Bills that have been moved out of Committee and can now be heard on their respective floor. Bills we are following include: 

• SB 387-Provides for the continued enrollment of students who attend a school district of non-residence.
• SB 386-Count of students using current year enrollment or preceding school year. We were working to provide for more than one year. This did not take place. The bill was amended to take out the requirement that if a district closes a building, they will not be required to use current year enrollment.
• SB 360-The bill allows a taxpayer to elect the taxable year in which subtraction modification for contribution to a 529 program account occurs.
• HB 2494-This is the AED bill. It has been worked on by several groups that came to a compromise. Requires districts to have AED machines, train staff in CPR, and have an Emergency Response Plan in place. There is no specific time limit placed on districts, this is not an unfunded mandate, there is to be grant money available. More details to follow.

Hearings that took place this week that pertain to education include:

House K-12 Education had 3 hearings on bills this past week. 

• HB 2612-Requires school districts to be in compliance with all state laws and rules and regulations to be accredited and requires the State Board to establish the process. This is a lengthy bill and could have a very negative impact on districts. We provided opponent testimony as did some districts.
• HB 2650-Requires each school district to establish an at-risk accountability plan and to show academic improvement in certain student subgroups as identified as at-risk. This bill also has the potential to make districts jump through many hoops to show academic improvement. We provided opponent testimony and expressed our desire to improve student achievement but in a different manner.
• HB 2521-Requires the State Board of Education to authorize teaching licenses for individuals who complete an alternative teacher certification program. We expressed opposition to the legislature taking over the responsibility of the state board in matters of teacher licensure. We are not opposed to alternative pathways to licensure.

Looking ahead to next week.

House K-12 Education Budget Committee:

Tuesday, February 13 will hear HB 2738. The bill revises the way special education state aid is calculated. This is an 11 page bill that is very difficult to understand. In my opinion, it is another attempt to spend less money on special education by counting local option budget (LOB) monies. School leaders and special education leaders are being contacted to request testimony on this legislation. Testimony is due by 10 AM Monday, February 12th. Attached HERE is a run prepared by KSDE on the impact of HB 2738.
 

The Committee will also be working on bills previously heard. I anticipate the bills I mentioned above will be worked and probably passed out of Committee.

Monday, February 12th will hear HB 2641 this is a bill banning cell phones from schools.
 

Tuesday, February 13th will hear HB 2658 this is a bill that would allow a school district to require a student who has been long term suspended to be placed in a virtual setting.

Wednesday, February 14th will hear HB 2700 this is a bill that would establish a school library material rating system.

The committee will also be working bills previously heard and hearing reports from agencies.
 

Senate Education Committee: 

The Senate Education Committee will be hearing budget requests on School for the Blind and School for the Deaf. They will also be working bills previously heard. SB 437 will be heard on Thursday. The bill would establish an education enrichment program to provide educational awards to elementary & secondary students for qualifying expenses for education goods and services.

We want to bring you up to date on 3 bills that we have worked on to have introduced.

• SB 465 A bill that would allow a school district to levy an additional 2 mills in Capital Outlay for improvements to safety issues and ADA compliance in the district. Introduced in Senate Education.
• A bill that would require all participants in KSHSAA activities to meet the same academic requirements from public, private, and home schools. Introduced in House Education.
• A bill that would improve filing dates and other requirements to the Revenue Neutral Rate legislation. Introduced in House Tax.

There are many things happening in the Kansas Legislature. Please notify your Representative and Senator how legislation under consideration impacts your school or district. Till next week.