This week brought significant new activity in K-12 education bills, with several noteworthy filings and committee movements. Board members should particularly monitor HB 0305/Statewide, Standardized Assessments (Harris) and its Senate companion SB 0342 (Arrington), which would require DOE to develop multilingual versions of state assessments and allow parents to prohibit their use in certain languages—a potentially controversial addition to testing policy. Additionally, HB 0371/Patriotic Displays in Classrooms (Snyder) and its identical companion SB 0420 (Burgess) were filed, requiring district school boards to adopt rules mandating classroom displays of portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Of significance, HB 0145/Suits Against the Government (McFarland) passed favorably out of the Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee by a 16-1 vote, moving forward legislation that would increase statutory liability limits for tort claims against school districts and other governmental entities. Several bills from previous weeks remain in their initial committee assignments, while HB 0063 (firearms restrictions) and HB 0049 (political activities on school grounds) were both withdrawn prior to introduction.
K-12 Education Bill Tracker provided by Dr. Kim McDougal, Arrow Group
