At its meeting Sept. 12, the Edmonds School District Board of Directors voted unanimously to enact a policy to comply with House Bill 1295, which opens up education options for incarcerated or previously incarcerated youth.

The policy will enact the following for students in or released from an institutional education facility:

1. Waiving specific courses required for graduation if similar coursework has been satisfactorily completed in another school district.

2. Consolidating partial credit for incomplete coursework.

3. Providing opportunities for credit accrual in a manner that eliminates academic and nonacademic barriers.

4. Granting partial credit for coursework completed before the student’s withdrawal or transfer to the student’s current school.

5. Granting diplomas to students who have enrolled in three or more school districts as a high school student if state, but not local, graduation requirements have been met.

6. Access to world language proficiency tests, American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency tests, and general education development (GED) tests.

Later, the school board’s legislative representative, Board Member Carin Chase, reported on an upcoming assembly hosted by the Washington State School Directors’ Association. The assembly invites its members — all school board members in the state of Washington– to an annual assembly once per year. Directors and the association will discuss policy regarding education and education governance.

Chase discussed a few proposals that the Edmonds School District board had submitted, which largely focused on the wording of certain mission statements, and thoughts on lobbying positions and driving engagement in the association.

During public comment, Sheryl Passarge expressed concern about legislation under consideration by the U.S. House of Representatives. She said that the bill, recently advanced by a Republican subcommittee, would drastically cut Title I funding, resulting in the loss of over 220,000 school teachers nationwide. Board President Nancy Katims said that the bill in question would also have to pass the Senate, which she believed was unlikely.

–By Jasmine Contreras-Lewis