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2023 Legislative Session Updates
Next week marks the third reading deadline for all bills, which means that the bills that moved from one chamber to the other but that never received a reading or passed out of committee will be considered “dead.” We began the session watching 83 bills that could impact non-public schools and after crossover, MANY less bills will still be active. As these bills continue their way through the process, we will need our stakeholders ready to engage with their legislators.
Some bills we are still watching:
HB 1001, the budget bill includes MANY other things but INPEA is primarily focusing on K-12 funding, including choice expansions. The current House budget includes doing away with the Choice Scholarship eligibility tracks and increasing financial eligibility to 400% of FRL on both the Choice Scholarship and the Tax Credit Scholarship programs. HB 1001 passed out of the House 66-29 on third reading and now it heads to the Senate where the real challenges begin!
HB 1591 is a “various education matters” bill, which means it has everything but the kitchen sink in it. Some things of interest to non-public schools include fixing the voucher fees language and fixing the five year old birthdate for voucher eligibility to parallel public schools’ early admit birthdate. It also proposes allowing SGO dollars to be used for Pre-K tuition and it finally allows non-public school leaders to participate in the State Principals’ Institute. This bill passed the full House unanimously. Now onto the Senate.
HB 1002 sets up a Career Tech Ed ESA program, including the funding of intermediaries to assist schools in placing students in CTE opportunities. This bill heads to the Senate.
HB 1382 establishes a grant fund for supporting robotics programs and competitions. The bill passed out of the House 91-0. This bill heads to the Senate.
HB 1590 requires IDOE to publish a list of high quality curricular materials for both the Science of Reading and STEM.
HB 1608 prohibits public schools from teaching about human sexuality in grades K-3. Non-public schools were amended out of that but an amendment was added that has stipulations about what names and pronouns can be used without parent permission. Currently, state accredited non-public schools would be included in that part of the bill. There is inconsistency in the bill as to the applicability of state accredited non-public schools. The bill passed out of the House on third reading 65-29. This was/is a very contentious bill. It now heads to the Senate.
SB 35 requires that a financial literacy course be taught and be a graduation requirement. A similar bill was heard in the House and takes a much more flexible approach.
SB 72 requires that IDOE conduct a study with all public schools and state accredited schools about if they are teaching cursive writing.
SB 305, the ESA expansion bill, is being held by the Senate Appropriation Committee Chair. It is assumed that it will be discussed in the final budget.
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