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Bills must receive 82 votes to pass the House.
Charter School Funding
The House took up HB 1552 (Richey), a bill that changes provisions related to the funding of charter schools. During the debate, the sponsor stated the spend true-up is included in the language to ensure special education costs for St. Louis and Kansas City are not overly burdensome. Representative Rasheed Aldridge amended the bill to specify Charter schools in the St. Louis Public School District cannot access any funding resulting from the current desegregation lawsuit. Representative Rusty Black further amended the bill to add a nonseverability clause and allows those who own property outside of their current school district to send their children to the district where the property lies.
The House passed the bill by an 85-67 vote.
Open Enrollment
The House debated HB 1814 (Pollitt), a bill that outlines the procedures and policies necessary to allow students to transfer between school districts. The bill also includes the following:
- voluntary surveys for parents to take if they decide to change districts,
- requires the school board and superintendent of a district to vote on any student they are rejecting,
- clarifies language if there is an issue of joint custody of a child,
- allows other educational groups besides DESE to develop policies,
- adds additional data to be collected by DESE to formulate a yearly report on transfer students, and
- adds a dollar amount to the issue of lost property tax dollars.
*Aligned supports HB 1814 and testified in committee.
During the discussion, lawmakers adopted numerous amendments to modify the bill to:
- allow those who own property outside of their current school district to send their children to the district where the property lies,
- fix the tuition discrepancy when students transfer from K-8 districts to K-12 districts,
- remove Hickman Mills from the legislation, and
- ensure federal military impact aid is not affected by the legislation.
The House passed the bill by an 85-65 vote.
The Missouri Independent provided coverage on this story.
Both bills now will be sent to the Senate for further consideration.
Aligned Priority Bills Moving...
Quality Assurance for Early Childhood Providers
The Senate Education Committee discussed SB 800 (Hegeman), a bill that removes the designation of the early childhood quality assurance program as a pilot and extends it until August 28, 2028. During committee discussion, committee members questioned whether an additional sunset date was necessary or if the program could be made permanent. Aligned, Kids Win Missouri, Missouri Childcare Association, Missouri Alliance of YMCAs, and the Missouri NEA provided supporting testimony. There was no testimony in opposition provided during the hearing.
Transportation of School Children
The Senate Education Committee discussed SB 958 (Bean) which modifies the definition of "school bus" to include only vehicles designed for carrying more than 10 passengers and allows school districts to use vehicles other than school buses to transport school children. Further, the bill allows transportation network companies to contract with districts for the transportation of school children and repeals the requirement that drivers of non-school-bus vehicles transporting school children have a school bus driver's license endorsement. HopSkipDrive, Kids Win Missouri, and Aligned supported the bill. There was no testimony in opposition.
Competency-Based Education
The Senate Education Committee voted "do pass" SB 660 (Arthur) by a vote of 9-0. This legislation establishes the Show Me Success Diploma Program and Competency-Based Education Grant Program and Task Force, which create alternative pathways for students to complete required courses or achieve equivalency for graduation requirements.
Read the full Missouri Capitol weekly report.
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