria in paragraphs (a)(i) through (iii) of this section.
(g)
Not later than December 1, 2025, and not later than each December 1 thereafter, the state superintendent of public instruction shall report the number of school districts that qualify for educational bankruptcy pursuant to subsection (a) of this section and make recommendations to the joint education interim committee, including, but not limited to, whether the limitation on the number of school districts that may be placed in educational bankruptcy pursuant to W.S. 21
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1003(h) should be modified. The joint education interim committee shall report its recommendations, if any, to the legislature during the immediately succeeding legislative session.
(h)
The state superintendent of
public instruction shall promulgate rules necessary to administer this section.
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1003.
Duties of the district court in educational bankruptcies.
(a)
The district court shall consider petitions filed pursuant to W.S. 21
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1002 in date order based on the filing date of the petition. The district court shall hold a hearing to determine if placing the school district in educational bankruptcy is in the best interest of the students enrolled in the school district.
(b)
Upon finding educational bankruptcy is in the best interest of the students enrolled in the qualified school, the district court shall appoint a trustee to manage the school district.
(c)
The trustee appointed under subsection (b) of this section shall have the following duties and authority:
(i)
Shall request input on improvement of student performance and management of the school district from the state superintendent and the local board of trustees;
(ii)
Shall remove the school district superintendent from his position;
(iii)
Shall remove the authority of the school district board of trustees to manage the school district, making the board of trustees an advisory board to the appointed trustee;
(iv)
May remove any other administrators or school principals from their positions;
(v)
May appoint an independent advisory board.
(d)
Any decision of the trustee shall be considered a final decision which may be appealed to the district court. The court may, on application or on its own motion, stay the decision of the trustee pending appeal.
(e)
Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, where Indian children, as defined by W.S. 14
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702(a)(iv), comprise at least fifty percent (50%) of the school district's enrollment, the tribal business council shall have the right to intervene as a party in a petition for educational bankruptcy and provide a plan for improvement. The trustee and the district court shall give deference to the plan submitted by the tribal council in accordance with this subsection.
(f)
The district court shall release a school district from educational bankruptcy if, at the end of the school year, less than fifty percent (50%) of grade three (3) students enrolled in the school district score basic or below basic on the English language arts portion of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v), and one (1) of the following conditions is met:
(i)
Less than forty percent (40%) of grade eight (8) students enrolled in the school district score basic or below basic on the mathematics portion of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v);
(ii)
Less than twenty percent (20%) of grade ten (10) students enrolled in the school district score below basic on the English language arts, mathematics and science portions of the statewide assessment administered pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v). Each portion of the statewide assessment shall be considered individually under this paragraph.
(g)
If after six (6) years of a school district being in educational bankruptcy and under the supervision of a trustee appointed under subsection (b) of this section, a school district does not meet the criteria contained in subsection (f) of this section, the state superintendent of public instruction or the school district's board of trustees may petition the district court to release the school district from educational bankruptcy. Upon a petition filed under this subsection, the district court shall release the school district from educational bankruptcy upon finding continuation of educational bankruptcy under the appointed trustee will not result in academic improvement in the school district.
(h)
In no event shall the number of school districts found to be educationally bankrupt under this section exceed six (6) school districts statewide and no more than three (3) school districts per year shall be found to be educationally bankrupt statewide.
Section 2.
W.S. 21
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304(a)(v) by creating a new subparagraph (M) and 21
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802 by creating a new subsection (n) are amended to read:
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304.
Duties of the state board of education.
(a)
The state board of education shall:
(v)
Through the state superintendent and in consultation and coordination with local school districts, implement a statewide assessment system comprised of a coherent system of measures that when combined, provide a reliable and valid measure of individual student achievement for each public school and school district within the state, and the performance of the state as a whole.
Statewide assessment system components shall be in accordance with requirements of the statewide education accountability system pursuant to W.S. 21
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204.
Improvement of teaching and learning in schools, attaining student achievement targets for performance indicators established under W.S. 21
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204 and fostering school program improvement shall be the primary purposes of statewide assessment of student performance in Wyoming.
The statewide assessment system shall:
(M)
Effective school year 2026
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2027, and each school year thereafter, not be modified in a manner that would substantially affect assessment results used for the purposes of W.S. 21
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1002. In even numbered years, the joint education interim committee may sponsor legislation for submission at the following general session to authorize modification of the statewide assessment.
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802.
Powers and duties; teacher certification; suspension and revocation; certification fees; disposition of collected fees; required data submissions to department of education.
(n)
The board may revoke, suspend, deny or refuse to renew certification for engaging in fraud, cheating or unfair practices, committed after July 1, 2025, in assisting students on the statewide assessment, required pursuant to W.S. 21
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304(a)(v), upon its own motion or upon the petition of any local board of trustees.
No certificate shall be revoked or suspended under this subsection without a hearing conducted in accordance with the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act, unless the person holding the certification waives the right to a hearing.
Section 3
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This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution
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(END)
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SF0173