Each fall the Wyoming Department of Education releases school performance ratings. Those ratings help school boards and the general public assess how well schools are serving students' needs.

A draft of revised rules clarifying what districts can do if they disagree with those ratings is now open for public comment.

Julie McGee, WDE Accountability Director, said the proposed revisions came out of the 2019 Wyoming legislative session. McGee said the ability to challenge a rating was already in statute, but lawmakers recognized it was vaguely written.

"They put a mechanism in there that said, 'hey, school districts, if you feel like this circumstance applies to you, you don't have to live with the outcome, we have provided an avenue for you to seek an internal review,'" said McGee.

The State Board of Education now clearly has the authority to overturn the WDE's decision, according to McGee.

"What the legislature was doing was providing an avenue to allow districts to have a review of their rating in instances where they felt like the department erroneously applied and reported the data that's going out in this very public report," said McGee.

Public comment on the proposed revisions is open until September 9.