Bill
SB 5809
SB 5809 (2025) would save money by repealing several statutorily required annual reports and an advisory committee.
Status snapshot
- Bill Number: SB 5809
- Introduced: April 14, 2025 (current filing)
- Current status: First reading 04/14/25; referred to Senate Committee on Ways & Means. An executive session was scheduled but no action was taken. Earlier versions were considered in the 2024 session (see Procedural history).
Note on versions
- SB 5809 has appeared with materially different text across sessions. The 2024 versions (prefiled 12/06/23) focused on providing enrichment funding to charter public schools. The 2025 filing (S-2930.1) replaces that text with a different, budget‑savings measure that repeals several statutory reporting requirements and an advisory committee. Both texts are summarized below.
1) 2024 substitute (original subject: enrichment funding for charter public schools)
- Purpose: Require that state enrichment funding available to school districts be made accessible to charter public schools on an equitable, per-pupil basis.
- Key provisions:
- Amends RCW 28A.710.280 to require the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to calculate and transmit to charter schools amounts based on statewide average certificated salaries (RCW 28A.150.410) adjusted by district regionalization factors, and to include categorical program allocations (e.g., learning assistance, transitional bilingual instruction, special education, highly capable programs, pupil transportation).
- Adds an explicit per‑pupil enrichment grant for charter schools (authorized under RCW 28A.150.276) where the charter is within a district whose voters authorize enrichment levies; OSPI must distribute a per‑pupil “local effort assistance threshold” amount (per RCW 28A.500.015).
- Amends RCW 28A.500.015 to extend state local effort assistance to charter schools beginning in fiscal year 2025: annual assistance equals the actual enrichment levy per student in the hosting district up to a maximum of $1,550 per student (indexed by inflation from the 2019 calendar year), multiplied by the charter’s prior‑year enrollment.
- OSPI must adopt rules for distribution and federal reporting compliance.
- Affected parties: charter public schools, school districts (particularly those hosting charters), students enrolled in charter schools, and OSPI (administration and rulemaking).
- Fiscal note elements: creates a state funding obligation to provide per‑pupil local effort assistance to charter schools (capped per‑student amount specified).
2) 2025 filing (new subject: repeal of reports and advisory committee to generate savings)
- Purpose: Achieve state budget savings by repealing certain statutorily required annual reports and an advisory committee that the legislature finds are duplicative or have fulfilled their purpose.
- Key provisions:
- Repeals RCW 43.71C.100 (Annual report — Data confidentiality); RCW 70.330.020 (Reports to governor and legislature); and RCW 71.24.546 (Substance use recovery services plan — advisory committee — rules — report).
- Includes legislative findings emphasizing the state budget challenge and directive to reduce administrative overhead by eliminating some reports and advisory committees.
- Affected parties: state agencies and program offices previously required to prepare the repealed reports; the advisory committee and stakeholders involved with substance use recovery services; potentially legislators and the public who used those reports.
- Procedural/timing: bill text filed 04/14/25 and under review in Ways & Means; if enacted the repeals take effect per standard statute unless another effective date is specified.
Procedural history (selected)
- 2023–2024: SB 5809 (charter enrichment) prefiled 12/06/23; first reading 01/08/24; passed out of Senate Early Learning & K‑12 Education (1st substitute do pass, Jan 18, 2024); referred to Ways & Means; committee hearings and an executive session occurred in early Feb 2024.
- 2025: New S-2930.1 version (report/advisory committee repeal) read first time 04/14/25 and referred to Ways & Means.
Implications and issues to watch
- If the 2024 charter funding text were adopted, it would create a recurring state funding obligation for charter schools and require OSPI rulemaking and distribution methodology; local levy‑driven equity and calculation methodology could be politically and fiscally significant.
- The 2025 repeal text is narrowly focused on administrative savings; impacts depend on the operational importance of the repealed reports and advisory committee to oversight and service coordination.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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