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On Friday, legislators in the House and Senate continued to adopt
priority legislation prior to that evening’s cut-off deadline. All
bills (except budget matters) needed to be adopted from the opposite
house by Friday evening in order to remain alive. The following bills
were adopted following the preparation of Friday’s Update:
SB 6313 – Disability history. The House adopted an amended
version of this bill which requires public schools and public
institutions of higher education to annually conduct or promote
educational activities regarding disability history and people with
disabilities. The bill will now return to the Senate for its further
action.
SB 6426 – Military children. The House adopted an amended
version of this bill regarding the Interstate Compact on Educational
Opportunity for Military Children. The original bill would have
enacted the Compact in Washington; the Compact would be effective
after ten states adopt it. The House-adopted version of the bill would
establish a task force to review the Compact and report
recommendations to the Legislature by December 1, 2008. SB 6426
returns to the Senate for its further action.
HB 2635 – School district boundaries. The Senate adopted an
amended version of this bill, which would clarify and make changes to
the process for school district boundary changes. The Senate amendment
removes the new language regarding a new statewide Chair for regional
committees. (This language was removed to ensure the bill would not
have a fiscal impact.) HB 2635 returns to the House for its further
action.
During the remaining few days of this Regular Legislative Session
(“Sine Die” is scheduled for Thursday, March 13), legislators will
spend much of their time in their respective chambers taking action on
bills that have been amended by the opposite house. Bills amended by
the opposite house will be included on the House or Senate
“Concurrence” or “Dispute” Calendars. When amended bills return from
the opposite house, the original house has the opportunity to accept
(or “concur with”) the amendments or they can reject the amendments
and ask the opposite house to recede from its amendments. At this
point, the opposite house can back off its amendments or move to
“insist on its position.” Bills that are in dispute can ping-pong back
and forth between the houses until one side gives up and agrees, or a
Conference Committee can be requested. Conferences Committees are made
up of six legislators — three senators (two majority Democrats and one
minority Republican) and three representatives (two majority Democrats
and one minority Republican). Those legislators meet to negotiate a
final, compromise bill. Once a Conference Committee releases a
“report” (an agreed upon bill), legislators in both houses have an
opportunity to accept or reject the report.
On Saturday, both the Senate and the House wasted no time in beginning
the process of working through their respective “Concurrence” or
“Dispute” Calendars and they took action on a few education-related
bills:
SB 6426 – Military children. Adopted by the House on Friday
(see above), the Senate rejected the House’s idea of establishing a
task force on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for
Military Children. Rather than allowing the bill to ping-pong between
the houses, the Senate immediately asked for a Conference Committee to
be established.
SB 6673 – Extended learning opportunities. The Senate refused
to concur in House amendments and immediately asked for a Conference
Committee.
SB 5100 – Student health insurance. The Senate concurred in
House amendments to this bill, which will establish a pilot project in
six school districts to collect health insurance information from
students, rather than require all school districts to take that
action. The bill will now go to the Governor for her signature or
veto.
HB 2781 – State history courses. The House concurred in Senate
amendments, to encourage the study of the Pledge of Allegiance along
with the required enhancement of Washington history and government
courses. The bill will now go to the Governor for her signature or
veto.
HB 3166 – State assessment system. The House concurred in
Senate amendments. The bill requires OSPI to develop statewide
end-of-course assessments for high school mathematics and phase them
in beginning in 2009-10. Starting with the graduating class of 2014,
the new end-of-course assessments must be used as the high school
mathematics assessment for graduation. Additionally, OSPI is required
to redesign the WASL in all areas except writing and all grades except
high school to shorten test administration. The bill will now go to
the Governor for her signature or veto.
HB 2598 – Online math curriculum. The House refused to concur
in Senate amendments and asked the Senate to recede from its
amendments. Senate amendments would have removed the requirement that
one of OSPI’s recommended three math curricula be an online
curriculum.
HB 3212 – Student achievement. The House refused to concur in
Senate amendments and asked the Senate to recede from its amendments.
Senate amendments would have required that students in the foster care
system be included in the disaggregated subgroups when WASL results
are reported.
Although many education-related bills remain on the House or Senate
Concurrence or Dispute Calendars, neither body had taken any action on
those bills prior to the preparation of Monday’s Update.
With the end of the 2008 Legislative Session in sight, OSPI has
scheduled its annual Legislative Session Wrap-up K-20 Videoconference
for Wednesday, March 19, from 1:30-3:30 pm. Terry Bergeson and her
staff will summarize the final budgets as well as legislation that
will impact school districts. Videoconference sites will be available
at each ESD. Handouts for the videoconference will be available by
9:30 a.m. on the morning of March 19 on the OSPI Website at
http://www.k12.wa.us/LegisGov/default.aspx . If you are unable to
participate in this videoconference, we encourage you to at least
review the materials when they become available.
WSSDA staff has
also begun preparing our annual End of Session Summary. This report
will include: a comprehensive review of the K-12 portions of the 2008
Supplemental Operating and Capital Budgets; a detailed overview of
each of the education-related bills adopted by the Legislature; a
review of the many education-related bills that were introduced, but
were not ultimately adopted; and a review of any action taken on
WSSDA’s legislative priorities. The Summary will be mailed to School
Board Legislative Representatives and others who receive WSSDA’s
Impact newsletter. Additionally, the Summary will be available on
WSSDA’s Web site (wssda.org). We encourage you to review this Summary
to get a better understanding of the Legislature’s actions — and to
prepare to submit legislative proposals to WSSDA’s Legislative
Committee for the 2009 Legislative Session. WSSDA’s End of Session
Summary will be mailed with a “Request for 2009 Legislative
Proposals.” |
