School systems across Georgia can get exemptions from rules that spell out things like class size, salary and spending.
These Strategic Waiver School System contracts allow flexibility with state regulations and laws in order to increase student success, and the Bibb County School District is no different.
Here’s what you need to know about how these contracts with the State Board of Education work:
How does the Strategic Waiver work?
The SWSS contract allows schools flexibility with Title 20 requirements, or the Georgia State code pertaining to education, that may be holding schools back from succeeding.
According to the State Board rule 160-5-1-.33, the waivers specifically allow district flexibility for class size requirements, expenditure controls, certification requirements and salary schedule requirements.
The local board also is allowed to request waivers for items outside of those four specified, however, there are limits to which rules can be waived or flexed. These include but are not limited to codes pertaining to annual performance evaluations, school resource officer training requirements and unlawful conduct in or near public schools.
Flexibility with educational rules and regulations began in 2007 with the implementation of the Charter Systems Act, allowing school systems increased flexibility to account for a community’s specific educational needs in exchange for improved student achievement. This means charter what The following year, House Bill 1209 passed allowing districts further flexibility when entering contracts with the State Board. These school systems were known as Investing in Educational Excellence Systems, or IE2 systems, until 2015 when they were renamed Strategic Waiver School Systems.
While the waiver allows schools flexibility, it also requires accountability for schools through the form of achievement measures: High school graduation rates, SAT and ACT performance and state standardized testing data. The testing data can include Georgia Milestones test scores and Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate participation and performance.
The accountability portion of the waiver contract must improve performance in at least one of those areas. If a school district does not adhere to the contract or show progress towards the accountability requirements listed, GaDOE may also impose sanctions on the system.
These sanctions can include things like school improvement plans, corrective actions plans, removal of school personnel and any other sanctions deemed necessary to promote school improvement.
According to the GaDOE, there are 130 Strategic Waiver School Systems in Georgia.
How is the Bibb County School District using the waiver?
Bibb County has been an SWSS school district since 2016, following the House Bill 502 implementation of the system on July 1, 2015.
Bibb County Schools currently has a one year SWSS waiver contract, though a typical contract length is six years. The county was only offered a one year contract due to an increased number of Bibb schools identified as low-performing.
The current contract allows Bibb County Schools flexibility in all four categories: class size requirements, expenditure controls, certification requirements and salary schedule requirements, according to Ethel Lett, the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the Bibb County School District.
Lett says that she sees the current waiver as highly beneficial to students in Bibb County.
“It helps us not only maintain a level of support that we need for our students, but also it helps us maintain the level of support we need for our staff,” she said.
According to Lett, the waiver covers all schools in the Bibb County School District.
The Bibb contract’s class size waiver increases maximum class size, and aims to allow the district to allocate resources to classrooms with more students in order to ensure student success.
Along with class size, the section of the contract allowing for certification requirement flexibility contributes to the effectiveness of the program. Classes such as the gifted program require special teacher certifications. Because of a lack of teachers for gifted, remedial and early intervention programs, those classes are primary targets for class and certification waivers.
“We did not have enough teachers certified in those areas to meet those minimum expectations,” Lett said.
This does not mean that courses such as the gifted program are not being offered, they just may be taught by a teacher who lacks the specialized certification.
Certification waivers also allow teachers to work without their full teaching certifications, while working to become certified. The waiver allows Bibb to hire teachers from abroad, people with degrees in other fields and students still working to get their certifications.
There are approximately 395 emerging educators, or teachers hired through the waiver, and 90 international teachers in Bibb County schools this academic year, according to Stephanie Hartley, the chief communications officer for the district.
The current waiver’s salary schedule flexibility also works to ensure there are enough educators for Bibb County classrooms. Teachers are typically compensated based on degree level, number of years teaching and the Georgia salary schedule.
Through the contract, Bibb can recruit teachers in professional positions outside of teaching, such as engineering, technology or other support roles, while compensating them for their experiences.
The Bibb waiver asks for flexibility in the schedule and “The district desires to ensure that all employees are compensated at competitive rates while valuing prior non-teaching responsibilities,” according to the Bibb contract.
“It allows us to pay our teachers based on their expertise,” Lett said.
Expenditure controls are also a large part of the Bibb County contract. Lett says that the most important part of having expenditure flexibility is being able to put funds where they are the most useful.
“We just asked that we are able to align our spending priorities for gifted and other programs with what we’re actually able and capable of doing within the school district,” she said.
Lett pointed to smaller class sizes for the gifted program as an example for needing flexible funding alongside the class size waiver, while still needing state funds for the program.
What are Bibb County’s goals for the waiver?
The current contract for the county expires on June 30, 2025, and by the end of the contract term the school district has set four improvement area goals: Successful implementation of school improvement strategies for schools designated Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools, improvement in schools on the CSI list, non-CSI schools maintaining current performance levels and the school system should remain “fiscally sound” by avoiding the “financial high-risk system” designation.
The Bibb waiver bases its current waiver assessment on the 2023-2024 CSI list, which details the lowest 5% of Title 1 schools in the state.
Based on 2024 data there are eight Bibb County CSI schools, according to the GaDOE: Appling Middle School, Bernd Elementary School, Bruce Elementary School, Hartley Elementary School, Ingram/Pye Elementary School, Rosa Taylor Elementary School, Union Elementary School and Williams Elementary School.
“The whole goal of the waiver is to ensure positive outcomes for students,” Lett said. “As our students matriculate through our K-12 system, we want them to graduate knowing exactly who they are and knowing exactly who they want to be, whether that is that they are going to the military, going into the job work, going into college or starting their own business.”
According to Lett, the Bibb County School District will be seeking an extension or renewal for the waiver at the end of the school year.
