OSSBA Legislative Update Monday March 30- Thursday, April 2, 2015 SB 262 by Sen. Susan Paddack and Rep. Todd Thomsen; passed the Senate on 3/9/15; Passed full House on 3/25; Signed by the Governor 4/1/15; allows the SSDE and Oklahoma Department of Labor to collaborate and make information available to school districts to teach workplace safety training, if desired. HB 1691 by Rep. Lee Denney and Sen. Clark Jolley; passed the House on 3/9/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; would allow OKC and Tulsa public schools to contract with a public or private nonsectarian entity to provide educational and administrative services for a school within the district; the school would be exempt to the same extent as a charter school and the provider would be exempt from statutes and rules relating to schools. HB 1693 by Rep. Kevin Calvey and Sen. Kyle Loveless; passed the House on 3/11/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; amends the “Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act”. SB 136 by Sen. Gary Stanislawski and Rep. Jason Nelson; passed the Senate on 2/18/15; Passed the House Common Education Committee on 3/30; requires the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to provide a list of approved online courses at the state rate that would meet state accreditation standards. HB 1321 by Rep. Jadine Nollan and Sen. John Ford; passed the House on 3/10/15; Passed Senate Education on 3/30; exempts students from taking certain EOIs if they have earned business endorsements by Career Tech or have taken the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery of the Armed Forces Qualification Test. HB 1622 by Rep. David Derby and Sen. Gary Stanislawski; passed the House on 3/11/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; would replace criterion referenced tests with the Iowa Testing Program as the state required test. HB 1065 by Rep. Jadine Nollan and Sen. Gary Stanislawski; passed the House on 3/12/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; Requires the SBE to use a reading test and not a language arts test to measure reading skills in accordance with the RSA. HB 1268 by Rep. Dennis Casey and Sen. John Ford- Passed House on 3/4/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; providing an alternative method of demonstrating financial literacy for students with significant cognitive disabilities who are on an IEP. HB 1690 by Rep. Lee Denney, Rep. Chad Caldwell and Sen. John Ford- Passed House on 3/4/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; students who are receiving long or short-term inpatient rehabilitation services and are provided educational services by a school district, shall be reported separately on the school’s report card.
HB 2088 by Rep. Jason Nelson and Sen. Greg Treat- Passed House on 3/5/15; Passed Senate Education Committee on 3/30; requires the new academic standards to be adopted in time to be implemented in the 2016-2017 school year. SB 162 by Sen. Jim Halligan and Rep. Lee Denney; passed the Senate on 3/10/15; Passed House Common Education Committee on 3/30; requires the SBE to make rules exempting students on IEP’s from taking state mandated tests and replace them with alternative achievement tests. SB 285 by Sen. John Ford and Rep. Ann Coody; passed the Senate on 2/25/15; Passed House Common Education Committee on 3/30; requires the SBE to align early childhood academic standards to the new standards once they are adopted. HB 1290 by Rep. Ed Cannaday and Sen. Eddie Fields ; passed the House on 3/11/15; Passed the Senate Education Committee on 3/30; Creates the School District Unfunded Mandate Relief Program which would allow local school boards to avoid underfunded (less than 75% funding) and unfunded mandates based upon a list of mandates and the cost published by the SDE. HB 1521 by Rep. Katie Henke and Sen. Jason Smalley- Passed House on 3/4/15; Passed the Senate Education Committee on 3/30; allows for one time incentive pay and one time retention bonus for recruiting teachers into a school district and for returning a second year outside of negotiated agreements and collective bargaining. HB1749 by Rep. Tom Newell and Sen. Nathan Dahm- passed the House on 2/24/15; passed the full Senate on 3/26; Sent to the Governor; prohibits state agencies from deducting professional association dues from payroll; classifies school districts as state agencies. SB 301 by Sen. Kyle Loveless and Rep. Scott Biggs- passed the Senate on 3/12/15; Failed for lack of a second in the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education on 3/30; this bill would have created a criminal investigatory division within the SDE to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct by teachers against students. SB 312 by Sen. David Holt and Rep. Jon Echols; passed the Senate on 3/10/15; Passed House Elections and Ethics Committee on 3/25; limits times when a special election may be called to fill a vacancy, including school board elections and removes January from the list of dates which a special election may be called (i.e. bond elections). SB 428 by Sen. Brian Crain and Rep. Jon Echols- passed the Senate on 3/3/15; assigned to House Ethics and Elections Committee and could be heard Wednesday, April 8, 2015; removes January from the list of dates in which a special election may be called. SB 711 by Sen. John Sparks and Rep. Lee Denney- passed the Senate on 3/11; passed the House on 4/2; requires the local school board to forward information to the SBE when they dismiss an employee for allegations of criminal misconduct.