OSSBA CCOSA USSA Legislative Briefing February 10, 2015 9:00 a.m. CCOSA Conference Room 1. Charters/ESA/ Vouchers a. SB 69 by Sen. David Holt, R- OKC i. Passed Senate Education 2/9/15; allows city councils to authorize charter schools; can put charter in any school district within their city boundaries that has an ADM of more than 5,000 b. SB 171 by Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-OKC i. Failed in Senate Education 2/9/15; would have allowed statewide expansion of charter schools; a lot of rural Republicans questioned the need for charter schools in those areas and requested that they demonstrate the need via metrics 1. (Currently under federal law, a charter can be put in place in any school that is designated as needs improvement) c. SB 302 by Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-OKC i. Would allow any Tribe in Oklahoma to authorize a charter school so long as it is within federally recognized reservation or treaty area d. HB 1034 by Rep. Dan Kirby, R-Tulsa i. Passed House Common Education 2/9/15; same bill as SB 302 e. SB 136 by Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Jenks i. Statewide Virtual Charter School Board; if this bill passes, this Board would be responsible for approving your locally created supplemental online education f. HB 1696 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing i. Statewide charter and accountability; allow existing charter authorizers to sponsor anywhere in the state; bill will allow for accountability to take place through the authorizers; hold charters accountability to accept any student in their district; some concerns,- by 2016-17 school year, the SBE would be required to rank schools according to their A-F grades numerically, and rank charter schools only if they are in the bottom 5% of rankings; special rules for rankings included for charters in certain circumstances (i.e. Charter gets to take higher of two grades if grading metric changes, but public schools do not have this option) g. HB 2003 by Rep. Jason Nelson, R-OKC i. Creates an Education Savings Account (ESA) which is an incentive program for parents to pull their children out of public schools; the money that would be given to the public school for that student through the funding formula would be placed into an ESA that parents use for private tuition and consumable education products; income eligibility criteria to qualify for ESA; administered by OKSDE h. SB 609 by Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond i. ESA bill; can’t be enrolled in any public school in order to qualify; no income cap eligibility criteria; administered by State Treasurer’s Office; 80% of money generated would follow the child; the remaining 20% would stay with sending school district to provide a teacher pay raise 2. Curriculum a. SB 50 by Sen. Jason Smalley, R-Stroud i. Amends statute on agriculture education to include 6-12th grades b. SB 262 by Sen. Susan Paddack, D-Ada i. Require that information be made available to OKSDE on workplace safety training that in turn, shall be made available to schools if schools chose to provide that information to their students c. SB 285 by Sen. Susan Paddack, D-Ada i. Would require early childhood education standards to be aligned to the new state standards (when those are developed)
d. SB 303 by Sen. Wayne Shaw, R- Grove i. Beginning in 2016-2017, school boards shall require training on recognition of sexual abuse of students e. HB 1065 by Rep. Jadine Nollan, R-Sand Springs i. To determine promotion and retention of 3rd grader pursuant to RSA, the OKSDE shall administer a test that only measure reading proficiency, and not proficiency in language arts f. HB 1321 by Rep. Jadine Nollan, R-Sand Springs i. Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/9/15; Alternative pathways to graduation g. HB 1330 by Rep. Ann Coody, R-Lawton i. Passed House Common Education Committee on 2/9/15; Would allow children of military to have Oklahoma history requirement waived, if they come from another state and had passed that state’s history exam h. HB 1499 by Rep. Dennis Casey, R-Laverne i. EOI exemption in certain circumstances; i. HB 1684 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-OKC i. Similar to SB 303- Called “Erin’s Law”- national movement; requiring educating younger students on what is and is not appropriate touching; opt-out provision in bill (90% of all cases of child sex abuse though is committed by a family member, so the opt-out provision is not beneficial in this particular instance) 3. Elections a. HB 1275 by Rep. Josh Cockroft, R-Shawnee i. Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 2/4/15; Moves school board elections to April in odd-numbered years with runoffs in June b. HB 1442 by Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid i. Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 2/11/15; deals with vacant seats; able to appoint a vacant seat with a constituent anywhere in school district until the term expires; then the seat would be vacant and there would be an election and only those residing within that ward would be able to run c. HB 1440 by Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid i. Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 2/11/15; Sets 16 year term limits for school board members 4. Funding a. HB 1682 by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing i. Long-term “off the top” funding bill; allows ROADS to get the rest of their money, then in 3 years, schools would start getting increased funds b. SB 18 by Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-OKC i. Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/9/15; Task force to study administrative efficiencies c. SB 179 by Sen. Jim Halligan, R-Stillwater i. Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/9/15; Adds 1 day or 6 hours to calendar for schools; d. HB 1498 by Rep. Dennis Casey, R-Laverne i. Defines per pupil expenditure; includes almost every cost imaginable in that calculation; an attempt to answer the question of how much money do schools really receive and where that money goes 5. Teacher Issues a. SB 29 by Sen. Josh Breechen, R-Coalgate i. Passed Senate Education Committee on 2/9/18; Certification expiration bill; if a teacher’s certificate expires, the renewal could be backdated to July 1 if it is renewed in the same year that it expired b. SB 20 by Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee
i. Allows a teacher who is certified out of state with 5 years of experience to teach in the same subject/ grade level area to be automatically certified to teach in those areas in Oklahoma (pending criminal background check) c. SB 301 by Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-OKC i. Passed in Senate Education Committee on 2/9/15; adds reporting requirement to of local school to report to the OKSBE if a certified employee is terminated due to conduct involving moral turpitude; creates an investigatory body within the OKSDE; author intent is to keep sexual predators from being hired by another school district after being terminated d. HB 1521 by Rep. Katie Henke, R-Tulsa i. Passed House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on 2/9/15 unanimously; Passed House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on 2/11/15 unanimously; would allow for one-time incentive pay to be offered to recruit teachers to the school district and one-time retention pay be offered for returning a second year; this would be outside of negotiated agreements; does not require a state appropriation; local decision