Year-round-school may come to Washington

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Summer months come to an end; children head back to school, but they've experienced summer learning loss and now require remedial education.

Every year, teachers across the US say the first month of school after summer break usually is spent discovering what students have retained and reviewing what they’ve forgotten.

This learning loss disproportionately affects students from lower income backgrounds, according to a 2016 American Education Research Association study.

Substitute SB 5147 proposes a pilot program for four consecutive years at the start of the 2022 academic calendar to combat this issue.

The program would keep the 180-day instructional calendar, but would spread it over at least 11 months of the year, replacing the traditional summer break for shorter, more consistent breaks throughout.

School districts, up to 30 in total, could apply for the program on a first come, first served basis through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

For districts to be eligible, during the 2019-20 school year they must have had between 500 and 10,000 enrolled students and at least half of their students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.