Washington’s education leader says schools are ‘accelerating’

SEATTLE — Graduation rates are holding steady, enrollments are picking up and school districts are on track to spend their federal pandemic relief funds, the state’s top education official said Monday.

“We took a pause during the pandemic a bit. But we’re accelerating again,” said State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, who whipped through a wide range of policy proposals in a news conference on the first day of the 2023 legislative session.

He urged legislators to focus on student mental health, citing rising youth suicide cases and a 2021 state survey which found that nearly two-thirds of middle schoolers and nearly half of high schoolers reported feeling sad or hopeless for at least two weeks of the year. His agenda also supports removing a statewide cap on special education funding, providing free school lunch for students and expanding a library program that gives free books to kids ages five and younger.

This year’s agenda is consistent with what the state Education Department has supported — and not supported — in previous years. Reykdal, a former Democratic state lawmaker, is serving his second four-year term as state superintendent; he does not have the power to vote on laws.

His presentation included some new statistics and projections compiled by his office.

* School enrollments ticked up again slightly this past fall, but the total head count is still down 4% from the fall of 2019. This year the total public school population stands at 1,095,122, about 46,000 students fewer than at the start of the pandemic. Reykdal said he does not anticipate a “rapid recovery” to this number, since many families found alternatives that they’re sticking with, such as home schooling. He asked lawmakers to help offset the funding loss associated with this shift, a request he has made in prior years.

* Four-year graduation rates are up 2 percentage points, to 82%, compared with 80% in 2019. (In Seattle Public Schools, graduation rates increased by 6 percentage points in that same time period.) This is likely related to a push from districts and the state to make sure pandemic hardships didn’t prohibit students from graduating. Among the adjustments: a state program that waived credits for qualifying students. Rates are also up slightly for most students of color, and for foster and migrant students. White and Asian students lost a tiny amount of ground. Reykdal said his office would look into this trend, though it is likely not statistically significant.

* Salaries have made up much of school districts’ spending on pandemic relief from the federal government, and classroom teachers have gotten the lion’s share of that money. Using those one-time funds, districts paid for nearly 2,400 new classroom teachers, followed by other employees such as paraeducators, librarians, emotional support staff and classified staff. This spending may have been used to preserve positions that may have otherwise been cut. He said districts were on track to spend the majority of remaining funds this school year, responding to concerns about a slow spend of relief dollars here and in other states. And, in a statement that seemed geared toward a request for more transparency in how the dollars are spent, he said his office was working within the requirements of the law, which is vague on requiring detailed accounts of spending.