The Legislative Report Header
February 4, 2022
The Legislative Report
The 2022 Mississippi legislative session continued with its fifth week. Committees in both the House and the Senate met Monday, January 31, in order to meet the 8:00 p.m. deadline for committees to approve general bills or constitutional amendments. Any general bills not passed by the February 1st deadline died in committee. The focus for both chambers shifted to lengthy floor debates beginning on Wednesday, February 2, as they voted on all the bills that came out of those committees. Each house must pass its general bills by February 10th, or the bills will die on the calendar.
 
Both the House and Senate Education Committees met on Monday, January 31, and passed a variety of bills that will impact education. Below is a brief breakdown of the bills from the House Education Committee:
  1. HB 31 – Requires the Charter School Authorizer Board to develop a formula for local ad valorem contributions to charter schools and also staggers the terms for the Charter School Authorizer Board.
  2. HB 591 – Expands the District of Innovation status to include community schools.
  3. HB 522 – Allows nonpublic schools to use the criminal background check procedures that is used by public schools.
  4. HB 526 – Revises the definitions for “eligible student” and “eligible school” to reflect the inclusion of students diagnosed with dyslexia who do not receive the assistance of a Mississippi dyslexia therapy scholarship.
  5. HB 795 – Makes revisions to the Mississippi Virtual Public School Program allowing for teachers to teach virtually in another school that does not offer a specific subject and allows the program to serve homeschooled students.
  6. HB 818 – Authorizes certified or classified staff to provide instruction under the Mississippi Computer Science and Cyber Education Equality Act.
  7. HB 879 – Provides that the procurement cards for classroom supplies shall be issued to teachers on August 1 before the beginning of the school year, changes distribution of money from percentages to flat rate, and added additional teachers who qualify for the cards.
  8. HB 881 – Brings the university-based programs of education for children with developmental disabilities in line with federal guidelines.
  9. HB 1059 – Brings forth the provisions relating to alternate route certification for the purpose of possible amendment.
  10. HB 1166 – Eliminates references to the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and revises provisions related to the Teach Mississippi Institute (TMI).
  11. HB 1168 – Requires school districts to provide gifted education for grades 7 and 8.
  12. HB 1173 – Provides that a reverse auction shall only be required by schools when purchasing products includes multiple vendors.
  13. HB 1239 – Requires any security guard or SRO hired by the school board to receive basic law enforcement training prior to employment.
  14. HB 1240 – Allows for additional training for school attendance officers.
  15. HB 1314 – Transfers the employment responsibility of school attendance officers to the school districts as opposed to MDE.
  16. HB 1340 – Requires MDE to establish a family engagement kindergarten readiness pilot program as an additional component of the “Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013”.
  17. HB 1349 – Upon student school transfer, only the receiving district would have to approve the student transfer. The sending district would no longer be able to veto the transfer.
  18. HB 1416 – Protects students who are organized in partisan political groups in public schools.

Below is a brief breakdown of the bills from the Senate Education Committee:
 
  1. SB 2105 – Increases the pay of school board members to either $112 per meeting or an annual salary of $4,000.
  2. SB 2425 – Salary adjustments of the State Superintendent of Public Education, I.H.L. Commissioner, and the Director of the Community College Board would take effect when the next person takes office as opposed to when a new contract is signed.
  3. SB 2416 – Allows a teacher who transfers to another public school district to take up to five days of personal leave to the new district.
  4. SB 2423 – Allows reciprocity in Mississippi for teachers from another country, states that teachers shall receive their licenses in a timely fashion, and allows for an additional route for teacher endorsements.
  5. SB 2424 – Gives the option for school districts to process a single or bimonthly payroll.
  6. SB 2428 – Establishes a District of Innovation Task Force.
  7. SB 2431 – Removes the requirement that textbook vendors must have a depository in state and allows for regional depository.
  8. SB 2432 – Removes the minimum salary scale for attendance officers.
  9. SB 2706 – A one-year bill that allows students who scored between a 2 and 3 on the 3rd grade reading assessment to go onto 4th grade with remediation.
  10. SB 2887 – Allows for school boards to purchase electric school buses.
Recent Bills
Though many bills died this week, a variety of important bills have remained afloat thus far in the legislative process. One of the most exciting bills still alive is SB 2105, authored by Senator Briggs Hopson. SB 2105, would give school board members a pay increase with the choice to receive $112 per diem for no more than 36 meetings during a fiscal year or may choose to receive an annual salary in the amount of $4,000. Chairman DeBar stated that it is important that school board members receive a well-deserved raise along with the other raises currently happening across the state.
 
Both of the teacher pay raise bills continue to make their way through the process. HB 530 has been referred to the Senate Education and Appropriation Committees. SB 2444 has been transmitted to the House. Both the House and the Senate will need to eventually reach a compromise on these two bills.
 
Another noteworthy bill is SB 2095 which is the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act. SB 2095 traveled to the Governor’s desk and was subsequently signed into law before the Wednesday, February 2, deadline. The law will allow people in Mississippi to receive medical marijuana for multiple debilitating conditions and availability is predicted towards the end of 2022.

To view the bills that have been assigned to the House Education Committee, click here.

To view the bills that have been assigned to the Senate Education Committee, click here.
Deadlines
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  • Thursday, February 10, 2022 — Original floor action on general bills and constitutional amendments originating in their own house.
  • Friday, February 11, 2022 — Deadline for reconsideration and passage of general bills and constitutional amendments originating in own house.
  • Monday, February 14, 2022 — Deadline to dispose of motions to reconsider general bills and constitutional amendments originating in own house.
  • Wednesday, February 23, 2022 — Deadline for original floor action on appropriations and revenue bills originating in own house.
Day at the Capitol
MSBA’s Day at the Capitol has been postponed until further notice.
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