School year length and student hours for public schools

(a) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, beginning with the 2011-2013 school years, all public schools, excluding charter schools and multi-track public schools, shall implement a school year of one hundred eighty days, excluding professional development days and other non-instructional days negotiated pursuant to chapter 89. (b) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary: (1) For the 2011-2012 school year, fifty per cent of all public elementary schools in the State, excluding charter schools and multi-track public schools, shall implement a school year that includes nine hundred fifteen student hours; and (2) Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, all public elementary schools in the State, excluding charter schools and multi-track public schools, shall implement a school year that includes nine hundred fifteen student hours. (c) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, for the 2015-2016 school year, all public secondary schools, excluding charter schools and multi-track public schools, shall implement a school year that includes nine hundred ninety student hours. (d) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year, all public schools, excluding charter schools and multi-track public schools, shall implement a school year of one hundred eighty days, excluding professional development days and other non-instructional days negotiated pursuant to chapter 89, that shall include one thousand eighty student hours for both elementary and secondary school grades. (e) The board, in its discretion, may grant a waiver to any individual school subject to the student hours or one hundred eighty day school year requirements in this section. The board shall adopt policies and procedures to grant a waiver under this subsection. (f) For purposes of this section, "student hours" shall be inclusive of the full school day in alignment with the State's general learner outcomes. (g) The department of education, with the board of education and office of the governor, and in consultation with representatives of the affected collective bargaining units, shall submit to the legislature, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, a report on its progress and efforts to meet the requirements of subsections (a), (b), (c), and (d).