S105 - 2021 Appropriations Act. (SL 2021-180)

Overview: Section 7.9 of S.L. 2021-180 directs the State Board of Education (SBE) to annually report by November 15 to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee and various other entities on data related to computer science and computational thinking participation for all public school units, disaggregated by school, including:

• The number of teachers employed to teach computational thinking and computer science.
• The statewide and elective courses offered and the number of students enrolled in each of the courses.
• The number of students enrolled in computer science and computational thinking courses by grade level.
• The enrollment numbers broken down by the following subgroups:
• Economically disadvantaged students.
• Students from major racial and ethnic groups.
• Gender.
• Children with disabilities.

For each item, the report must include (i) statewide data for the current school year and the four previous years and (ii) data for the current school year for each public school unit, disaggregated by school. Public school units are required to submit the underlying information for the current school year to the SBE annually by September 15.

The SBE must submit its initial report no later than March 15, 2022. Public school units must submit their initial reports to the SBE no later than January 15, 2022.

This section became effective July 1, 2021.