This year, the 2022 Mississippi Legislative session was extended by HCR 89 past the original SINE DIE date of April 3 to include this week. The main purpose of the extension was for each chamber to address the appropriation bills for the session. Before the extension, each appropriation bill was filed as a “dummy” bill with placeholder numbers until legislators could return for the extended session and finalize the actual amounts. House Bill 1600, which provides appropriation for the Department of Education, was taken up this week. Below are some of the important details in the bill:

HB 1600 is now headed to Governor Reeves’ desk for his signature. The signing date of HB 1600 is significant because school districts must give notice of nonrenewal to teachers, administrators or other professional educators on or before April 15, or within 10 calendar days after the date that the Governor approves the appropriation bill which comprises the state’s education budget for funding K-12, whichever date is later.

Both the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor thanked their respective chambers for their hard work this year. They both stated that the session was full of heavy lifting with important bills such as congressional redistricting, income tax elimination, medical marijuana, and the teacher pay raise. Both leaders also thanked the Capitol staff for all of their hard work before officially concluding the 2022 legislative session.