The first fiscal committee deadline passed on Monday, and the list of active bills got even smaller as executive action by both the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee was not taken on some bills. The Legislature spent the rest of this week (and will spend all of next week) on floor action trying to get bills passed out of each house in order to meet the next deadline of March 9th. This is a much slower process in a remote session, so fewer bills will survive this session. We are watching to see which bills are still moving and will keep advocating to get bills of importance to the floor for votes.
This week several principals attended the National Leaders Conference (virtually!), which was put on by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). There were some good keynote sessions (you can see the presentation slides here) from Dr. Marguerite Roza, Director of the Edunomics Lab of Georgetown University, Danny Carlson, NAESP Associate Executive Director of Policy and Advocacy, and Jeremy Anderson, President of the Education Commission of the States.
We also met with some staff members from the offices of Representative Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, Representative Pramila Jayapal, and Senator Patty Murray. A big thank you to Paul Marquardt, Principal at Shining Mountain Elementary in Bethel; Erika Burden, Principal at Westwood Middle School in Cheney; and Derek Forbes, Principal at Meridian High School in Meridian who spent a few hours as our NAESP and NASSP representatives to meet with congressional staff to talk about education funding, assessment, broadband, and school reopening issues.
Outdoor School for All is gaining some great momentum! This is a statewide effort to get all 5th or 6th grade students to outdoor camp for a week. Senator Sam Hunt sponsored a $10 million budget request that would help start on this goal by getting 20,000 students to outdoor camp. The Washington Outdoor School Consortium (WOSC) is sponsored by our Washington School Principals Education Foundation (WSPEF) and our staff is working with a fantastic group of outdoor education advocates all across the state to make this happen. Find out more on the Outdoor School for All website.
The State Board of Education held a special meeting on Thursday this week to discuss new rules related to emergency waivers for graduation. Thank you to those who provided initial feedback to their survey. If you have any additional feedback, the survey will be open until March 5th or you can send written comments to sbe@k12.wa.us by that same date. The board intends to approve the new rules at their next meeting on March 10–11. For more information, check out SBE’s website.
We know you are working tirelessly to get schools reopen to more students and we love hearing how rewarding it is for both students and staff to be back in buildings. As we track the discussions related to budget and policy with the Legislature and federal government, we are working to make sure that funding stays whole for next year and that your districts have the resources necessary to keep schools running safely for all. Let us know if you have any questions and keep up the great work! We are cheering you on and here to support you.
Here is the list of bills that are still active and as a reminder, some bills that may be “dead” may actually be considered “zombie bills” because they could be brought back in some fashion. Thanks to Fred Yancey for this reminder!
Bills Still Active
Budget
- HB 1368 | Federal funding for COVID–19 (passed and signed by Governor Inslee)
- HB 1476 | Addressing enrollment declines due to the COVID–19 pandemic
- SB 5128 | Concerning transportation funding
House
- HB 1028 | Repealing the EdTPA
- HB 1113 | Concerning school attendance
- HB 1121 | Emergency graduation waivers (passed and awaiting Governor Inslee’s signature)
- HB 1139 | Addressing lead in drinking water
- HB 1162 | Adding a performance exhibition pathway and changing to 20 credits for graduation
- HB 1176 | Concerning student fines and fees
- HB 1208 | Concerning the LAP program
- HB 1213 | Expanding child care and early learning programs
- HB 1214 | Concerning training for and data collection of school safety staff
- HB 1225 | School based health centers
- HB 1273 | Concerning menstrual products in schools
- HB 1295 | Concerning institutional education
- HB 1302 | College in the high school programs
- HB 1325 | Youth behavioral health
- HB 1342 | Reduced price lunch copays
- HB 1354 | Concerning suicide review teams
- HB 1356 | Prohibiting the inappropriate use of Native American names, symbols or images
- HB 1363 | Secondary trauma resources for K–12 staff
- HB 1373 | Promoting student access to information about behavioral health resources
- HB 1426 | Continuing education requirements for administrators and teachers
- HB 1477 | National 988 system for suicide prevention
- HB 1484 | Concerning the first responder building mapping information system
Senate
- SB 5030 | School counseling programs
- SB 5043 | School employee housing
- SB 5044 | Concerning equity training and dismantling institutional racism in public schools
- SB 5147 | Exploring alternative school calendars
- SB 5161 | Teaching tribal history
- SB 5184 | Establishing a foster care point of contact in each building
- SB 5242 | Media literacy and digital citizenship
- SB 5249 | Mastery-based learning
- SB 5264 | Chinese American history
- SB 5265 | Creating a bridge year pilot program
- SB 5299 | Allowing the use of computer science credits for the purpose of a third year math or science credit
- SB 5321 | Expanding access to the college bound scholarship
- SB 5322 | Prohibiting SEBB and PEBB dual enrollment
- SB 5327 | Creating a confidential youth safety and well-being tip line
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