15-808. Arizona online instruction; reports;
definitions
(L10, Ch. 318, sec. 10. Eff. 7/1/11)
A. Arizona online instruction shall be instituted to meet the needs of pupils in
the information age. The state board of education shall select traditional public schools
and the state board for charter schools shall sponsor charter schools to be online course
providers or online schools. The state board of education and the state board for charter
schools shall jointly develop standards for the approval of online course providers and
online schools based on the following criteria:
1. The depth and breadth of curriculum choices.
2. The variety of educational methodologies employed by the school and the means of
addressing the unique needs and learning styles of targeted pupil populations, including
computer assisted learning systems, virtual classrooms, virtual laboratories, electronic
field trips, electronic mail, virtual tutoring, online help desk, group chat sessions and
noncomputer based activities performed under the direction of a certificated teacher.
3. The availability of an intranet or private network to safeguard pupils against
predatory and pornographic elements of the internet.
4. The availability of filtered research access to the internet.
5. The availability of private individual electronic mail between pupils, teachers,
administrators and parents in order to protect the confidentiality of pupil records and
information.
6. The availability of faculty members who are experienced with computer networks,
the internet and computer animation.
7. The extent to which the school intends to develop partnerships with
universities, community colleges and private businesses.
8. The services offered to developmentally disabled populations.
9. The grade levels that will be served.
B. Each new school that provides online instruction shall provide online
instruction on a probationary status. After a new school that provides online
instruction has clearly demonstrated the academic integrity of its instruction through
the actual improvement of the academic performance of its students, the school may apply
to be removed from probationary status. The state board of education or the state board
for charter schools shall remove from Arizona online instruction any probationary school
that fails to clearly demonstrate improvement in academic performance within three years
measured against goals in the approved application and the state's accountability system.
The state board of education and the state board for charter schools shall review the
effectiveness of each participating school and other information that is contained in the
annual report prescribed in subsection D of this section. All pupils who participate in
Arizona online instruction shall reside in this state. Pupils who participate in Arizona
online instruction are subject to the testing requirements prescribed in chapter 7,
article 3 of this title. Upon enrollment, the school shall notify the parents or
guardians of the pupil of the state testing requirements. If a pupil fails to comply with
the testing requirements and the school administers the tests pursuant to this subsection
to less than ninety-five per cent of the pupils in Arizona online instruction, the pupil
shall not be allowed to participate in Arizona online instruction.
C. Beginning July 1, 2010, the state board of education and the state board for
charter schools shall develop annual reporting mechanisms for schools that participate in
Arizona online instruction.
D. The department of education shall compile the information submitted in the
annual reports by schools participating in Arizona online instruction. The department of
education shall submit the compiled report to the governor, the speaker of the house of
representatives and the president of the senate by November 15 of each year.
E. Each school selected for Arizona online instruction shall ensure that a daily
log is maintained for each pupil who participates in Arizona online instruction. The
daily log shall describe the amount of time spent by each pupil participating in Arizona
online instruction pursuant to this section on academic tasks. The daily log shall be
used by the school district or charter school to qualify the pupils who participate in
Arizona online instruction in the school's average daily attendance calculations pursuant
to subsection F of this section.
F. If a pupil is enrolled in a school district or charter school and also
participates in Arizona online instruction, the sum of the average daily membership,
which includes enrollment as prescribed in section 15-901, subsection A, paragraph 1,
subdivisions (a) and (b) and daily attendance as prescribed in section 15-901, subsection
A, paragraph 5, for that pupil in the school district or charter school and in Arizona
online instruction shall not exceed 1.0. If the pupil is enrolled in a school district or
a charter school and also participates in Arizona online instruction and the sum of the
daily membership or daily attendance for that pupil is greater than 1.0, the sum shall be
reduced to 1.0 and shall be apportioned between the school district, unless the school
district is a joint technical education district subject to the apportionment
requirements of section 15-393, or charter school and Arizona online instruction based on
the percentage of total time that the pupil is enrolled or in attendance in the school
district or charter school and Arizona online instruction. The uniform system of
financial records shall include guidelines for the apportionment of the pupil enrollment
and attendance as provided in this subsection. Pupils in Arizona online instruction do
not incur absences for purposes of this subsection and may generate an average daily
attendance of 1.0 for attendance hours during any hour of the day, during any day of the
week and at any time between July 1 and June 30 of each fiscal year. For kindergarten
programs and grades one through eight, average daily membership shall be calculated by
dividing the instructional hours as reported in the daily log required in subsection E of
this section by the applicable hourly requirements prescribed in section 15-901. For
grades nine through twelve, average daily membership shall be calculated by dividing the
instructional hours as reported in the daily log required in subsection E of this section
by nine hundred. The average daily membership of a pupil who participates in online
instruction shall not exceed 1.0. Average daily membership shall not be calculated on the
one hundredth day of instruction for the purposes of this section. Funding shall be
determined as follows:
1. A pupil who is enrolled full-time in Arizona online instruction shall be funded
for online instruction at ninety-five per cent of the base support level that would be
calculated for that pupil if that pupil were enrolled as a full-time student in a school
district or charter school that does not participate in Arizona online instruction.
Additional assistance, capital outlay revenue limit and soft capital allocation limit
shall be calculated in the same manner they would be calculated if the student were
enrolled in a district or charter school that does not participate in Arizona online
instruction. A pupil enrolled in Arizona online instruction shall be considered full-time
if the pupil's average instructional hours, as reported in the daily log required in
subsection E of this section, exceed one hundred nineteen minutes for kindergarten
programs, two hundred thirty-eight minutes for grades one through three, two hundred
ninety-seven minutes for grades four through six, three hundred fifty-six minutes for
grades seven and eight and three hundred minutes for grades nine through twelve.
2. A pupil who is enrolled part-time in Arizona online instruction shall be funded
for online instruction at eighty-five per cent of the base support level that would be
calculated for that pupil if that pupil were enrolled as a part-time student in a school
district or charter school that does not participate in Arizona online instruction.
Additional assistance, capital outlay revenue limit and soft capital allocation limit
shall be calculated in the same manner they would be calculated if the student were
enrolled in a district or charter school that does not participate in Arizona online
instruction. A pupil enrolled in Arizona online instruction shall be considered part-time
if the pupil's average instructional hours, as reported in the daily log required in
subsection E of this section, are less than the hours required for a full-time pupil
pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subsection.
G. If the academic achievement of a pupil declines while the pupil is participating
in Arizona online instruction, the pupil's parents, the pupil's teachers and the
principal or head teacher of the school shall confer to evaluate whether the pupil should
be allowed to continue to participate in Arizona online instruction.
H. To ensure the academic integrity of pupils who participate in online
instruction, Arizona online instruction shall include multiple diverse assessment
measures and the proctored administration of required state standardized tests.
I. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Online course provider" means a school other than an online school that is
selected by the state board of education or the state board for charter schools to
participate in Arizona online instruction pursuant to this section and that provides at
least one online academic course that is approved by the state board of education.
2. "Online school" means a school that provides at least four online academic
courses or one or more online courses for the equivalent of at least five hours each day
for one hundred eighty school days and that is a charter school that is sponsored by the
state board for charter schools or a traditional public school that is selected by the
state board of education to participate in Arizona online instruction.
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