In Washington State, school districts are required by state law to provide an educational program that allows students to meet instructional time and graduation requirements. In addition, there are other required educational offerings and activities that districts must provide as well as several recommended offerings and activities.
Below you will find an interactive table that details which offerings are required and encouraged. We have also created a brief two-page handout giving a high-level description of encouraged & required offerings
Click here to learn more about the differences between offering classifications.
How Are the Offerings Different? (WIP header)
The Education's Basic Education Compliance Matrix identifies different classifications of educational offerings that school districts must provide to students in order to be compliant with state law. The Board categorizes requirements into four different categories: mandatory elements, additional required elements, notification elements, and encouraged elements.
Mandatory elements are things a school district must have before they can even be recommended for a certification of compliance. They include the required minimum days per school year and hours of instruction, the High School and Beyond Plan, and more.
Additional required elements are mandatory things that are explicitly stated in the law under basic education. Arts instruction, financial aid advising day, as well as social-emotional learning standards and benchmarks are all examples of additional required elements.
Notification elements are very similar to additional required elements, except that they are stated somewhere in the law besides under basic education, and they do not factor into the basic education compliance recommendation. Things like comprehensive sexual health education fall under the notification elements category.
Encouraged elements are things that are strongly encouraged but not required by law. The purpose of notification and encouraged elements are to gauge what sorts of additional resources a school district might need in order to provide those elements, and the Board will often reach out to them with support.