As we approach the conclusion of the 2022 legislative session this week, INPEA Executive Director John Elcesser provides an overview of where things stand with multiple education bills that will impact non-public schools.
As we approach the conclusion of the 2022 legislative session this week, INPEA Executive Director John Elcesser provides an overview of where things stand with multiple education bills that will impact non-public schools.
Statehouse Express Podcast: S3,E6
March 7, 2022
Hi! I'm John Elcesser, Executive Director of INPEA, and welcome to episode 6 of the Statehouse Express! Since our last podcast, the House and Senate completed second and third readings of any bills that were still active. Bills that didn't pass out of the second chamber are now dead. There still is the possibility of inserting language from bills that passed out of one chamber into another bill, as long as it's germane. There is quite a bit of strategizing and horse trading going on at this juncture of the session. As I shared last time, bills amended in the second chamber must go back to the chamber where the bill originated for concurrence or dissent. If they concur, the bills goes to the Governor for his signature. If they dissent, it goes to a conference committee in an attempt to reconcile differences.
Last week, the contentious HB 1041 that deals with sports participation and gender identity passed out of the Senate by a vote of 32-18. Since this bill was not amended in the Senate, it now heads to the Governor's desk. HB 1041 does not allow transgender females to participate in K12 female sports.
HB 1093, a various education matters bill, passed out of the Senate 50-0. This bill had a multitude of things included, one of which was requiring schools to receive a null or no letter grade for the 21-22 school year. Not addressed in the legislation, but a related issue, is when schools don't receive a grade, it eliminates access to the F track from the school choice scholarship program for the year of a null grade.
HB 1251, another various education matters bill, passed out of the Senate 34-14. Because the House dissented, it now goes to a conference committee. One aspect of this bill requires the IDOE to petition the USDOE for flexibility on our state assessment. There is discussion of only testing in certain grades.
SB 82 passed out of the House 89-5 and deals with students completing the FAFSA. The bill was amended pretty significantly in the House, removing the requirement that all seniors had to complete a FAFSA to ensuring families are getting information about the FAFSA. The amendment also changed how the bill applied to non-public schools. In the current language, it makes it a "may" provision for non-public schools. I found out last week that the Senate has concurred on the House changes so the "may" provision for nonpubs becomes law upon the signature of the Governor.
SB 115 deals with employee misconduct. It basically says that schools cannot hire nor employ individuals convicted of a number of specific crimes. The bill already went to conference committee. We assume it will be heading to the Governor's desk soon.
SB 123 deals with dyslexia screening. In the Senate Education Committee, non-public schools were amended out of the bill. This bill was already heard in conference committee where the amendments added in the House were removed because they were not deemed germane. If the conference committee conferees sign off on the bill, it will then go to Governor Holcomb.
SB 331, the ESA fix up bill, passed out of the House last week 75-22. The version of the bill that passed out of the House included the fixes important to non-public schools that were previously stripped out in Senate Appropriations. As of last week, the Senate dissented on the House version. A conference committee met on Monday at 10:30am. The conference committee report stripped out the fixes back to the Senate Appropriations version except that it did remove the surety bond requirement. So, both the direct transfer of APC funds and tuition and fees were removed. INPEA attempted to engage our membership to ensure the rollout of this new program would work for non-public schools. Now, unless there are administrative remedies put in place, there will simply be more obstacles to non-public school participation as this new choice program is rolled out for the 22-23 school year.
This week will be the last week of the 2022 General Assembly Session. We assume sine die will be sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. It can't come soon enough.
We don't anticipate many curveballs coming this week except for what already happened with SB 331, but stay tuned just in case. Over the next few weeks, as we digest the legislation passed this session, INPEA will be providing a full summary of the session as well as meeting with principals' groups over the summer.
With that said, we hope to see you back here next week for the final episode "wrap up" of the 2022 edition of the Statehouse Express!