Title 16, Title 16 Title 16

(a) The board of education and council on elementary and secondary education shall require all school districts and local education agencies to report on a standardized form each fiscal year, relating to any and all of the American Rescue Plan, elementary and secondary school eme…

Effective January 1, 2013, the term “Rhode Island Board of Education” shall be used in lieu of any then existing law reference made to the board of regents for elementary and secondary education and/or the board of governors for higher education.

The board of governors for higher education established in chapter 16-59 and the board of regents for elementary and secondary education established in chapter 16-60 shall cease to exist as of January 1, 2013.

The board shall submit an annual report to the governor, speaker of the house, senate president, chairs of the house and senate finance committees and their respective fiscal advisors, the chair of the house health, education and welfare committee, and chair of the senate educati…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no employee of the state board of education, or the board of trustees for the university of Rhode Island, his or her spouse, domestic partner or dependent, shall receive a tuition waiver as a result of employment status with the state b…

(a) The commissioner of elementary and secondary education shall implement the state assessment program. The program shall include performance standards and an annual report that disaggregates performance by race, poverty, native language, and gender. (b) Prior to the graduating …

(a) The board of education, in conjunction with the commissioner of elementary and secondary education and the commissioner of postsecondary education, shall undertake a comprehensive study of the alignment of the core curriculum used by the various school districts throughout th…

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Access To Advanced Placement Courses For All Students Act.”

The following words and phrases when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings given to them unless the context clearly indicates otherwise: (1) “Advanced placement” means a college-level class taught at the high school level that provides students the opportunity to…

(a) Purpose. The purpose of the advanced placement teacher training program is to provide access to advanced placement courses in the four (4) core academic subjects of English, mathematics, science and social science for all students by training teachers in advanced placement co…

(a) Guidelines. The department shall promulgate rules, regulations, and procedures necessary for the implementation of this chapter including, but not limited to, the following: (1) In consultation with the College Board, certify those teacher-training entities that are qualified…

To the extent funds are appropriated for this program, the department shall provide grants per eligible teacher to the endorsed teacher training entities that provide training to teachers to teach advanced placement upon completion of the training program.

(a) Funding shall be for the purpose of providing advanced placement examinations to students at or below the poverty level at no cost to the student. (b) Notwithstanding any general law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, the department shall include as part of its annual budg…

(a) Any school district offering advanced placement courses to students shall notify parents of their availability and the guidelines the school district uses in determining which students may be eligible to enroll in an advanced placement course. (b) Any school district offering…

This act shall be known and may be cited as the “Full-Day Kindergarten Accessibility Act.”

The general assembly hereby finds and declares as follows: (1) According to the National Center for Education Statistics, children in full-day kindergarten classes make greater academic gains in both reading and mathematics compared to those in half-day classes; (2) According to …

(a) For the purpose of this chapter, the term “full-day kindergarten” means a kindergarten program that operates a minimum of five and one-half (5½) hours or three hundred thirty (330) minutes of actual school work, excluding lunch, recess periods, common planning time, pre- and …

(a) A school district shall be eligible to request funding pursuant to § 16-99-4(b), if: (1) The school district is a public school district; and (2) The school district operates a half-day kindergarten program as of September 1, 2012, but not a full-day kindergarten, as defined …

The Rhode Island department of elementary and secondary education shall report to the senate president, speaker of the house, and the governor on the progress of this initiative on or before May 1st, 2014, and on an annual basis by May 1st of each year thereafter.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the “Dual Enrollment Equal Opportunity Act.”

“Dual Enrollment” means that a student is enrolled in a secondary school while simultaneously enrolled part-time or full-time at a local institution of higher learning, such as a community college or university.

(a) The board of education shall prescribe by regulation a statewide dual enrollment policy that shall allow students to enroll in courses at postsecondary institutions to satisfy academic credit requirements in both high school and the aforementioned postsecondary institutions. …

School districts and schools must adopt the statewide dual enrollment policy promulgated pursuant to this section by June 30, 2015. All school districts, charter schools, career and technical schools, approved private day or residential schools and collaborative schools shall be …

School districts that have students participating in dual enrollment programs shall report to the department of elementary and secondary education on an annual basis regarding the number of students, the number of credits enrolled in at postsecondary institutions, the name of the…

(a) State public higher education institutions in the state shall honor the military training, experience, correspondence courses, and occupations of an individual who has served in the military or armed forces of the United States by allowing academic credits that meet the stand…

It is the purpose of the Rhode Island teachers’ advisory council to provide a streamlined communication mechanism between teachers and the state board of education, the policy setting board of elementary and secondary education by: (1) Providing teachers with the ability to infor…

(a) There is hereby established a Rhode Island teachers’ advisory council, hereinafter referred to as “RITAC,” that shall advise the board of regents for elementary and secondary education and/or the state board of education, whichever body is in effect at the time. RITAC shall b…

For the purposes of this chapter: (1) “Social media account” means an electronic service or account, or electronic content, including, but not limited to, videos, still photographs, blogs, video blogs, podcasts, instant and text messages, email, online service or accounts, or int…

No educational institution shall: (1) Require, coerce, or request a student or prospective student to disclose the password or any other means for accessing a personal social media account; (2) Require, coerce, or request a student or prospective student to access a personal soci…

No educational institution shall compel a student or applicant, as a condition of acceptance or participation in curricular or extracurricular activities, to add anyone, including a coach, teacher, school administrator, or other school employee or school volunteer, to his or her …

No educational institution shall: (1) Discharge, discipline, or otherwise penalize or threaten to discharge, discipline, or otherwise penalize any student for a student’s refusal to disclose or provide access to any information specified in § 16-103-2, or for refusal to add a coa…

This chapter shall not apply to information about a student that is publicly available.

In any civil action alleging a violation of this chapter, the court may: (1) Award to a prevailing applicant or student declaratory relief, damages, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs; and (2) Award injunctive relief against any school or agent of any educational institutio…

(a) For the purposes of this chapter: (1) “Cloud computing service” means a service that enables convenient on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources to provide a student, teacher, or staff member account-based productivity applications such as…

(a) The state of Rhode Island is committed to providing high-quality educational opportunities for all public school students. (b) School facilities provide more than a place for instruction. The physical learning environment contributes to the successful performance of education…

The general assembly hereby designates the department of elementary and secondary education as the state’s school building authority with the responsibility to implement a system of state funding for school facilities designed to: (1) Promote adequate school housing for all publi…

The school building authority roles and responsibilities shall include: (1) Management of a system with the goal of ensuring equitable and adequate school housing for all public school children in the state; (2) Prevention of the cost of school housing from interfering with the e…

The school building authority within the department shall oversee and manage two distinct funding mechanisms for school facilities: the foundation program for school housing, as set forth in §§ 16-7-35 to 16-7-47, and the school building authority capital fund, as set forth in ch…

(a) The department of elementary and secondary education shall promulgate rules and regulations that establish the process through which a city, town, or LEA may submit an application for school building authority capital funding. The department may also prescribe, without limita…

For any approved project, the school building authority shall have the authority to inspect the construction and operation thereof to ensure compliance with the provisions of this chapter.

In order to provide for one-time or limited expenses of the school building authority under this chapter, the Rhode Island health and educational building corporation shall provide funding from the school building authority capital fund, fees generated from the origination of mun…

(a) There is hereby established a school building authority advisory board that shall advise the school building authority regarding the best use of the school building authority capital fund, including the setting of statewide priorities, criteria for project approval, and recom…

If any provision of this chapter or the application of this chapter to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the chapter, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this…

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as “The Performance Incentive Funding Act of 2016.”

The commissioner of postsecondary education is hereby directed to implement a performance incentive funding formula that meets the requirements of this chapter, in consultation with the council on postsecondary education.

(a) Beginning in FY 2018, funding for the Community College of Rhode Island (“CCRI”) shall include a performance-based component utilizing all additional allocations of otherwise unrestricted, higher-education general revenue greater than the base amount received pursuant to the …