CS/HB 1035 - Personalized Education

• Expands the Gardiner Scholarship Program to include tuition and fees for research-based training programs for children with neurological disorders or brain damage, and allows use of funds for part-time tutoring by persons with bachelor's degrees or demonstrated subject area mastery.

• Establishes Reading Scholarship Accounts providing $500 per eligible student (in 2018-2019) to grades 3-5 public school students scoring below Level 3 on the prior year's English Language Arts assessment, with priority for English Learners; eligible expenses include instructional materials, curriculum, tutoring, and summer/after-school programs.

• Renames the Competency-Based Education Pilot Program as the Mastery-Based Education Pilot Program and authorizes participating school districts to award credit based on student mastery of content and skills instead of hourly instruction requirements, and to use alternative letter grade interpretations.

• Requires the statewide articulation agreement to ensure fair and equitable access for high school graduates with mastery-based, nontraditional diplomas and transcripts.

• Appropriates $9.7 million for reading scholarship accounts and $300,000 for administrative fees in fiscal year 2018-2019, contingent on similar legislation failing to become law; effective July 1, 2018.