This bill amends multiple existing education statutes and creates new sections to allow local school boards to develop or adopt district alternative learning standards as an alternative to state learning standards, subject to filing with OSPI, publication on the district website, and OSPI review for consistency with student learning goals. It revises the superintendent of public instruction’s duties for developing, revising, and posting state learning standards and assessments, requires screening for biased content and incorporation of diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts, requires OSPI to post grade-level content expectations and a revision schedule by September 1, 2025, and directs OSPI to adopt rules limited to reviewing district alternative standards for consistency with student learning goals. The bill also changes procedures and program requirements across curricula and instruction. It amends local instructional materials selection and complaint procedures (including specific timelines for committee decisions, limits on reconsideration, and appeal to the superintendent or designee), requires annual physical education program reviews and OSPI reporting, requires arts instruction in districts over 200 students beginning 2023–24, and mandates comprehensive sexual health education for all public school students by 2022–23 with parental notification and opt-out procedures and an OSPI list of approved curricula and annual reporting by schools. It adds access and reporting requirements for elective computer science courses (including in certain juvenile institutions), permits awarding computer science credit via competency examinations subject to OSPI review and district policy, and requires districts to implement comprehensive school counseling program plans by the 2022–23 school year. The bill establishes new procedural and accountability provisions: it defines expectations for professional learning and facilitator standards, amends career and technical education program-of-study requirements to align with state or district alternative standards, updates charter school compliance and reporting obligations, creates a joint legislative audit and review committee study on differences and student outcomes where alternative standards are adopted (due January 1, 2030), and adds a provision that any part of the act conflicting with federal requirements for federal funds is inoperative to the extent of the conflict. Several referenced sections and some text are incomplete or not included in the extracted material, and the bill’s enactment or effective dates are not provided in the extracted facts.

If enacted, school boards will be able to adopt district-level alternative learning standards instead of the state standards, but they must ensure those alternatives match the state's student learning goals, post them on the district website, and file them with OSPI for a limited review. That change gives districts more flexibility in what they teach but also creates new work and likely costs for writing standards, updating curricula, training staff, doing outreach to families, and preparing for OSPI review; OSPI’s role expands to screen standards for bias, incorporate diversity/equity/inclusion, post assessment expectations quickly, and publish a schedule for standards revisions by September 1, 2025. Key implementation details and timing for many duties, funding to cover districts’ and OSPI’s new tasks, and enforcement mechanisms are not provided here and remain uncertain. The bill adds other statewide program obligations that will affect districts, schools, and teachers: statewide comprehensive sexual health education with notification and parent opt-out procedures by 2022–23, annual PE program reviews reported to OSPI, arts instruction requirements for districts over 200 students by 2023–24, wider access to high school computer science including competency-based credit (with OSPI review), and reporting on computer science in juvenile institutional programs subject to available appropriations. Teachers receive explicit protections against adverse employment actions for teaching consistent with state standards or supporting legally required, scientifically accurate instruction. These shifts will change district reporting duties, create recurring compliance and training costs, and expose districts to future evaluation — a JLARC study comparing alternative and state standards is required by January 1, 2030 — but the bill leaves several funding and operational details unspecified.