An Act to direct the amendment of the Administrative Rules of South Dakota regarding the coursework required for high school graduation.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota:

Section 1. No later than September 30, 2026, the Board of Education Standards shall, pursuant to chapter 1-26, provide for and file with the secretary of state, the amendment of § 24:43:11:02, as set forth below:

24:43:11:02. General requirements for high school graduation. The units of credit number of credits required for high school graduation must include the following:

(1) Four units or more credits of language arts that, which must include the following:

(a) One unit credit of writing;

(b) One-half unit credit of speech or debate; and

(c) One unit credit of literature that must include, including one-half unit credit of American literature;

(2) Three units or more credits of social studies that, which must include the following:

(a) One unit credit of U.S. history; and

(b) One-half unit credit of U.S. government;

(3) Three units or more credits of mathematics that, which must include one unit of algebra I;

(4) Three units or more credits of science that, which must include one unit of biology;

(5) One unit or more credit in any combination of the following:

(a) ApprovedAn approved career and technical education courses course;

(b) A capstone experience; and

(c) World languages;

(6) One-half unit credit of personal finance or economics;

(7) One unit credit of fine arts;

(8) One-half unit credit of physical education;

(9) One-half unit credit of health or health integration; and

(10) Five and one-half units credits of electives.

A state-approved, year-long, advanced computer science course or two state-approved, semester-long, advanced computer science courses may be substituted for one unit credit of science, but may not be substituted for biology. provided that the science course being replaced is not biology.

A state-approved, year-long, agriculture science course or two state-approved, semester-long, agriculture science courses may be substituted for one credit of science, provided that the science course being replaced is not biology.

Within the coursework outlined above, a student may earn one or more advanced endorsement, but is not required to do so. A student may earn one or more of the following advanced endorsements: advanced, advanced career, and advanced honors. Substitutions for laboratory science, using a state-approved computer science or a state-approved agriculture science course, do not apply to the advanced and advanced honors endorsements.

StudentsA student may be granted up to one credit in fine arts for participation in extracurricular activities. A maximum of one-fourth credit may be granted for each extracurricular activity each school year. In order to grant credit, a district must document the alignment of the activity with fine arts content standards as approved by the South Dakota Board of Education. A student may be granted a maximum of one-fourth credit for each extracurricular activity each year. The school district shall document how the extracurricular activity aligns with the fine arts content standards approved by the South Dakota Board of Education Standards.

Academic core content credit may be earned by completing an approved career and technical education course. Approval to offer credit must be obtained through an application process with the Department of Education. The application must include:

(1)  Course syllabus;

(2)  Standards based curriculum;

(3)  Teacher certification;

(4)  Assessment of standards by methods including end-of-course exams, authentic assessment, project-based learning or rubrics a copy of the teacher's certification and a course syllabus, which must include the assessment standards and must demonstrate that the curriculum is based on the applicable state content standards, as approved by the South Dakota Board of Education Standards.

Source: 10 SDR 111, effective April 24, 1984; 11 SDR 96, 11 SDR 112, effective July 1, 1985; 16 SDR 214, effective June 12, 1990; 23 SDR 31, effective September 8, 1996; 27 SDR 75, adopted January 17, 2001; 29 SDR 140, adopted April 1, 2003; 31 SDR 129, adopted March 2, 2005, effective July 1, 2009; transferred from § 24:03:06:06.01, 31 SDR 178, adopted May 4, 2005, effective July 1, 2005; 33 SDR 55, adopted September 11, 2006, effective September 1, 2007; 33 SDR 55, adopted September 11, 2006, effective September 1, 2009; 36 SDR 96, effective December 8, 2009; 45 SDR 35, effective September 19, 2018.

General Authority: SDCL 13-1-12.1, 13-3-47.

Law Implemented: SDCL 13-3-1.4, 13-33-1, 13-33-19.