House approves Rep. Muri’s bill to aid students from military families
The state House of Representatives today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom, to improve educational data collection and reporting on students from military families in Washington state.
HB 1149 was requested by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), which seeks to pinpoint how parent training cycles and deployments affect student learning and behavior, and direct its resources accordingly.
The bill requires school districts to add students from active duty military families and National Guard families as categories in their regular Comprehensive Education Data and Research System data reporting to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Student data includes demographics, enrollment information, schedules, grades and program participation.
Muri said the data would give military-connected school districts better access to Department of Defense grants for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), foreign language learning and special education programs.
“The military wants to do as much as it can for military dependents in school,” said Muri. “By identifying students, it will have a better idea of how students are doing and will be able to more effectively direct its considerable resources to those students. DOD provides a lot of education funding to school districts, but without good data you can't make good decisions.”
Muri said 13 states with significant military populations have passed similar legislation.
HB 1149 now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
