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SAI Weekly Legislative Update – January 24
The Legislature hit the ground running this week. Both the House and Senate Education Committees met, as well as a House Appropriations Committee. There was very limited discussion, but on Wednesday and Thursday there were also a large number of subcommittees on bills. Here are the bills that were discussed.
HF 1 – This bill would allow non-public students to participate on public school teams in certain situations.
HF 10 – A bill to correct a timing/calendar issue for a specific district as it pertains to a disillusionment of the district.
HF 34 – Would require districts to send out waiver information with any information about immunizations. Also, they would need to post it on the school website.
HSB 2 – Provides a potential exemption for students in military training in regards to the chronic absenteeism legislation.
HSB 5 – Would prohibit districts from serving food that contains certain ingredients.
HSB 10 – This would allow districts to hire athletic trainers in the place of school nurses.
HSB 30 – Would require all students to pass the Naturalization (Civics) test in order to graduate.
HSB 31 – START DATE!! August 23rd or the 1st Wednesday after the State Fair (whichever comes first) would be the earliest start date allowed.
HSB 45 – Requires the DE to establish a Purple Star School initiative (for military families).
SF 6 – See HF 34 above. Basically the same bill.
SSB 1028 – This is the (slightly trimmed down) Baby Olivia bill from last session that would require certain types of videos to be used in instruction about pregnancy, etc.
SSB 1023 – This bill attempts to provide clarity on activity participation for students that are in on-line schools.
What’s Next?
- All of these moved out of their sub-committee and will go to their respective Education Committees for approval or for an amendment or to “die”.
- If they get through committee, they go to the floor of their chamber for debate.
- If they pass there, the other chamber has to go through the process.
Each bill brought up has a long way to go to get approved and become a law.
There were also several bills introduced that either have been, or will be, assigned to a subcommittee in the near future. As of this writing on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 23, there are already eight subcommittees scheduled next week.
On January 26-27, SAI co-hosts the Day on the Hill, along with IASB and the AEAs. I hope to see many of you here. If you are coming, make sure you email your legislators and tell them you are coming and hope to see them. Use some of the strategies that we have talked about in your conversations with them.
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