In response to OSPI’s updated rules, and to support your district in its progress toward building inclusive learning environments, WSSDA has revised Model Policy and Procedure 2161/2161P– Special education and Related Services for Eligible Students. This is an essential policy.

Earlier this fall, Governor Inslee issued Proclamation 21.14, requiring K-12 staff to be vaccinated against CO- VID-19 or obtain a medical or religious exemption. In Oc- tober, WSSDA revised three model policies to help school districts respond to the various scenarios they might face as they implemented the proclamation. These revisions included updating Model Policy 5400 – Personnel Leaves to provide an option for districts that might wish to use unpaid leave to respond to an employee who refuses to comply with the vaccine requirement.

At that time, the legal consensus was that the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction (OSPI) would likely find this approach to be acceptable. However, OSPI has now determined that indefinite unpaid leave is not authorized under the proclamation, and that unpaid leave is an acceptable response only in circumstances where employees were in the process of completing their CO- VID-19 vaccinations but could not complete that process by October 18, 2021, or where employees were in the process of obtaining approval for their exemption/accommodation but had not yet completed that process.

Upon learning of OSPI’s determination, WSSDA has further tailored the revisions to this policy to ensure school districts’ use is in compliance. Please note that school districts need to work with their own attorney and review collective bargaining agreements and other possible specific circumstances before implementing a response using either a nondisciplinary dismissal or an unpaid leave approach.

In the 2021 legislative session House Bill (HB) 1016 – Juneteenth – Legal Holiday became law and beginning this June  Juneteenth as a legal state holiday.  Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 as a day of remembrance for June 19, 1865, when news finally reached African slaves in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved persons were now released from the bondage of slavery. This occurred two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the end of the Civil War.   

HB 1016 failed to include public schools in the holiday.   This was apparently an error.  The legislature is currently in the process of correcting the error with SHB 1617 which passed the house on a bipartisan 88 to 8 vote.  The bill is fully expected to pass the Senate by a similar margin and become law in the coming weeks.

The WSSDA recommendation did not include the parenthetical statement that it becomes effective in 2023.   SHB 1617 states that the law becomes effective on July 1, 2022, thus this will not be a school holiday in 2022.  This has been added for clarification and will be administratively modified at a later date to remove this statement. 

WSSDA has revised this policy to add language providing for conducting a cost or price analysis. The revisions also address interlocal cooperative agreements. Other revisions serve to clarify self-certification options.