HB 1324 Summary

• Establishes "turnaround academies" for persistently low-performing schools, allowing the state board to assign special management teams to operate them with authority to make independent personnel and operational decisions.

• Creates "independent schools" designation for turnaround academies that meet established performance goals, with separate governance structures and exemption from most state statutes and rules affecting school corporations.

• Requires state board to develop annual analysis correlating school corporation spending to student progress and post it on the department's website.

• Implements tiered intervention system for schools and school corporations in lowest performance categories: public hearings in years 1-2, expert team review in year 3, and state board consideration of interventions (mergers, management teams, budget approval, governance changes) in years 3-4.

• Creates "high performing school corporation" designation allowing waivers of certain state statutes and rules for corporations in highest performance categories for two consecutive years; designation is revoked if performance declines.