SECTION 1. The board of elementary and secondary education shall establish regulations regarding the use of whole-grade and content-specific academic acceleration in the public schools of the Commonwealth. Said regulations will authorize and provide a framework for school districts to provide access to appropriate curriculum and instruction for students who demonstrate readiness for academic content, skills or understanding at a level beyond the curriculum ordinarily taught to students of a certain age. In developing said regulations, the department shall consider, at a minimum, the following acceleration strategies:

(a) Single subject acceleration;

(b) Combined classes (multi-age);

(c) Online and correspondence courses;

(d) Concurrent or dual enrollment;

(e) Curriculum compacting;

(f) Credit by examination or prior experience;

(g) Competency/mastery based learning;

(h) Whole-grade acceleration (one or more);

(i) Self-paced instruction;

(j) Mentoring;

(k) Early graduation;

Said regulations shall require the use of a tool, such as the Iowa Acceleration Scale, designed to take personal bias out of the decision-making process when considering a child for acceleration, and to ensure that acceleration decisions are systematic, thoughtful, well-reasoned, and defensible