§ 6-16-1603 — Administration

Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education shall administer the Arkansas High-Impact Tutoring Pilot Program, which shall include without limitation: (1) Determining: (A) Program requirements; (B) Student eligibility criteria, which shall consider without limitation the academic performance of student groups across grades and subjects; and (C) A process for providing competitive grant funding to each public school district and open-enrollment public charter school participating in the program for purposes of providing in-school, high-impact tutoring; (2) Approving and making publicly available on the division's website participating public school district and open-enrollment public charter school tutoring program plans; (3) Identifying and communicating allowable uses for grant funding, as permitted by state and federal law, which may include without limitation: (A) Hiring or contracting for tutors or providing stipends or other incentives to paraprofessionals, retired teachers, and community organizations to ensure maximum tutoring capacity; (B) Developing instructional materials and related supplies; (C) Covering administrative expenses; (D) Covering costs associated with technology-enabled tutoring solutions and related devices; (E) Contracting with approved tutoring providers for products and services related to high-impact tutoring; and (F) Other uses designed to increase the effectiveness of the Arkansas High-Impact Tutoring Program; (4) Providing training, technical assistance, and guidance, including without limitation the topic of sustaining of high-impact tutoring through existing funding streams to participating public school districts and open-enrollment public charter schools conducting in-school, high-impact tutoring; (5) Awarding and distributing program grants, subject to legislative appropriation of available funding; (6) Pursuing available private and federal grant funding to expand the state investment in the program; (7) Creating reporting templates, procedures, and definitions for reporting metrics for participating public school districts and open-enrollment public charter schools to use in collecting and reporting tutoring-related data to the division; (8) Including required data reports within existing state data reporting structures to streamline the data collection process for participating public school districts and open-enrollment public charter schools, where feasible; (9) Identifying, vetting, and creating an approved list of high-impact tutoring providers and other tutoring models that may be used by participating public school districts and open-enrollment public charter schools; and (10) Providing annually to the General Assembly a report that includes without limitation the following: (A) Data regarding participating public school students' access to high-impact tutoring and program implementation, including by geography, grade span, and subject based on program requirements, including without limitation: (i) How data required under this subdivision (10)(A) have changed over time; (ii) The number of students who received high-impact tutoring; (iii) The attendance of students who received high-impact tutoring in the program; and (iv) The number of students eligible for high-impact tutoring; (B) Data on achievement and growth outcomes from participating public school students; (C) Program successes and challenges; (D) Recommendations for policy changes in future years in order to ensure every child in Arkansas can access high-impact tutoring as needed; and (E) An overview of actions taken to support every participating public school district and open-enrollment public charter school to ensure that high-impact tutoring is available to every eligible child in Arkansas.

Legislative History

Added by Act 2023, No. 237,§ 20, eff. 3/8/2023.