Draft asks State Board to update approved independent school rules, adds waiver review and "substantially similar" compliance chance

The committee reviewed draft language directing the State Board of Education to update rules governing approved independent schools so they align with class-size minimum requirements and to create a process for the State Board to review failures to meet class-size minimums.

The draft includes a provision that the State Board must provide an approved independent school "a substantially similar opportunity to come into compliance with class size management" or with the standard outcome it would provide to a public school. Members discussed whether the waiver process for approved independent schools should be the same as for public schools; staff said the draft copies the standards for waiver eligibility but leaves procedural details to the State Board's rulemaking, and offered to add language making the State Board's process "substantially similar" if the committee wanted that explicit.

Committee members asked whether the statutory language should explicitly require the waiver process for approved independent schools to mirror public-school waivers; one member asked staff to ensure a waiver pathway is present in the draft. The committee did not finalize detailed waiver procedures in the excerpted discussion and agreed to provide clearer direction to staff on rulemaking language and whether processes should be explicitly aligned across school types.