Publication of report cards; issuance date; advertising results

(A) The State Department of Education annually shall publish on its website home page the report card to all schools and districts of the State no later than November fifteenth, for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 School Years. To further increase transparency and accountability, for the 2018-2019 School Year, the school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than October first. For the 2019-2020 School Year, and every subsequent year, the school's report card must be furnished to parents and the public no later than September first. The home page report card must be capable of being downloaded into a portable document format (PDF) and must contain National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores or other national scores or comparisons, if available. The report card summary must be made available to all parents of the school and the school district. (B) The school, in conjunction with the district board, also must inform the community of the school's report card by advertising the results in at least one South Carolina daily newspaper of general circulation in the area. This notice must be published within forty-five days of receipt of the report cards issued by the State Department of Education and must be a minimum of two columns by ten inches (four and one-half by ten inches) with at least a twenty-four point bold headline. (C) If an audited newspaper of general circulation in a school district's geographic area has previously published the entire school report card results as a news item, the requirement of subsection (B) may be waived.