Committee advances bill allowing online schools to administer state assessments remotely

The Senate Education Committee advanced Senate Study Bill 1025 on a voice vote after adopting an amendment that clarifies the person who verifies a student’s test submission must be employed by the school.

The bill would let school districts, charter schools and accredited nonpublic schools that deliver instruction primarily over the internet administer required state assessments online if certain conditions are met: students must take the test at a date and time assigned by school-designated personnel; audits must occur as a synchronous assessment session initiated and managed by school-designated personnel; there must be a video feed allowing the proctor to view the student and the student’s background; the school must maintain a ratio of no more than 10 students per assessment proctor; the student must not exit the assessment session until the proctor ends it; and an assessment administrator must verify the student’s submission.

The amendment adopted during the committee hearing clarifies that the assessment administrator who verifies a student’s submission must be employed by the school. "The amendment clarifies that the assessment administrator verifying student submission is one who is employed by the school," Sen. Evans said during opening remarks on the amendment.

Sen. Donahue raised fiscal concerns. "That cost is gonna get passed on to the public schools," Donahue said, arguing that the bill’s fiscal note had unresolved costs for equipment and proctoring systems and that those costs could fall to public districts. Donahue said members of his caucus would likely oppose the bill "in hopes that it can be fixed later on." The transcript records Donahue urging caution about passing the bill until fiscal impacts are clearer.

Sen. Evans, sponsor of the bill, said the change affects only the ISASP summative assessment and described the test as already delivered electronically in current practice. "This allows students who are being educated in an online format to be assessed in an online format as well," Evans said, arguing that other states have moved to similar approaches and that expected costs have come in under initial fiscal estimates.

Following a short-form voice vote, the committee recorded five no votes and moved the bill to the calendar under Rule 40. The clerk announced the recorded noes as Sen. Donahue, Sen. Stade, Sen. Quornbach, Sen. Winkler and Sen. Trungaria; the committee reported the result as 11 ayes and 5 noes.

The bill will next appear on the chamber calendar under Rule 40; no further details or amendments were specified in the committee record.