Provides for a five-day school week for public schools with exceptions. (gov sig)

Senate Bill 82 enacts Louisiana Revised Statute 17:154.1(D) to establish a mandatory five-day school week for all public schools serving grades one through twelve. The bill adds this requirement to existing law that already mandates a minimum of 360 minutes of instructional time per school day and a 177-day school year. The five consecutive days must occur within a calendar week and exclude acknowledged legal holidays. This new requirement operates alongside and does not alter the existing instructional time and school year length requirements.

The legislation directly affects Louisiana school districts and their students, families, and employees. School districts that are not eligible for exceptions must restructure their calendars to provide five days of in-person instruction weekly. However, two categories of school systems are exempt from this mandate. First, any school district receiving an A performance score from the state Department of Education may continue operating under alternative schedules. Second, any city, parish, or other local school system that implemented a four-day school week on or before December 31, 2025, may continue that practice indefinitely. These exceptions protect districts that have adopted four-day schedules prior to the cutoff date and reward high-performing school systems with scheduling flexibility.

This legislation operates within Louisiana's existing framework for regulating school operations found in R.S. 17:154.1, which comprehensively addresses the minimum requirements for school days, weeks, and years. The bill preserves all existing statutory mandates regarding instructional minutes and annual school year length while adding a new temporal requirement. The performance-based exception mechanism ties to the state Department of Education's existing evaluation system, incorporating accountability measures already established in Louisiana law. The effective date provision becomes operative upon gubernatorial signature or the automatic passage period prescribed by Article III, Section 18 of the Louisiana Constitution.