Today the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) announced plans to allow high school students to earn elective credits for working. Currently, students must earn 24 credits to graduate from high school. That includes four elective credits.

Under OSPI’s proposal, students who are at least 16 would be able to satisfy those four elective credits by working. They would earn one elective credit for every 360 hours worked. Ultimately, this would help make the school day more flexible for students who have work responsibilities. As Superintendent Reykdal said today, “Students get choice. And when they choose to work, we need to honor that.”

There are already some ways for students to use work experience to satisfy credit requirements, but as Superintendent Reykdal said today, the process is complex. (For example, employers have to qualify and students may have to take additional classes.) The new proposal would cut through the red tape: any student who earns a wage would qualify, and employment in any industry would be eligible.

Schools would have to verify the employment and continue to support the students. According to the superintendent, “Teachers will be assigned to cohorts of students who work.” Thus, when students choose to satisfy electives by working, they won’t reduce school apportionment funding.

This change does not require legislative action; instead, it will be made through the rulemaking process. OSPI hopes to have the program in place for school year 2023–24.

This is the second of several policy proposals that OSPI plans to roll out over the next few months. (I’ll write about the first—on the use of timber revenues to fund school construction—in a future post.)