Non-passed bills

 

May 2016

 

By Madelynn Coldiron

Staff writer

 

HJR 186 would have directed the state Public Service Commission to tell retail rate providers to set a special utility rate for public schools.

HB 29 currently would have affected only Fayette, Jefferson and Warren county school districts. It would have allowed a school district to include a member of its equity council (if it had one) on the superintendent screening committee. It was amended in the Senate to include a process for a local school board to take over a state-operated secondary career center under certain conditions.

HB 76 would have allowed private school students to participate in a public school interscholastic extracurricular activities if the private school did not offer them.

HB 99 would have required the preambles to the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions to be posted in all public school classrooms. The principal could have decided the best way to make copies and teachers can choose where to post them in their classrooms (to be taken down during testing).

HB 107 would have required teachers to get a minimum of 60 minutes per day for nonteaching activities and at least 120 minutes per week for self-directed activities.

HB 217, as amended, would have required a coach to remove a student athlete if a physician determined he or she had sustained a concussion. The coach would not have been allowed to return the student to play if no physician was on hand. In the Senate, SB 15 was attached to HB 217 as a floor amendment – it was designed to clarify the rights of religious and political expression in schools.

HB 270, SB 223, would have allowed school boards to employ school marshals who would be authorized to carry weapons on school grounds. Their weapons and ammunition would have been required to be placed in a lockbox, and purchased by the school marshal.

HB 456 would have required schools with grades five through 12 to have a drug abuse prevention program that includes opioid abuse prevention, with the program developed and supported by the Kentucky Center for School Safety.

HB 541 would have helped school districts with large amounts of nontaxable property, such as Frankfort Independent and Lyon County, by exempting a district’s local effort from the SEEK calculation if more than 60 percent of the real property located in the district is exempt from taxation.

HB 620, SB 273 would have provided public vouchers for private school for students with individual education plans (special education).The private school would have had to meet certain specifications.

SB 9, the perennial prevailing wage bill, would have excluded school building construction from meeting the requirements of the state’s prevailing wage law.

SB 32, the financial literacy bill, would have required the state education department to develop a financial literacy program to be incorporated within the regular curriculum. High school students would be required to complete it.

SB 106 would have permitted public schools to sponsor artistic or theatrical programs that “advance students’ knowledge of society’s cultural and religious heritage and traditions.” It was dubbed the “Charlie Brown” bill after the school Christmas play that prompted its drafting.

SB 192 would have required public high school students to pass a civics test to get a regular diploma. The 100 test questions were to have come from the U.S. citizenship test, and students can take it as many times as necessary to receive a passing score of 60 percent. The law allows accommodations for students with individual education plans.

SB 194 was twofold: it would have required superintendents to do check the state’s child abuse and neglect registry when hiring; and, as amended, would have revised the teacher tribunal process by replacing the layperson on the tribunal with an attorney who is a trained hearing officer. The tribunal’s decisions would have been limited to upholding or overturning the superintendent’s decision.