H259 - 2023 Appropriations Act. (SL 2023-134)

Overview: Section 7.72 of S.L. 2023-134, as amended by S.L. 2023-132, makes the following changes:

• Adds a graduation requirement of a passing grade in a computer science course, beginning with students entering the ninth grade in the 2024-2025 school year. This requirement does not apply to a student whose individualized education program states that the student's disability would prevent the student from completing that graduation requirement.
• Recodifies existing high school graduation requirements.
• Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to develop a sequence of courses allowing a student to complete the credits required for graduation in a three-year period that will be noted on the student's transcript. Prohibits local boards of education from requiring any additional credits beyond those mandated by the SBE for high school graduation, beginning with students enrolled in tenth grade in 2023-2024.
• Recodifies current high school diploma endorsements and adds two new high school diploma endorsement:
• Arts proficiency high school diploma endorsement: The SBE must develop the criteria for this endorsement to encourage students to obtain a well-rounded, high-quality arts education. The criteria must include at least a minimum of 4 arts credits with an unweighted 3.0 or higher grade point average and a minimum of 40 hours of arts-related extracurricular activities that meet certain criteria.
• Citizenship proficiency high school diploma endorsement: The SBE must develop the criteria for this endorsement to encourage students to demonstrate their understanding of the basics of the American government and civic life. The criteria must include at least a passing score on a civics test composed of questions from the pool of publicly available questions to be used for the civics test given by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as part of the naturalization interview and test issued by USCIS. Charter schools must make this diploma endorsement available to students.

The SBE must report annually to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on high school diploma endorsements, including numbers of endorsements, beginning with reports due November 15, 2024.

This section became effective October 3, 2023. The SBE must make arts proficiency and citizenship proficiency high school diploma endorsements available to students graduating high school beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.