This bill amends RCW 28B.85.230 and adds a new section to chapter 28B.85 RCW to create and require administration of a "student achievement council tuition recovery trust fund" (referenced as created in RCW 28B.85.240). It directs the council to establish, maintain, and administer the fund for the benefit and protection of students or enrollees of private schools licensed under the chapter, authorizes the council to impose by rule a fee structure on those schools to capitalize the fund, and requires school owners to make cash deposits as a condition of initial and continued licensure. The bill specifies that the state incurs no liability from claims against the trust fund, that a school’s coverage begins on the date of its initial deposit and ends one year after it is no longer licensed, and that the council must adopt a deposit-calculation matrix and rules for notice to potential claimants, claim settlement, and disbursement. The fund may be used to provide refunds to students harmed by a school's violation of consumer protection requirements in the chapter, to secure and administer student records, and for other responses the council finds necessary to mitigate impacts including school closures. The council must adopt schedules for fee timing and amounts and reach an amount it determines sufficient no later than five years from June 7, 2018. The text also adds a requirement that an institution that discontinues operations or discontinues a currently enrolled student's program must either provide a teach-out acceptable to the council or enter a council-acceptable transfer agreement that does not increase student costs and meets listed institutional criteria (accreditation, federal aid participation, credit acceptance, comparable delivery, and no adverse consumer protection judgment/settlement). For institutions that violate the new discontinuation provision, the bill requires refunds of tuition and fees to enrolled students at the time of program discontinuation, directs the council to adopt rules determining the time period and amount of reimbursements, and declares that any institutional debt owed by affected students is void and may not be recovered, collected, or enforced. Important details are missing from the extracted text: the bill repeatedly refers to "the council" and "this chapter" without providing the council’s formal statutory definition or the full chapter text, RCW 28B.85.240’s actual creation language for the trust fund is not included, and the specific rulemaking standards and the referenced statutes (RCW 28B.07.020(4) and chapter 28B.92 RCW) are not provided.

If enacted, private postsecondary schools licensed under chapter 28B.85 will be required to make cash deposits and pay fees into a state-administered tuition recovery trust fund, raising their upfront and ongoing operating costs as a condition of initial and continued licensure; the council will set the fee amounts, deposit formulas, and payment schedules and must build the fund to a target within five years from June 7, 2018. For students, that means greater likelihood of getting refunds, secured records, or transfer or teach-out options if a school violates consumer protection rules or closes, while the state itself won’t be liable beyond the fund; a school’s protection from the fund begins when its deposit is made and ends one year after it loses licensure. Institutions that stop operations or discontinue an enrolled student’s program must provide a council-acceptable teach-out or a transfer that does not raise student costs and meets specified accreditation and aid criteria, or else must refund tuition and fees and have institutional debt to affected students voided. Key implementation details — the exact fee levels, how the council calculates required deposits, the text creating the fund, and the specific rules on timing and amounts of reimbursements — are not provided here and will be determined later by the council, so the precise financial impact on individual schools and students is currently unclear.