A bill to give districts more time to educate students rather than meeting unnecessary and costly state requirements has been signed into law.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, a member of the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Committee.

“This legislation has been a work in progress for years,” Hobbs said. “We received input from a broad range of education and advocacy groups and came up with well-thought out legislation that will ease the burden on our public schools so they can educate the workers of tomorrow. This is an issue I will continue to work on because there are many other mandates on the books that are burdening our school districts.”

Under Senate Bill 5889, certain laws relating to information, notice and reporting requirements, and curriculum and assessment mandates are suspended, delayed, repealed, or amended. In all, nine mandates were repealed, three were suspended until July 2011 and thirteen were amended.

For a list of the laws, go to http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bill%20Reports/Senate%20Final/5889-S.E%20SBR%20FBR%2009.pdf