Bill > S331

This bill aims to reduce paperwork within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by directing the commissioner to increase government efficiency through several key measures. These include maximizing the use of information technology, such as electronic methods for submitting and storing information, to improve data quality and agency responsiveness. The bill also proposes eliminating costly and wasteful government publications by expanding the use of electronic distribution where feasible and appropriate, and by eliminating duplicative permitting and paperwork requirements through inter-agency file sharing technologies, allowing multiple agencies to access electronically stored data. Furthermore, the commissioner is tasked with investigating any statutory or technological barriers to reducing paper use and improving electronic data storage and dissemination, and must report findings and legislative recommendations to legislative clerks and the joint committee on education by August 31, 2015. Finally, the department of education will be required to inventory all state and federal reporting requirements for public education administrators by July 1, 2016, and biannually thereafter, to assess their necessity and develop a single master reporting form to prevent duplicate information from being reported more than once annually per school district, with public school districts no longer required to report the same information more than once yearly to any state agency or department starting July 1, 2016, except for the master reporting form.