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HOUSE BILL No. 2029—page 50 2026 House Bill No. 2534, is hereby amended to read as follows: 72- 3574. (a) Each participating school district board of education shall submit annually to the state board of education an at-risk student accountability plan to attain at-risk student proficiency in accordance with this section and to ensure the provision of programs and services that are above and beyond regular education services to students who are eligible for at-risk programs and services. Such plan shall be submitted to the state board of education on a form and in the manner required by the state board. The purpose of each school district's at-risk student accountability plan is to: (1) Demonstrate that the school district is using evidenced-based instruction, as defined in K.S.A. 72-5153, and amendments thereto, for the education of students who are identified as eligible to receive at-risk programs and services; (2) measure longitudinal academic improvement in a quantitative manner; (3) establish quantitative student academic improvement goals for certain identified student cohort groups and strive to meet such goals through the provision of evidence-based instruction that is provided to such cohort groups above and beyond regular educational services; (4) ensure that at-risk education fund moneys are expended in accordance with the law by providing services above and beyond regular education services; and (5) continue the process of identifying certain student cohort groups and providing evidence-based instruction above and beyond that of a regular education to such identified student cohort groups until the school district achieves the state board of education's goal to have 75% of all students achieve proficiency by scoring at performance level 3 or 4 on the state assessments for English language arts and mathematics. (b) Each at-risk student accountability plan shall identify not fewer than one cohort group of students who are enrolled and attending grade four each school year that such cohort group is required to be identified and not fewer than one cohort group of students enrolled in and attending kindergarten or any of the grades one through eight each school year that such cohort group is required to be identified. Except as provided in this subsection, for each grade level, the school district shall identify any student cohort group that corresponds to one of the subgroups identified for state assessment purposes. If two such student cohort groups cannot be identified, such school district shall identify a student cohort group who are identified as eligible to receive at-risk educational programs and services pursuant to the same at-risk identification criteria established pursuant to K.S.A. 72-5153a, and amendments thereto. A school district shall not identify a cohort group of students pursuant to this subsection if such cohort group is comprised of 10 or fewer students. If no cohort group of students comprising 11 or more students can be formed using any of the subgroup descriptions provided in this subsection, the school district shall consult with the state department of education to determine appropriate alternative student cohort groups that are comprised of 11 or more students. (c) (1) Each participating school district board of education shall establish a four-year quantitative academic improvement goal for each identified student cohort group in accordance with this subsection and shall repeat such process every four years as provided in this section. The academic improvement goal established for a cohort group pursuant to this section shall be related to the achievement of academic proficiency in the areas of English language arts or mathematics. Once a school district establishes a four-year quantitative academic improvement goal for a cohort group on the school district's at-risk accountability plan, the school district shall not revise or revoke such goal for such cohort group in order to meet or exceed such goal. (2) To attain the four-year quantitative academic improvement goal for each identified student cohort group, the school district board