Washington HB 1910: Increasing funding for teacher-librarians.

Bill Text

AN ACT Relating to modifying the prototypical public school 1
funding formula to increase funding for teacher-librarians; and 2
reenacting and amending RCW 28A.150.260.3
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:4
Sec. 1. RCW 28A.150.260 and 2024 c 262 s 2 and 2024 c 191 s 2 5
are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:6
The purpose of this section is to provide for the allocation of 7
state funding that the legislature deems necessary to support school 8
districts in offering the minimum instructional program of basic 9
education under RCW 28A.150.220. The allocation shall be determined 10
as follows:11
(1) The governor shall and the superintendent of public 12
instruction may recommend to the legislature a formula for the 13
distribution of a basic education instructional allocation for each 14
common school district.15
(2)(a) The distribution formula under this section shall be for 16
allocation purposes only. Except as may be required under subsections 17
(4)(b) and (c), (5)(b) and (c), (8), and (9) of this section, chapter 18
28A.155, 28A.165, 28A.180, or 28A.185 RCW, or federal laws and 19
regulations, nothing in this section requires school districts to use 20
basic education instructional funds to implement a particular 21
H-0955.1
HOUSE BILL 1910
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Rule, Eslick, and Pollet
Read first time 02/10/25. Referred to Committee on Appropriations.
p. 1 HB 1910

instructional approach or service. Nothing in this section requires 1
school districts to maintain a particular classroom teacher-to-2
student ratio or other staff-to-student ratio or to use allocated 3
funds to pay for particular types or classifications of staff. 4
Nothing in this section entitles an individual teacher to a 5
particular teacher planning period.6
(b) To promote transparency in state funding allocations, the 7
superintendent of public instruction must report state per-pupil 8
allocations for each school district for the general apportionment, 9
special education, learning assistance, transitional bilingual, 10
highly capable, and career and technical education programs. The 11
superintendent must report this information in a user-friendly format 12
on the main page of the office's website. School districts must 13
include a link to the superintendent's per-pupil allocations report 14
on the main page of the school district's website. In addition, the 15
budget documents published by the legislature for the enacted omnibus 16
operating appropriations act must report statewide average per-pupil 17
allocations for general apportionment and the categorical programs 18
listed in this subsection.19
(3)(a) To the extent the technical details of the formula have 20
been adopted by the legislature and except when specifically provided 21
as a school district allocation, the distribution formula for the 22
basic education instructional allocation shall be based on minimum 23
staffing and nonstaff costs the legislature deems necessary to 24
support instruction and operations in prototypical schools serving 25
high, middle, and elementary school students as provided in this 26
section. The use of prototypical schools for the distribution formula 27
does not constitute legislative intent that schools should be 28
operated or structured in a similar fashion as the prototypes. 29
Prototypical schools illustrate the level of resources needed to 30
operate a school of a particular size with particular types and grade 31
levels of students using commonly understood terms and inputs, such 32
as class size, hours of instruction, and various categories of school 33
staff. It is the intent that the funding allocations to school 34
districts be adjusted from the school prototypes based on the actual 35
number of annual average full-time equivalent students in each grade 36
level at each school in the district and not based on the grade-level 37
configuration of the school to the extent that data is available. The 38
allocations shall be further adjusted from the school prototypes with 39
p. 2 HB 1910

minimum allocations for small schools and to reflect other factors 1
identified in the omnibus appropriations act.2
(b) For the purposes of this section, prototypical schools are 3
defined as follows:4
(i) A prototypical high school has 600 average annual full-time 5
equivalent students in grades nine through 12;6
(ii) A prototypical middle school has 432 average annual full-7
time equivalent students in grades seven and eight; and8
(iii) A prototypical elementary school has 400 average annual 9
full-time equivalent students in grades kindergarten through six.10
(4)(a)(i) The minimum allocation for each level of prototypical 11
school shall be based on the number of full-time equivalent classroom 12
teachers needed to provide instruction over the minimum required 13
annual instructional hours under RCW 28A.150.220 and provide at least 14
one teacher planning pe