Basic Education

The Washington State Board of Education is responsible for ensuring that Washington State public school districts and local education agencies are in compliance with the Program of Basic Education (Chapter 28A.150 RCW). The SBE annually conducts a survey allowing school districts to affirm compliance with the basic education law. (WAC 180-16-195).

The 2024-25 annual basic education certification process has been finalized! If you have ideas or suggestions on the best way to improve the basic education compliance process in the state of Washington, please contact Viktoria Bobyleva.

The Basic Education Matrix
Based on provisions of Chapter 28A. 150 RCW, Chapter 28A. 230 RCW, Chapter 28A. 300 RCW, and Chapter 28A. 320 RCW, the State Board created the 2024-2025 Basic Education Compliance Matrix.

The Matrix has been updated and lists four criteria that establish the recommendation for a certificate of compliance or noncompliance with the provisions of basic education law, and identifies the basic education elements that are foundational, explicitly tied to basic education, and/or legislatively required or encouraged at Washington State school districts:

• The foundational elements of basic education are ones that must be present within the education program in every school district and LEA prior to a recommendation for certification of compliance.
• The required offerings describe elements which have an explicit basic education or compulsory education reference in statute, and the presence (or not) of the element factors into compliance recommendation.
• The additional legislatively required offerings describe elements that are related to basic education, are required elsewhere in statute, but do not have an explicit basic education reference. These do not factor into the certification recommendation and would result in a notification to the district.
• The encouraged offerings describe elements that are legislatively encouraged or recommended in the statute, and these do not factor into the certification recommendation.
  

2024-2025 Basic Education Matrix  

What does the Basic Education Compliance and District Survey contain?
The survey includes questions regarding access to the Program of Basic Education that allow the state to ensure that students are offered the full breadth of educational opportunities spanning the program of basic education, specific required or encouraged offering, and the state learning standards. The updated basic education survey includes the prompts about the following topics:

• Grades offered, days of instruction, and waivers.
• Instructional hours and climate surveys.
• Science instruction in the elementary grades.
• Graduation requirements: the High School and Beyond Plan, course offerings, and graduation pathways.
• State-mandated and state-recommended educational offerings and activities.
• Mastery-based learning and Washington-Integrated Student Support Protocol.
• 2023-24 graduation requirement emergency waiver administration.

The four following instructional time-related or school-day related student entitlements cover the basic education minimum access to time for all students in public schools:

Accreditation and Basic Education Certification

Basic education certification is a mandatory process and an integral part of work that the State Board is tasked to accomplish annually. This process is different from such procedures as accreditation or private schools approval. Accreditation is a process that a school district can follow voluntarily, whereas the process of approval is mandatory for private schools. Please find more information on accreditation on this page: Accreditation.