School staff roles: House Bill 728, which would force districts to reclassify instructional coaches as administrators, and therefore reduce state funding to districts, passed out of the Senate Education Committee. HB 728 passed the House unanimously in late February.
Career ladder: Rep. Shawn Dygert (R-Melba) and Rep. Soñia Galaviz (D-Boise) are sponsoring House Bill 816, which introduced in the House Education Committee this week. The bill will allow career-technical educators to advance on the career ladder after one qualifying year if they have a proficient evaluation rather than the current four.
• Sen. Mark Harris (R-Soda Springs) introduced a bill into the Senate State Affairs Committee that will make it easier for administrators to return to the classroom. Senate Bill 1358 will allow administrators to count their years of experience when calculating their placement on the career ladder. The bill has been routed to the Senate Education Committee.
Libraries: A bill that would take the place of House Bill 796 and would allow the state to further restrict materials that are “harmful to minors” and “sexually explicit” appeared in Senate State Affairs this week.
Facilities funding: House Bill 608, which updates the requirements for the Public School Facilities Cooperative Funding Program, is heading to the governor. It passed both the House and Senate with no opposition.
IDLA: The Idaho Digital Learning Academy is facing budget cuts from multiple directions. Rep. Douglas Pickett (R-Oakley) and Sen. Codi Galloway (R-Boise) crafted a bill that was introduced in the House Education Committee this week that would slash $16 million from the current $26 million IDLA budget.
• A previous bill from Rep. James Petzke (R-Meridian) that would also cut IDLA’s budget was introduced weeks ago but has not had a public hearing committee yet.
• Yet another bill, which would have killed IDLA funding altogether, failed on a tie vote this week in the House Education Committee.
High-needs SPED bill: The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted to place $2.8 million back into career-technical education programs by transferring money from the Career Ready Students Fund. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem to have much to do with SPED.
• The hitch: Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield planned to use the interest from the Career Ready Students Fund to help create a $5 million SPED fund (Senate Bill 1288). Critchfield’s proposed fund would bridge the gap between what districts spend on mandatory SPED education and what the state and federal governments provide, which is only a fraction of the actual costs districts and communities must bear. The Senate passed Critchfield’s SPED high-needs fund bill last week. The bill has been referred to the House Education Committee.
• If JFAC gets its way — and the governor signs the fund bill, too — lawmakers will need to find funding for Critchfield’s bill.
Special education service centers: Senate Bill 1317, which would have created regional service centers with special education staff who would be shared by multiple districts, failed 16-19 in the Senate.
Parental rights: House Joint Resolution 9, which would have amended the Idaho Constitution to remove the compulsory education requirement, failed to meet the two-thirds supermajority vote in the House needed to pass.
Student protests: House Bill 794, which would punish school districts if their students exercise their right to protest by counting the absence as unexcused, died in the House Education Committee on a 7-7 vote. The debate was emotional.
Virtual schools: House Bill 624, which will tighten the rules and regulations used by virtual schools and prohibit direct payments of state funds to parents or guardians of enrolled students, passed the Senate this week. It passed the House in February and now heads to the governor. The legislation comes on the heels of a report that the Idaho Home Learning Academy used $20.6 million that had been earmarked for salaries and staff benefits to pay private education vendors.
Mandatory recess: A replacement bill for House Bill 784, which prohibit K-5 public schools from withholding recess and set guidelines for how often recess should be held, advanced out of the House Education Committee this week.
Online behavior: House Bill 785, which would define “inappropriate online behavior” by students toward public school employees and lay out disciplinary measures, passed out of the House Education Committee this week.
Administrator alternate pathways: House Bill 711, which would create new pathways for non-certified applicants to become administrators, passed the House this week. It has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
