SB460 - Revises provisions relating to education. (BDR 34-16)

- 83rd Session (2025) Senate Bill No. 460–Senators Cannizzaro, Dondero Loop, Pazina; Cruz-Crawford, Daly, Doñate, Flores, Lange, Neal, Nguyen, Ohrenschall, Scheible and Taylor CHAPTER.......... AN ACT relating to education; revising provisions governing plans to improve academic achievement; providing for the waiver of certain reporting requirements; revising provisions governing the annual report of accountability for a school district; revising the duties of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education; providing for the impaneling of a Public Education Oversight Board; revising provisions governing boards of trustees of certain school districts; establishing certain measures for the designation of focus and priority school districts, sponsors of charter schools and public schools; revising provisions governing the Commission on School Funding; revising provisions governing the Early Childhood Literacy and Readiness Account; revising provisions governing prekindergarten programs; revising provisions governing assessments used to assess the literacy of certain pupils; revising provisions governing membership of the State Public Charter School Authority; revising provisions governing the formation of charter schools, the termination and amendment of charter contracts and the employment of teachers by charter schools; revising provisions governing the Nevada Educational Choice Scholarship Program; revising certain provisions governing instruction in English language arts; creating the Commission on Recruitment and Retention; revising provisions relating to the Commission on Professional Standards in Education; revising provisions governing background investigations of applicants for certain licenses; establishing requirements governing the hiring of a superintendent of schools; revising provisions governing certain evaluations; requiring the creation of a differential pay scale for certain teachers and administrators; creating the Education Service Center; establishing certain requirements for the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada; creating certain accounts and programs concerning teacher apprenticeships; making appropriations; and providing other matters properly relating thereto. – 2 – - 83rd Session (2025) Legislative Counsel’s Digest: Existing law establishes the Department of Education, which consists of the State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. (NRS 385.010) Existing law: (1) requires the State Board to prepare a plan to improve the academic achievement of pupils; and (2) sets forth the required contents of the plan. (NRS 385.111, 385.112) Existing law also requires the board of trustees of each school district and the governing bodies of certain charter schools to prepare an annual report of accountability that contains certain information, including, without limitation, information regarding teachers, other licensed educational personnel and paraprofessionals. (NRS 385A.070, 385A.230) Section 1.3 of this bill: (1) requires each public elementary school to prepare a plan to improve the academic achievement of pupils enrolled in public elementary schools; (2) sets forth the required contents of the plan, including, without limitation, certain goals for public elementary schools; and (3) establishes requirements governing the consequences for the principal of a public elementary school that does not meet such goals. Sections 4 and 5 of this bill make changes regarding the entity required to prepare such a plan pursuant to existing law. (NRS 385.111) Section 1.7 of this bill establishes a procedure by which the superintendent of schools of a school district or the Superintendent of Public Instruction is authorized to modify, suspend or eliminate a requirement for a public school or school district to report information or data that is redundant or duplicative or does not provide information or data that is used by the Department, the State Board or any other person or entity to support educational outcomes. Existing law creates the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education for the purpose of developing a statewide vision and implementation plan to improve public education in this State. (NRS 385.920) Section 5.5 of this bill revises the duties of the Commission. Section 6.1 of this bill requires that the annual report of accountability include information on the plans to improve academic achievement prepared pursuant to existing law and section 1.3. (NRS 385.111) Section 7 of this bill applies certain requirements governing the annual report of accountability to the reporting requirements set forth in section 6.1. Section 8 of this bill revises the manner by which teacher vacancies are measured for inclusion in the annual report of accountability. Existing law establishes a statewide system of accountability for public schools that includes, without limitation, a method to annually rate each public school based on the performance of the school and on whether each public school meets the school achievement targets and performance targets established pursuant to the statewide system of accountability. (NRS 385A.600) Sections 6.2-6.4 and 8.5 of this bill establish a similar system of accountability for school districts and charter schools in this State. Section 6.5 of this bill establishes criteria and procedures for the Superintendent to designate a school district or sponsor of a charter school as low-performing or underperforming. Section 9.3 of this bill requires: (1) the Superintendent to place a school district or sponsor of a charter school designated as underperforming on probation if the designation is based on certain findings; and (2) such a school district or sponsor to submit to the Department a school district or sponsor of a charter school performance improvement plan and a school board or sponsor of a charter school improvement plan. Section 9.5 of this bill authorizes the Superintendent to take certain actions if the board of trustees of a school district or sponsor of a charter school does not make adequate progress toward meeting the goals and benchmarks necessary to improve the performance of the school district or charter school. Section 9.7 of this bill requires: (1) the Superintendent to place a – 3 – - 83rd Session (2025) school district or sponsor of a charter school designated as underperforming on probation if the designation was based on certain findings relating to the performance of pupils; and (2) such a school district or sponsor to submit certain plans to the Superintendent. Section 9.7 also establishes the actions that the Superintendent is authorized to take if the school district or sponsor of a charter school does not make adequate progress toward improving the performance of pupils. Section 6.6 of this bill establishes criteria for designating a public school as low-performing, and sections 14.25-14.4 of this bill prescribe the actions that may be taken with respect to a public school designated as low-performing or persistently underperforming. Section 14.3 requires the Superintendent to initiate a process for state intervention to implement certain corrective measures for a school that is designated as persistently underperforming. Section 14.35 establishes provisions governing the corrective measure of replacing the principal and key members of the staff of a school. Section 14.4 establishes provisions governing the corrective measure of the direct management of a school by the Department. Section 56.5 of this bill: (1) creates the Education Service Center; (2) provides for the appointment of a governing body for the Center; and (3) requires the Center to provide certain assistance and guidance to public schools and school districts that are experiencing low performance. Section 9.3 requires the Superintendent to place certain underperforming school districts or sponsors of charter schools on probation. Section 84.5 of this bill requires the Legislative Counsel to, in preparing the Nevada Revised Statutes, substitute the term: (1) “focus” for the term “low- performing” as previously used in reference to a low-performing school district, sponsor of a charter school or school; and (2) “priority” for the term “underperforming” as previously used in reference to an underperforming school district or sponsor of a charter school or persistently underperforming school. (NRS 220.120) Existing law provides that, on or before December 31 of each year, the board of trustees of each school district and the State Public Charter School Authority is required to prepare for the immediately preceding school year a report of accountability concerning the educational goals and objectives of the school district or charter school. (NRS 385A.070) Sections 7.4 and 7.5 of this bill revise certain provisions governing the report. Existing law: (1) creates county school districts; and (2) provides that such school districts are political subdivisions of this State. (NRS 386.010) Section 9.1 of this bill provides for the impaneling of a Public Education Oversight Board under certain circumstances and provides the Board, if impaneled, with the authority granted to the board of trustees of a school district to take actions necessary to remedy the cause of recommendations submitted by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Section 9.1 additionally sets forth: (1) the membership of the Board; and (2) requirements for meetings of the Board. Existing law: (1) sets forth the membership of the board of trustees in each county school district in which more than 75,000 pupils are enrolled (currently only the Clark County School District); (2) provides that four members of such a board of trustees are appointed, nonvoting members; and (3) sets forth requirements for electing officers of any board of trustees of a school district. (NRS 386.120, 386.165, 386.310) Section 10 of this bill: (1) provides that such appointed, nonvoting members are instead voting members; and (2) eliminates the prohibition on the ability of such members to vote for or serve as officers. Section 11 of this bill makes a conforming change to authorize the previously nonvoting members to serve as officers. – 4 – - 83rd Session (2025) Existing law creates the Commission on School Funding and establishes the duties of the Commission. (NRS 387.1246, 387.12463) Section 12 of this bill requires the Commission to: (1) review and propose any necessary revisions to the method of calculating the percentage of at-risk pupils in this State; and (2) select a third party to verify such methods and to submit a report containing the findings and recommendations for using a different method. Section 62 of this bill authorizes the Commission to request the drafting of not more than 1 legislative measure for a regular session. Section 63 of this bill applies existing provisions governing the drafting of such measures to the drafting of a legislative measure pursuant to section 62. Section 81 of this bill directs the Commission to conduct an interim study concerning certain subjects relating to school funding. Existing law creates the Early Childhood Literacy and Readiness Account and authorizes the Department to award grants to school districts, sponsors of charter schools and nonprofit organizations to support early childhood literacy and readiness programs. (NRS 387.1271-387.1277) Existing law additionally requires the Department, to the extent money is available, to award grants to school districts, sponsors of charter schools and nonprofit organizations to support prekindergarten programs. (NRS 387.652) Section 13 of this bill: (1) extends eligibility to receive grants to support early childhood literacy and readiness programs to institutions within the Nevada System of Higher Education; and (2) expands the categories of children served by such a program. Section 13.5 of this bill creates similar provisions for grants to support prekindergarten programs. Existing law: (1) requires that the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher in certain classes not exceed certain ratios; and (2) authorizes the State Board to grant a variance to a school district that does not meet such ratios in a quarter of a school year. (NRS 388.700). Section 16 of this bill requires requests for, and reports concerning, variances of requirements for the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher to be submitted annually rather than quarterly. Sections 17 and 18 of this bill make conforming changes to reflect the change to the timelines for such submissions. (NRS 388.723, 388.725) Existing law requires an elementary school to provide intervention services and intensive instruction to a pupil during the time the pupil attends the school if the pupil does not obtain a score in the subject area of reading on the criterion- referenced examination in reading that meets the score prescribed by the State Board. (NRS 388A.487, 392.760) Section 8.3 of this bill requires the statewide system of accountability for public schools to include, for elementary schools, targets for the proportion of pupils demonstrating adequate proficiency in the subject area of reading and adequate progress to achieving such proficiency. Existing law requires the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of a charter school to prepare a plan to improve the literacy of pupils enrolled in an elementary school that includes procedures to assess the proficiency of a pupil in reading by using assessments that have been approved by the State Board. (NRS 388.157) Section 15.6 of this bill removes the requirement that such assessments be approved by the State Board thereby allowing the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of a charter school, as applicable, to include in the plan any valid and reliable standards-based assessment to assess proficiency in reading. This bill also authorizes the Department of Education to: (1) adopt regulations prescribing how the results of any assessment used by a school district or charter school to assess proficiency in reading are collected and reported; and (2) prescribe the assessments which must be used in a school district or charter school if no assessment is included in the plan. Existing law makes certain requirements governing the minimum number of days in a school year. (NRS 388.090) Section 15.5 of this bill requires each school – 5 – - 83rd Session (2025) year to contain at least 4 days of professional development for elementary school staff and prescribes the focus of such professional development. Existing law requires a public school, to the extent that money is a [Text truncated for display. Full text available on LegiScan.]