A Legislation to Watch list spotlights bills we're monitoring this session, and a search feature lets users view bills
by topic, year, priority or bill or resolution number.
Bill status is updated daily during the legislative sessio
n.
Science Daily: New study finds that babies' brains benefit from music even before they can walk and talk.
Zero to Three's A Year of Play offers a different theme each month with talking tips, activities and books for babies and toddlers. February's theme is Textures.
City of Lincoln unveils a community growth initiative focusing on early childhood, employment skills and innovation. One of the program's goals is to increase awareness of what quality early education is and looks like. Prosper Lincoln
Nebraska senators introduced just over 500 new bills during the first 10 days of the current legislative session. Of those, First Five Nebraska has identified several that merit attention because of their potential impact on early childhood. The state budget, education tax credits, home-visiting programs and adjustments to Step Up to Qualityare among the issues we're watching.
The bills to watch join two bills carried over from the 2015 session now on General File awaiting debate by the full Legislature.
LB322 by
Senator Kate Bolz of Lincoln increases the amount of child care and dependent care tax credits, and
LB371 by
Senator Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids creates the Nebraska Council for Educational Success.
LB773 by Senator John Stinner of Gering to create the Early Childhood Workforce Development Task Force. A strategic decision was made to not have the bill advance this session in an effort to work collaboratively with Governor Ricketts' new Education and Workforce Roundtable toidentify issues and solutions impacting students' transitions in the early childhood-to-workforce pipeline. Read More
LB889 by
Senator Heath Mello of Omaha establishes tax credits for quality child care for families, providers, early childhood workforce and businesses.
LB939, also by Senator Mello, adopts the Early Childhood Advantage Act, which defines and allows for rules and regulations regarding home-visiting programs. It also requires outcome measurements for those programs.
LB956 by
Speaker Galen Hadley of Kearney, at the request of the Governor, is part of the Governor's mid-biennium budget recommendations. The legislation creates adjustments to the appropriations for operations, construction and aid programs for the State of Nebraska during the current and next fiscal years.
LB957 also by Speaker Hadley at the request of the Governor is another component of the Governor's budget recommendations.
LB1066 by
Senator Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids is the
Nebraska Department of Education's annual technical bill that includes a change to
Step Up to Quality so early childhood programs don't lose step ratings they've earned for minor corrective action items. This bill also includes lump-sum payments by the state to school districts, and other actions.
More information on these bills and others affecting early childhood in Nebraska can be found on our website's Nebraska Legislation page. Available information includes bill descriptions, hearing dates, status of the legislation and links to the Nebraska Legislature's webpage.
UNL College of Education and Human Sciences Dean Marjorie Kostelnik: Broad consensus exists that teacher quality matters. Teacher quality makes a difference in our K-12 system and it makes a difference in our colleges and universities. But nowhere does teacher quality have a greater impact than with our youngest children. Read More
Julie Miller, Early Childhood Program Chair, Southeast Community College: When children learn acceptable ways to express emotions, they're better able to get their needs met and get along with others. And, most important, they feel better about themselves. Having that emotional foundation makes learning easier.
