Remote Testing & Online Education Programs

The bill allows online schools or online programs (online education program) to offer remote state assessment testing (testing) to students who attend an online education program in a setting that aligns with the student's regular educational instruction. To offer remote testing, online education programs shall put the following procedures in place:

• A student must take the assessment at an assigned date and time;
• The student must attend a synchronous assessment session initiated and managed by online education program personnel;
• The student must take the state assessment using a device with a camera that is monitored by an assessment proctor via video for the duration of the state assessment or, if the assessment platform does not allow integrated camera proctoring, the student must use 2 devices, one to take the state assessment and one the assessment proctor uses to monitor the student;
• The online education program must maintain a ratio of no more than 10 students to one assessment proctor for the duration of the state assessment;
• The student must not exit the state assessment until instructed by the assessment proctor; and
• The assessment proctor shall verify the submission of each student's state assessment.

The bill requires the department of education (department) to develop, review, and update state assessment administration and security policies (policies) for home-based, virtual administration of computer-based state assessments (assessments) for students enrolled full time in online schools or online programs. The policies must include, but are not limited to:

• Testing personnel qualifications;
• Maximum ratio of students to virtual administrator;
• Tester verification;
• Remote setting requirements, including restriction to other devices or people with or without internet capabilities;
• Monitoring of the test-taker and testing environment;
• Device and network requirements;
• Parental consent agreements; and
• Eligibility for schools to conduct assessments.

The department's policies must support the collection of evidence and evaluation of assessment results in order to administer assessments in the 2024-25 school year, with the expectation of full implementation of assessments no later than the 2025-26 school year that result in valid scores. To establish the validity of assessments in the 2024-25 school year, the department shall conduct validation activities, gather data, and evaluate the comparability of home-based, virtual state assessments and school-based, in-person administered state assessments.

The bill appropriates $440,000 to the department from the state education fund.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)