South Carolina H 5073: Public school grading

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 5073 Text of Previous Version (May. 06, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 5073

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

Indicates Matter Stricken

Indicates New Matter

Committee Amendment Adopted and Amended

April 29, 2026

H. 5073

Introduced by Reps. Pedalino, Erickson, 
Montgomery, McCravy, Pace, Bradley, D. Mitchell, Terribile, Robbins, T. Moore, 
Sessions, Neese, Brittain, Crawford, Lawson, Edgerton, Chumley, Brewer, 
Chapman, Vaughan, Guest, Guffey, Cox, W. Newton, McGinnis, B. Newton, McCabe, 
Rankin, Gagnon, Gibson, J. E. Johnson, Long, Moss, Schuessler, G. M. Smith, 
White, Oremus, Teeple, Lastinger, Burns, Hewitt, Haddon, Cromer, Gilreath, 
Hartnett and Ballentine 

S. Printed 4/29/26--S. [SEC 
5/6/2026 12:51 PM]

Read the first time March 10, 2026

________

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ADDING SECTION 
59-29-250 SO AS TO PROVIDE REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADING PRACTICES, TO 
CONDITION ELIGIBILITY FOR CREDIT RECOVERY AND CONTENT RECOVERY ON COMPLETION OF 
REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS, TO LIMIT THE USE OF CERTAIN ASSESSMENTS IN CALCULATING 
FINAL COURSE GRADES, TO PROVIDE ENFORCEMENT THROUGH WITHHOLDING OF STATE AID TO 
CLASSROOM FUNDS, TO DIRECT THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO ESTABLISH A TASK 
FORCE TO EVALUATE AND RECOMMEND REVISIONS TO THE UNIFORM GRADING POLICY, AND TO 
REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADOPT THE 
RECOMMENDED REVISIONS.

 Amend Title To Conform

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Article 1, Chapter 29, Title 59 of the S.C. Code is 
amended by adding:

 Section 
59-29-250. (A) No public school 
district or public school may adopt any type of grading system that requires a 
teacher to assign a minimum grade or score that exceeds the student's actual 
performance on required assignments. If a school district is found to be in violation 
of this section, the State Department of Education shall withhold ten percent 
of the school district's State Aid to Classroom funding.

 (B) 
In order for a student to be eligible to participate in a district-approved 
credit recovery course as defined in the South Carolina Uniform Grading Policy, 
a student must have submitted all required assignments for the course in a 
manner consistent with district policies for timely submission of student work.

 (C) 
In order for a student to be eligible to participate in a district-approved 
content recovery program as defined in the South Carolina Uniform Grading 
Policy, a student must have completed all required assignments for the relevant 
subset of the course in a manner consistent with district policies for timely 
submission of student work.

 (D) 
Public school districts shall not require the inclusion of student performance 
on the formative assessments required in Section 59-18-310(D) or on any 
district-selected benchmark assessment in calculating a student's final grade 
in any course or subject. District selected benchmark assessments may only be 
used as formative assessments for instructional purposes and shall not factor 
into a student's course grade unless the assessment is developed or directly 
accessible to the course instructor prior to administration of the assessment 
and exclusively measures content that has previously been taught in the course. 
These provisions do not apply to end of course assessments. This section does 
not prohibit a district from requiring administration of benchmark assessments 
for the purpose of informing and improving instructional practices through 
evaluation and monitoring of student mastery of state academic standards. Student 
results on district-developed benchmark assessments must be made available in a 
timely fashion to educators, students, and parents after administration of the 
assessment.

 (E) 
Prior to the start of the 2026-2027 School Year, the State Board of Education 
is directed to establish a task force comprised of three superintendents, 
principals, teachers, representatives of public school boards each, and three 
high school students to evaluate potential revisions to the Uniform Grading 
Policy in order to enhance the utility of grades in evaluating college and 
career readiness, ensure high school grade point averages are meaningful 
indicators of academic achievement, and reduce the need for and use of credit 
recovery and content recovery programs. The task force shall make 
recommendations to the board for potential revisions in areas including, but 
not limited to, the use of term weighting in calculating final student grades, 
the method of awarding quality points on the basis of unique numeric final 
course averages when calculating student grade point averages, and the use of a 
100-point grading scale. The task force shall