House Education Committee reviews proposed updates to Idaho graduation rules, including digital literacy and new ‘future readiness’ project

Boise — The House Education Committee continued review of pending administrative rules that would revise Idaho's statewide high school graduation requirements, hearing detailed briefings from Greg Wilson, chief of staff at the State Department of Education.

Wilson told the committee that the state's minimum remains 46 total credits (29 core academic and 17 electives) and that the department is proposing four key updates: credit flexibility for meeting core academics, a new 1-credit digital literacy requirement, a requirement that districts post at least two localized pathways, and replacing the existing senior project with a "future readiness project."

The department proposes that the digital literacy requirement include fundamentals such as algorithms, coding, artificial intelligence, internet safety and social media best practices, and "citizenship in a digital world, including communications through digital means and navigating online news and information critically while behaving responsibly and ethically," Wilson said. The department would apply the requirement to students graduating on or after Jan. 1, 2028, providing a three-year implementation window.

Wilson said the department's work reflects three guiding principles: the last comprehensive review of statewide requirements was more than a decade ago; workforce and student needs have changed; and students follow many postsecondary paths, including two- and four-year colleges, career technical education (CTE), military service and direct entry into the workforce. "The state requires an overall 46 credits," Wilson said. "That's the state minimum requirement, and that's 29 core academic requirements and 17 elective requirements."

On communications, the department proposes to remove a standalone 1-credit communications requirement from the core academic list and instead direct that communications…