|
On Monday, the beginning of the fourth week of this
2010 Legislative Session, legislative committees
continued meeting with full hearing and executive
session schedules as they rush to adopt bills before the
Legislature’s first self-imposed cut-off deadlines
arrive. All bills must be passed out of their original
house policy committee (that is, House bills out of
House policy committees; Senate bills out of Senate
policy committees) by Friday, Feb. 5, in order to remain
alive. Technically, the House’s policy committee cut-off
arrives tomorrow, Feb. 2, to facilitate the work of its
additional appropriation committees. Bills in fiscal
committees must be passed out of their original house
fiscal committee by Tuesday, Feb. 9. Remember that
budget bills and bills considered “necessary to
implement the budget” are exempt fro these early cut-off
deadlines.
This afternoon, the Senate Early Learning & K-12
Education Committee held a public hearing on four bills
of interest to school directors: SB 6511, SB 6512, SB
6519 and SB 6702.
-
SB 6511 and
SB 6512 are bills requested by the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to address
recommendations from the Gangs in Schools Task
Force. SB 6511 would direct OSPI to develop rules,
definitions, guidance and model policies (with
WSSDA’s assistance) regarding gangs and hate groups.
The bill would also allow school districts to
suspend or expel students if they are members of, or
associate with, a criminal street gang. Schools
districts could also reject applications from
non-resident students on grounds of criminal street
gang membership.
- The second gang-related bill, SB 6512, would
establish a “school safety zone” within a 1,000-foot
radius of any public school facility. The bill would
also authorize school administrators as well as law
enforcement officers to exclude persons from public
areas within a school safety zone.
-
SB 6519 would streamline Becca truancy
provisions. Filing truancy petitions for six- and
seven-year old children would become optional if
this bill was adopted. Additionally, e-mail
communications and telephone conferences would be
allowed. In supportive testimony on behalf of this
bill, we reminded Committee members that the Becca
law has become a prime example of underfunded and
unfunded mandates. We applauded the efforts to not
eliminate the program, but provide additional
flexibility and discretion to school districts —
which would allow districts to save some money.
Opponents of the bill made some compelling arguments
against the bill, so we suggested that if their
opposition was enough to stall this bill, there was
another option to passage: fully fund the Becca law.
-
SB 6702 would provide for a program of education
for juveniles confined in adult jail facilities.
The Committee was also scheduled to take action on
SB 6696, the “Race To The Top” omnibus education
reform bill, which includes the State Board’s
accountability plan. Time ran short on the Committee,
however, and they will deal with the bill later this
week. The House Education Committee is expected to act
on its education reform package (HB
3059,
HB 3035 and
HB 3038) later this week as well.
|
