Due to the holiday weekend, Week 7 was shortened forcing legislators to hold multiple marathon meetings - one even extending over ten hours. In that time, however, much was accomplished. As is typical as we wind down the legislative session, a sense of urgency has prevailed throughout the Capitol. Policymakers and advocates are rushing to get bills heard in their final committees and posture them to better align with the other chamber’s bill language. Massive train bills encompassing a multitude of individual policy changes are moving through both chambers around education, healthcare and public safety.
One of the education bills that is moving, SB 7070, among other provisions, establishes the “Turnaround School Supplemental Services Allocation” for district-managed turnaround schools. The funds are designed to improve the overall academic and community welfare of the schools’ students and families. The funds provided for this program will be up to $500 per FTE (unweighted). This additional funding can be used to provide after-school services, parent and child counseling, nutrition counseling and other wraparound services. Like many other policy issues, this is a program that will be negotiated between the two chambers as we wind down session.
Since there are only two weeks remaining in the 2019 session, budget conference is anticipated to begin next week as legislators return from the holiday weekend. Both chambers will work to come to agreements on budget issues and put forth one General Appropriations Act (GAA). Due to the rule requiring a 3-day 'cooling off' period, the GAA would need to be completed by midnight on Tuesday, April 30th for session to conclude sine die on the last day of regular session - May 3rd.
