La. Admin. Code tit. 28 § CLIII-1305

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section CLIII-1305 - Accountability System for Participating Nonpublic Schools

A. Accountability criteria shall serve the goal of ensuring the public trust that all schools participating promote student achievement.

B. Within the accountability system, the state superintendent may adjust individual numeric performance targets and thresholds to accommodate changing policies and circumstances outside the accountability system.

C. Because some schools are larger participants than others in the program, and thus take on a larger share of the public trust, accountability criteria shall vary depending on the number of scholarship students enrolled in the school as of October 1 of each academic year, as follows.

D. As nonpublic schools approved by the board in accordance with Article 8, Section 4 of the Louisiana State Constitution, all participating schools shall continue to demonstrate a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that prescribed for similar public schools. In accordance with R.S. 17:11, the LDE will periodically determine whether the nonpublic school is maintaining such quality.

Number of Participating Students	Means of Academic Numeric Measurement and Reporting
Average of 0-9.9 participating students per K-12 grade in the school and fewer than 40 students enrolled in tested grades	Per state and federal law, state test scores will be reported publicly for the entirety of the scholarship program student cohort if the school has 10 or more participating students taking tests, as well as for any grade level with 10 or more participating students taking tests.
Average of 3 10 participating students per K-12 grade in the school or 40 or more students enrolled in tested grades	Per state and federal law, state test scores will be reported publicly for the entirety of the scholarship program student cohort if the school has 10 or more participating students taking tests, as well as for any grade level with 10 or more participating students taking tests.
	A Scholarship Cohort Index, calculated in a manner that is substantially similar to the school performance score outlined in Bulletin 111 and is based on state assessments of student learning, shall be produced after the school year in which assessments were taken. The scholarship Cohort Index will measure only students in the scholarship program rather than the school as a whole.

E. Nonpublic Schools that Receive Scholarship Cohort Indexes

1. There shall be three fundamental rules of the accountability system for participating nonpublic schools that receive scholarship cohort indexes. Starting with the 2012-2013 school year:

a. Scholarship cohort indexes will be released after the school year on which they are based. If the school receives a scholarship cohort index below 50 in the second year of participation or in any year thereafter (on a scale of 150), the school shall not enroll additional scholarship recipients for the next school year. Students attending a participating school that receives a score below 50 in any year shall have priority admission to attend another participating school the following year;

b. following four school years of program participation, and in any period of four school years thereafter, if the participating school has scored below 50 for the majority of years in which it received a scholarship cohort index, the school shall be able to enroll new scholarship recipients only after achieving a score greater than 50 and a satisfactory quality review by the LDE.

c. beginning with the 2021-2022 school year, a participating school that for three consecutive years receives a scholarship cohort index below 50 shall be ineligible to participate in the program.

2. The following exceptions shall exist.

a. The state superintendent shall waive each of the provisions in Paragraph 1 of this Subsection for a given school if likely new enrollees otherwise would predominantly be enrolled in schools performing at levels lower than or equivalent to the participating school.

b. The state superintendent may waive any of the above provisions for a given school if the school has improved by more than 15 points on the scholarship cohort index over the last four school years, with the 2012-2013 school year being the first such year.

c. The state superintendent may waive any of the above provisions for a given school if the school received a score higher than an equivalent school performance score correlating to a letter grade of an "F" according to the school performance score formula outlined in Bulletin 111-the Louisiana School, District, and State Accountability System.

3. In accordance with the Louisiana Constitution, the board shall ensure that approved nonpublic schools maintain a curriculum of quality at least equal to that prescribed for similar public schools and periodically determine whether the nonpublic school is maintaining such quality. If, in the process of such a periodic review, or at any other time, a participating school is found to have demonstrated gross or persistent lack of basic academic competence, the school may incur penalties including ineligibility to participate or ineligibility to accept new students.

La. Admin. Code tit. 28, § CLIII-1305

Promulgated by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, LR 39:83 (January 2013), Amended LR 42553 (4/1/2016), Amended LR 4829 (1/1/2022).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 17:6 and R.S. 17:4025.