Listen to INPEA Executive Director John Elcesser's recap of the 2022 legislative session. This is our final installment of the 2022 Statehouse Express!
Statehouse Express
Session # 3 Episode # 7
Hi! This is John Elcesser, executive director at INPEA, and welcome to 7th and final edition of the 2022 edition of the Statehouse Express. On Wednesday morning at 12:30 am the General Assembly adjourned the 2022 session, what’s referred to as Sine Die.
INPEA’s focus, in all sessions but especially in a non-budget year, is to protect and defend. The more we can stay under the radar, to be included in as few bills as possible the better. From that perspective, it was a very good session! This session there were lots of “kitchen sink” education bills. Bills that included various education issues, maybe somewhat loosely related, but usually not. So, a 30 page bill may have two lines that we were at all interested in. There were also a number of very contentious bills focused on culture related issues. Most of these we were able to steer clear of as well.
HB 1134 the CRT bill brought hundreds of public school teachers to the statehouse. I must say it was nice that for once they weren’t there focused on us or on school choice. We were never included in this bill nor should we have been. The good news for our public school friends was that this bill and a similar Senate Bill died.
Another contentious bill was HB 1041. It dealt with participation in K-12 athletics and gender identity. This bill also brought large groups to the statehouse which led to 5 hour committee hearings. This bill did include nonpubs. Basically, this bill forbids transgender females from participating in female sports and requires schools to designate sports by gender and to create and implement a grievance procedure. At the time of preparing this podcast, the Governor had not yet signed the bill. We assume he will but we’ll have to wait and see.
The bill we engaged most heavily on was SB 331, the ESA fix-up bill. The Treasurer’s Office attempted to address concerns brough to them by non-public school leaders and the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee stripped many of them out in the Appropriations committee and after the House reinserted them, they were stripped out again at the end of session in conference committee. So, in summary, they did change the ESA deadline date to match the voucher deadline on September 1st. They also did ensure that any administrative costs came out on the administration side of the budget, not the side that feeds a family’s ESA that is to be used for services.
They also removed the requirement to get a surety bond. All good things!
They did not ensure APC dollars are directly transferred to the non-public school when they provide the special education services for an ESA student. They did not ensure that tuition fees were paid first before families could purchase other services. So, it'll be a tough call for schools to decide if it’s worth participating in the program. But I do need to mention, the Treasurer’s Office still hopes to get these last few fixes accomplished administratively. We’ll have to wait and see. Again, this bill has not been signed by the Governor, but I’m sure it will be.
SB 115 deals with employee misconduct. It prohibits the hiring or employment of individuals who have committed a list of crimes that would also require the revocation of a teacher’s license.
SB 123 deals with Dyslexia screening. Non-pubs were originally included but were removed from the bill. We contend our schools should be engaged in early identification and intervention of reading difficulties, but we should be doing it because it’s best practice not because the state said we have to.
SB 82 deals with increasing completion of the FAFSA. This bill was amended to make it a “may” provision for nonpubs.
As I mentioned a number of bills may have one small piece that applies to our schools. HB 1093 among other things places a limit on the number of virtual days a school can have and get paid for. This applies only to public schools.
SB 290 includes language requiring null grades for the 21-22 school year.
HB 1251 Includes language requiring the IDOE to request flexibility from USDOE regarding federal assessment requirements, so that the state can pilot a structure which only assesses certain grades.
That’s the legislation recap!
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about any legislation. For all those of you who engaged and reached out to your elected representatives – this year …Thank You. If you didn’t and haven’t in the past, how about next year? It’s all of our responsibility!
Speaking of engaging, now that session is over this is a great time to invite legislators to come and visit your school. There’s a little homework!
So I’m signing off on this final edition of the Statehouse Express. Look for this train to return next January. So until then, stay well and stay engaged!