The Board continued developing recommendations to modernize Washington's high school graduation requirements through its FutureReady initiative. 

The discussion began with a student fishbowl featuring local middle and high school students, who shared their experiences with Washington's current graduation requirements and discussed what they believe students need to succeed after high school.

Following the student panel, Board members also reviewed prior points of consensus as well as feedback and recommendations from the May FutureReady Task Force meeting. Some of these key shifts in the framework include:

• Provide support for more relevant, authentic, and interdisciplinary learning opportunities. Students and families are asking for more real-world learning experiences that are meaningful to their lives and build important transferable skills.
• Give students more support in postsecondary planning by improving the High School and Beyond Plan, so they have more time and support to meaningfully explore interests, set goals, and prepare for life after high school.
• Shift some core requirements into an expanded Personalized Pathway Requirement (PPR) so students have more flexibility to tailor coursework to their interests and postsecondary goals without lowering academic expectations. Under the proposal, PPR courses are courses that most students are expected to take, but may be substituted on an individual student basis in alignment with preparation for a clear postsecondary plan documented in the High School and Beyond Plan and in consultation with a student's family and educators. 
• Streamline the graduation framework by removing graduation pathways because we have heard from students, families, and communities that they are not meaningful and can be an administrative hurdle that does not effectively check whether a student has the knowledge needed to succeed after graduation.  
• Create a consistent statewide policy that expands flexible credit options to all students, including competency-based crediting, physical education excusals tied to athletic participation, and multilingual learner world language credit.  

The Board then engaged in discussion and reached consensus on several adjustments to the current credit framework that will guide staff as they prepare a resolution for Board consideration in August. Those adjustments include: 

• Moving the Career and Technical Education (CTE) credit from the core requirements into the PPR.  
• Revising the current 1.5 Physical Education credit requirement by shifting one-half credit from Physical Education to Health within the PPR. Of the remaining 1.0 Physical Education credit, one half-credit would remain in the core requirements and one half-credit would move into the PPR.
• Creating one PPR credit focused on financial education, High School and Beyond Plan instruction, and life skills. For this credit, the Board recommended developing a state model curriculum while allowing local school districts flexibility in how they deliver the content. Districts could offer the content as a single integrated course or incorporate it across multiple courses and instructional experiences to best meet local needs.

These recommendations were made through an informal polling process intended to provide direction to staff as they prepare technical elements of the proposal. No final decisions have been made at this time. The Board is expected to consider formal action on a draft resolution during its August 12–13 meeting. These recommendations will be presented to the FutureReady Task Force on July 23 for additional discussion, with Task Force feedback informing continued technical development before Board action is taken.

The full draft framework for credit and subject area changes includes the following:

During a Board dinner on June 24, the Board recognized the service of outgoing student board member Abby Wu. Abby, a recent graduate of Pullman High School, stepped into the role midway through the term and quickly established herself as a strong advocate for students across Washington. She played a key role in organizing student listening sessions in eastern Washington and was an active contributor to the FutureReady Task Force. 

She will attend Johns Hopkins University and plans to pursue a career as a foreign service officer. 

During the meeting, the Board took action on several items: 

• Approved the Board’s 2027 Board meeting calendar.  

• Adopted the 2026–27 fiscal year operating budget.  

• Issued a waiver of credit-based graduation requirements for Quincy School District's Quincy Innovation Academy.  

• Approved the Board's Tribal Consultation Framework.  

• Recognized the Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA) as an accreditor of student living accommodations for private schools.  

• Approved 530 private schools for the 2026–27 school year. The Board will consider more approvals at later meetings. 

• Certified 57 school districts and other local education agencies as being in compliance with the minimum instructional program of basic education for the 2026–27 school year. Compliance surveys are due September 15. The Board will review additional certifications at later meetings.