Representative Sherrie Conley is calling on the State Department of Education to pull back on its current set of proposed rules allowing school districts to get a four-day week waiver. Senate Bill 441 requires school districts to adhere to the 165 day and 1,080 hour minimums for a school year, unless that district obtains a waiver from the State Board of Education.
The Legislature has not finalized the proposed waiver rules.
“In the current state of the Oklahoma economy, it is more important than ever before that we fully consider the consequences of requiring our rural districts to add days to their calendars,” Conley said. “The rules the State Department of Education proposed make it far too difficult to obtain a waiver from these requirements, contrary to the clear desire of legislators who worked hard to include a fair waiver process in this bill. While many of us still have concerns with this law, the law is the law, and this law called for a fair waiver process that the State Department of Education’s rules fail to provide.”
Conley contends the pandemic response also has created gaps in the metrics required to obtain a four day week waiver.
“Without adequate discussion to get these rules right and fully approved, what was intended to be a flexible compromise could turn into a heavy-handed mandate for some of our most vulnerable school districts,” Conley said. “Legislators worked hard to protect local control in this legislation, and I urge the State Department of Education to respect that sentiment.
“The pandemic created further problems with implementing this law due to the cancellation of student assessments, gaps in attendance data, and other factors that were to be considered in the waivers. Given all these problems, I am requesting the State Department of Education to go back to the drawing board and have further discussions with stakeholders when the pandemic passes to refine these rules and resubmit them to the Legislature,” said Conley.
Conley was joined by 15 other rural, Republican House members in her call to pull back the proposed rules.
