Senate Bill No. 2196 Summary

• State board of public school education shall establish and certify a North Dakota learning continuum allowing district-approved mastery framework policies to award high school units and waive instructional time requirements under recommendations from the K-12 education coordination council.

• Kindergarten through grade twelve education coordination council gains new duty to review the North Dakota learning continuum and provide recommendations to the state board of public school education.

• Superintendent of public instruction shall facilitate development and implementation of a North Dakota learning continuum in collaboration with the department of career and technical education, upon K-12 education coordination council recommendation.

• School districts and nonpublic high schools adopting a mastery framework policy may award units based on successful completion of North Dakota learning continuum portions instead of meeting state content standards, provided the policy identifies which portions must be mastered for graduation.

• High school units from district-approved mastery frameworks are exempt from the standard instructional time requirements of at least 120 hours (or 150 hours for specified subjects) per school calendar.