Why it matters: The 2026 legislative session appears to be in its waning days, and legislators are making deals to finish off their priorities before they appear on the ballot again during the May 19 primary election.
The big news: Senate Bill 1288 — which creates a $5 million fund to help districts cover the highest-cost special education students — is headed to the House floor, where it is expected to pass. The fund won’t close the chronic gap between what the state pays to educate students with disabilities and what educating those students actually costs, but it’s a meaningful step forward.
What’s headed to the governor:
• Moment of silence: House Bill 623 would require Idaho public schools to begin each day with a one-minute period of silence.
• Educator ethics reporting: House Bill 635 would require the Idaho Professionals Standards Commission to report allegations of criminal behavior to law enforcement.
• Digital curriculum fund: House Bill 599 shifts distribution of the Public Schools Digital Content and Curriculum Fund from a first-come, first-served model to a needs-based one.
What passed the House:
• School building permits: House Bill 721 would streamline permitting for school building projects. Districts would no longer need to obtain plan approval before going out for bids, and local governments would be required to complete an initial review within 30 days. It has been referred to the Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee.
• Mandatory recess: House Bill 915 would require 20 minutes of daily recess for grades K-5 and encourage unstructured activity breaks for grades 6-8. A previous version failed; the current version passed the House this week and has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
• School spending flexibility: House Bill 883 would give Idaho’s highest-performing district and charter schools greater freedom over how they use state funding. Districts would need to meet strict benchmarks for test scores and graduation rates, while charter schools would face a lower bar. It has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
• Bathroom criminalization: House Bill 752 would make it a misdemeanor for a person to use a restroom or changing room that does not match their biological sex; the bill applies to all government and public buildings, including public schools. A second offense would be a felony.
• CTE funding restoration: House Bill 907 would restore more than $2.8 million to high school career-technical education budgets for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
• CTE teacher certificates: House Bill 832 eliminates existing work-hour requirements for career-technical education teachers and would allow the Division of Career Technical Education to set new minimum standards. It has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
• Funding undocumented students: House Joint Memorial 20 is a non-binding memorial that calls upon the federal government to help shoulder the costs associated with educating undocumented students.
• Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education: House Joint Memorial 19, another non-binding piece of legislation, urges Congress to shutter the U.S. Department of Education.
What cleared the Senate Education Committee and is heading toward a floor vote:
• Alternative authorization for school administrators: House Bill 711 would allow potential school principals and superintendents to bypass traditional administrator licensure requirements. Currently, school administrators must have a graduate degree and a minimum of 30 semester graduate credit hours in school administration.
• Online student behavior: House Bill 785 would set the guidelines for schools to discipline students who post threatening, harassing, or bullying messages online that target school employees, even if the posts are created outside of school hours and off school premises.
• Homeschool enrollment counts: House Bill 846 would prevent homeschooled students from being re-added to public school enrollment counts. Students absent for the first 10 days of the school year would be removed from enrollment counts.
• Career ladder: House Bill 849 would allow career-technical education instructors to advance on the career ladder after one year rather than the current four-plus years. Newly hired pupil-service staffers — like school counselors, psychologists, speech language pathologists, and nurses — would be added to the ladder based on their professional experience. The bill is co-sponsored by Boise Education Association member Rep. Soñia Galaviz (D-Boise).
• Civics diploma seal: House Bill 712 would create a “State Seal of Excellence in Civics” for high school diplomas. Students could earn the seal with a 3.25 GPA or higher in social studies, score 90% or higher on the state civics assessment, complete a civics research project, and participate in community volunteering to qualify.
