This bill amends the existing high school graduation statute (RCW 28A.230.710) to specify the range of "graduation pathway" options a student may use to demonstrate career and college readiness and requires each public high school graduate to meet the requirements of at least one such pathway. Eligible options are enumerated and include test-based options, course-based options (including dual credit and specified advanced programs), performance-based learning experiences, combinations of options, the armed services vocational aptitude battery, and approved career and technical education (CTE) sequences. The bill defines key terms such as "demonstrate readiness," "dual credit course," and "high school transition course." The change is primarily procedural and regulatory: it modifies existing law to add and clarify pathway options, assigns rulemaking duties to the State Board of Education (SBE) (in collaboration with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, OSPI), and requires school districts to adopt written policies before offering the performance-based pathway. The SBE and OSPI must establish graduation proficiency targets and rubrics for the performance-based pathway; the SBE must adopt implementing rules, including safety/quality and assessment criteria, allow for external evaluators, and require involvement of at least one certificated teacher. School districts retain discretion over which options to offer (the legislature encourages offering all) but must annually provide comprehensive information about available pathways to students in grades 8–12 and their parents or guardians (with outreach strongly encouraged to begin in grade 6) consistent with district language access policies. Affected entities explicitly include the SBE, OSPI, school district boards of directors, institutions of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016, and the Professional Educator Standards Board in relation to qualifications. The bill references and relies on other statutes (RCW 28A.305.130; 28A.655.070; 28B.10.016; 28B.10.054(1); 28A.700.030; 28A.183.040) and directs future SBE rules for many specifics. Important implementation details are not provided in the extracted text: the exact graduation standard and statewide assessment details, the specific list of approved advanced courses and competency assessments, precise SAT/ACT score thresholds, the detailed safety and assessment rules for the performance-based pathway, and the proficiency targets and rubrics to be adopted by SBE and OSPI.

If enacted, every student graduating from a Washington public high school would have to meet at least one of several defined graduation pathways (tests, courses, performance work, career/armed services options, or combinations), but local school districts would choose which of those options to offer and must annually give clear, language-accessible information about the options to students in grades 8–12 (and are encouraged to start outreach in grade 6). School boards must adopt a written policy before offering a performance-based learning pathway, and that pathway must meet state safety and quality rules, include authentic assessment with at least one certificated teacher involved, and may use external evaluators; the State Board of Education and OSPI will set proficiency targets, rubrics, and other implementing rules. Practically, this shifts responsibilities and likely costs onto school districts and school boards for policy adoption, program development, family outreach in multiple languages, staff training, and meeting safety/assessment requirements for any performance-based offerings, while state agencies must produce rules, lists, scores, targets, and rubrics before many details are usable. Because the bill leaves key specifics — exact assessments, qualifying course lists and scores, and detailed safety/quality requirements — to future SBE and OSPI rulemaking, districts face uncertainty about final standards and potential fiscal impacts until those rules are issued, and students’ access to particular pathways may vary depending on local district choices.