Legislative Update

The introduction of bills has slowed markedly as committees now focus on having public hearings. Then bills are moved out of their respective committees through action in Executive Session. February 22 (policy bills) and March 1 (fiscal bills) are the cutoff dates. Bills that have not advanced by then, ‘die’.

What an amazing show of advocacy this week as 40 principals from across our state met with their legislators on Monday, January 28 for our annual “Day on the Hill”. We wore brightly colored plaid scarves in our AWSP colors which were noticed by many (that’s a good thing!) Rep. Mike Chapman from the 24th district even requested one for his scarf collection!

The legislative river is running as close to 1,500 bills have been introduced since December’s prefiling. Included among those are a number of bills affecting pensions, health, and job benefits. Hearings and any resulting action moving bills out of committees have begun as both houses move toward the first cut-off date. This is a brief summary of bills of interest: Retirement Related Proposals

The School Employees’ Benefit Board met for an all-day meeting and covered, as usual a wide range of topics. (Read the full post for the whole summary)

I’m in trouble...I’m not in trouble...am I in trouble? Confused? After two years of writing and revising, OSPI finally adopted new state rules (WACs) for student discipline. The rules describe how school administrators discipline students, communicate with parents, and provide guidance and due process expectations for suspended or expelled students.