Assigned to ED AS PASSED BY COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1459
school letter grades; student discipline
Purpose
Requires each school district and charter school to include a rubric for student discipline
in every student handbook and annually report to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE)
information relating to student discipline referrals. Prohibits a public school or administrator from
discouraging a teacher from submitting a student discipline referral and authorizes ADE to
investigate violations of the prohibition. Requires ADE to reduce a school's annual achievement
profile letter grade by two letter grades if disciplinary action is implemented in fewer than 75
percent of a school's discipline referrals.
Background
A school district governing board (governing board), in consultation with school district
teachers and parents, must prescribe rules for the discipline, suspension and expulsion of students.
The rules must contain: 1) penalties for excessive absenteeism; 2) procedures for the reasonable
use of physical force by certificated or classified personnel in self-defense or defense of others;
3) procedures for students who have, or are believed to have, committed a crime; 4) procedures
for expulsions or suspensions of more than 10 days; and 5) procedures for confining students who
are left in an enclosed space. A governing board must assist teachers in enforcing the rules and
develop additional procedures that allow teachers and principals to temporarily remove disruptive
students from a class and recommend the suspension or expulsion of a student. A school principal
must ensure that all rules pertaining to discipline, suspension and expulsion are communicated to
students at the beginning of each school year and are provided to a student's parents when enrolling
the student (A.R.S. § 15-843).
ADE must annually recommend to the State Board of Education (SBE) an achievement
profile for each public school and local education agency using classifications based on an A
through F letter grade system. The A through F letter grade system is applied to each performance
indicator of the prescribed annual achievement profile and the SBE must assign an overall letter
grade for each public school or local education agency (A.R.S. § 15-241).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this
legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires a school district or charter school to include a rubric for student discipline in every
student handbook. FACT SHEET – Amended
S.B. 1459
Page 2
2. Specifies that the student discipline rubric must include only objective criteria for student
discipline and may not consider a student's religion, race, sex, color, ethnicity, ancestry or
national origin.
3. Requires a school district or charter school to annually report to ADE:
a) the total number of student discipline referrals submitted by teachers in each school;
b) the number of student discipline referrals reported for which the school administration
implemented the teacher's recommended disciplinary action or another disciplinary action; and
c) the percentage of student discipline referrals reported for which the school administration
did not implement the teacher's recommended disciplinary action or any other action.
4. Requires ADE to reduce the annual achievement profile letter grade assigned to a school that
is operated by a school district or charter school by two letter grades if:
a) the school does not implement the teacher's recommended disciplinary action or another
disciplinary action in at least 75 percent of the total number of student discipline referrals
reported in a single school year; and
b) the school has no reasonable justification, as determined by ADE, for implementing
disciplinary actions in fewer than 75 percent of student discipline referrals in a single
school year.
5. Specifies that a disciplinary action does not include social emotional learning or restorative
discipline.
6. Prohibits a school district, charter school or school administrator from discouraging a teacher
from submitting a student discipline referral consistent with the student discipline handbook
and the teacher's authority.
7. Specifies that discourage includes any formal or informal action, policy, guideline or statement
that limits a teacher's authority to submit a student discipline referral or penalizes the teacher
for submitting a student discipline referral.
8. Allows a teacher to report any alleged violation of the prohibition on discouragement to ADE.
9. Allows ADE to investigate reports of an alleged violation of the prohibition on
discouragement.
10. Requires ADE, if ADE determines that a student discipline referral was warranted but not
submitted by a teacher due to discouragement, to adjust the school district's or charter school's
reported student discipline referral information by:
a) adding the student discipline referral to the reported total number of student discipline
referrals submitted by teachers in the school;
b) recalculating the percentage of student discipline referrals reported for which the school
administration did not implement the teacher's recommended disciplinary action or any
other action to include the additional student discipline referral; and
c) recalculating whether a school implemented disciplinary action in at least 75 percent of the
total number of student discipline referrals reported in a single school year for the purposes
of ADE's requirement to reduce a school's annual achievement profile letter grade by two
letter grades. FACT SHEET – Amended
S.B. 1459
Page 3
11. Requires ADE to administer an annual survey of teachers who are employed by a school
district or charter school to assess whether, during the previous school year, any school district,
charter school, administrator or teacher considered a student's religion, race, sex, color,
ethnicity, ancestry or national origin when determining whether to submit a student discipline
referral or what disciplinary action was appropriate.
12. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by Committee
1. Prohibits a public school or administrator from discouraging a teacher from submitting a
student discipline referral.
2. Allows a teacher to report an alleged violation of the prohibition on discouragement to ADE
and allows ADE to investigate alleged violations.
3. Requires ADE, if ADE determines a referral was warranted but not submitted due to
discouragement, to adjust a school's reported student discipline referral information as
outlined.
4. Specifies that a student handbook's student discipline rubric may not consider outlined
information relating to a student's identity.
5. Requires ADE to administer a survey of public school teachers to determine whether a teacher
considered outlined information relating to the student when considering whether to submit a
student discipline referral or determining an appropriate disciplinary action.
6. Makes conforming changes.
Senate Action
ED 2/14/24 DPA 4-3-1
Prepared by Senate Research
February 15, 2024
MH/slp