nhsba

Legislative Bulletin

March 26, 2010


A Brief Summary of Education Issues at the State House

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CROSSOVER Deadline
Yesterday was the "Crossover Deadline", the last day for the House to act on House bills, and for the Senate to act on Senate bills. The deadline forced lengthy sessions in both chambers, to clear out bills that need to "crossover" to the other legislative body. Bills that have survived to move from one body to the other will now receive public hearings and further debate/review within the second body.
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House Action This Week
The House met on Wednesday and took action on the following bills:
[OTP means Ought to Pass - OTP/A means Ought to Pass as Amended - ITL means Inexpedient to Legislate]

HB 1224, relative to school employee and volunteer background investigations and relative to applicants for driver education certificates and school licenses: PASSED on an OTP/A vote. The amended bill adds "charges pending disposition" to background checks and prohibits the hiring of any person, charged pending disposition or convicted, for certain crimes by school administrative units, school districts, and chartered public schools. This bill also requires applicants for driver education certificates and school licenses to notify the director of the division of motor vehicles if they have been arrested, indicted, or summonsed to court for certain offenses.
HB 1495, removing the prohibition on approval of new chartered public schools between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2011 and authorizing the state board of education to issue approval of chartered public schools within that same time period: PASSED on an OTP/A vote. The Dept. Education has argued that by ending the moratorium, the state is better positioned to more effectively compete for federal "Race to the Top" funds.
HB 1664, making appropriations reductions in the operating budget for fiscal year 2011 and relative to state revenues and expenditures: TABLED on a 212-151 vote. The committee recommendation was unanimous on an amended version of the bill making significant cuts for the current biennium. However, based on the Senate action to forgo certain cuts and adopt a gambling bill, the House chose to wait for further information on state revenues and proposed cuts anticipated by the governor and state agency commissioners. A simple majority vote is needed to remove a bill from the table, but a supermajority 2/3 vote is required to suspend rules to act on a bill AFTER the crossover deadline.
The tabled bill contains another decrease in the state share of local employer retirement contributions, reducing the state share next year from the scheduled 25% down to 20%. The recommended reduction is for one year only (FY 2011), and the local impact of such reduction is offset by recommending, again for one year only, an increase in the percentage that employees, teachers, police and firefighters contribute. Employees and teachers would increase their contribution from 5% to 7%; police and firefighters would increase from 9.3% to 11%. The bill also proposes to make cuts in two state education aid programs in FY 2011. Dropout Prevention funding would be cut $1 million, reducing the appropriation from $1,750,000 down to $750,000; Local Ed Improvement would be cut in half, reducing the appropriation from $500,000 to $250,000.

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Senate Action This Week
The Senate met on Wednesday and took action on the following bills:
SB 396, limiting the use of child restraint practices in schools and treatment facilities: PASSED on an OTP vote. This bill restricts the use of restraint practices in schools and treatment facilities and establishes certain reporting requirements regarding the use of such practices. Schools must have a written policy and procedures for managing the behavior of children. Such policy shall describe how and under what circumstances restraint is used and shall be provided to the parent, guardian, or legal representative of each child.
SB 465, extending for one year through FY 2012 the transition period for implementing the adequacy aid formula: PASSED on an OTP/A vote. The one year extension of the transition period (hold harmless/collar) through FY 2012 saves the state $70 million by continuing the provision that the Dept Education distribute education grants to municipalities that neither exceed the FY 2009 grant by more than 15%, nor distribute any grant less that what was received in FY 2009. The amended bill also includes a study committee charged with studying the sustainability of the existing state programs for funding K-12 education, including adequate education grants, fiscal capacity disparity aid, and catastrophic special education aid. The committee is to report its findings and any recommendations for proposed legislation by December 1, 2010.
SB 462, extending the transition period through FY 2015, was KILLED on an ITL vote.
SB 486, suspending state building aid for new projects approved next year: PASSED on an OTP/A vote. The bill was amended to include a legislative statement of purpose and incorporate changes to the Committee to Study the School Building Aid Grant Program. The recommendation continues to suspend building aid grants for next year (June 30, 2010 - June 30, 2011), provides for a waiver if the condition of the building, or portion thereof, constitutes a clear and imminent danger to the life or safety of occupants, and adds two more members to the Building Aid Study Committee: one senator and one representative. The Study Committee is charged to solicit and consider testimony and hold a public hearing before making a final report by December 1, 2010. The final report should include any findings or recommendations for proposed legislation to be considered next year. During discussion of the bill on the floor of the Senate, it was clarified that "project approval" meant "legislative body approval".
SB 488, allowing towns, school districts, and other political subdivisions to adopt a spending cap: TABLED on a 14-10 vote. This action effectively kills the bill for this year since the CROSSOVER deadline was not met. A suspension of the rules would be required for further action on the bill. A similar bill, SB 487, allowing charter limitations on the growth of budgets and taxes, was also TABLED.
SB 520, relative to school district liability for special education costs: PASSED on an OTP/A vote. This bill addresses continuing concerns over the financial liability for special education services when a child has been "parentally placed" in a school outside the child's district of residence. The bill seeks to clarify that a child's district of residence remains the legally liable and financially responsible district and allows for a contractual agreement between the two districts. Further refinement to the language of the bill is expected in the House.

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School Accountability System
The Task Force to Develop a Performance-Based Accountability System is scheduled to meet next Friday, April 2nd at 9 am in the Department of Education. The Task Force has been reviewing two approaches for demonstrating that a school is providing the opportunity for an adequate education: an "Input System" based on school approval standards, and a "Performance System", which the Task Force is currently considering and scheduled to make recommendations on.
For the "Input System", the Task Force has reviewed a process for submitting "narrative" evidence for 12 selected school approval standards and establishing criteria for evaluating evidence of adequacy. Plans for the Dept. Educ. to conduct annual site visits at 10% of the state's schools have also been reviewed, along with criteria for confirming school self-assessments.
Discussion of a "Performance System" has focused on a possible two-level approach: one level consisting of a limited set of common indicators and a second level that would be locally determined indicators. Level one indicators could include state data such as test participation rates, NECAP scores, attendance/truancy data and graduation/dropout rates. The second level of data could be a limited set of locally determined goals, or targets, as indicators. These would be identified locally and incorporated into the performance measurement system for that school/district.
The Task Force, created last spring by SB 180, is scheduled to present an interim report of its findings and recommendations for future legislation to a joint meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 10:00. After the interim report is reviewed by the House and Senate Education Committees, the department shall verify the integrity, accuracy, and validity of the performance-based accountability system utilizing actual school data and submit a final report no later than November 1, 2010, including recommendations for future legislation and legislative adoption of the performance-based accountability system.

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For the complete text of any bill, go to the general court web site and enter the bill number, e.g. HB1523, SB405 or CACR27, and make sure the Session Year is 2010.

For more information on specific legislation, please call Dean Michener, NHSBA Director of Governmental Affairs at 603-228-2061, or email: [email protected].


Dean Michener
NHSBA Director of Governmental Affairs