Delaware General Assembly

CHAPTER 185

FORMERLY

HOUSE BILL NO. 15

AS AMENDED BY

SENATE AMENDMENT NO. 1

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL CURRICULUM AND COMPUTER SCIENCE.

WHEREAS, computer science skills are widely recognized as valuable assets in the current and future job market; and

WHEREAS, students in Delaware would benefit from taking computer science courses in high school; and

WHEREAS, high school students who are exposed to computer science and coding courses in high school are more likely to take such courses in college; and

WHEREAS, more high school students would take computer science and coding courses if they fulfilled a graduation requirement in mathematics;

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1. Amend Chapter 41, Title 14 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strikethrough and insertions as shown by underline as follows:

(a) By the 2020-2021 school year, all public high schools, including charter schools, shall offer at least 1 computer science course. The Department of Education is directed to develop standards for computer science and seek approval of the State Board of Education of such standards no later than December 31, 2017.

(b) Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, the requirements to receive a State of Delaware diploma, pursuant to § 122(b)(3) of this title, shall permit an Advanced Placement, Honors, College Prep or Integrated computer science course, meeting the computer science and mathematics standards, to be used to satisfy a mathematics graduation credit requirement with the exception of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, or the equivalent courses. Guidelines addressing the standards and content requirements for courses that satisfy the graduation requirements shall be developed by the Department, with the assent of the State Board of Education.

(c) A public high school, including a charter school, may request a waiver of subparagraph (a) requiring the public high school to offer at least 1 computer science course if it can be demonstrated that implementation of the requirement would be a burden either financially or programmatically to the public high school. The waiver request must be provided in writing to the Secretary of Education or designee who shall make the final decision whether to approve or deny the waiver request. The Department may promulgate regulation for implementation of this subparagraph.