Education committee lays over governor’s policy bill

Addressing the underlying reason for a student bullying another student, providing clarity to schools on lockdown and active shooter drills, and adding transparency for charter schools are all part of Gov. Tim Walz’s education policy proposal that contains state law changes that supporters note are technical, yet important.

It includes “a range of provisions aimed at continuing to ensure that our students learn in safe and supportive learning environments and local education agencies have the clarity they need to best support our students,” Deputy Education Commissioner Maren Hulden said.

Rep. Sydney Jordan (DFL-Mpls) is carrying the governor’s education policy proposal as HF3730. The House Education Policy Committee that she co-chairs laid over the bill, as amended, Wednesday for possible omnibus bill inclusion.

The bill, in part, would:

• require school districts to enroll migratory children and children experiencing homelessness;
• require that in a bullying incident the school provide supportive interventions for both the student who experiences the bullying and the student who is engaging in the bullying behavior;
• clarify the difference between fire, lockdown, active shooter and shelter-in-place drills, require school districts to adopt statewide guidance on the drills and allow schools to conduct certain drills without students present to reduce trauma;
• require expulsion hearing transcripts to be made available to all parties upon appeal of an expulsion decision and that they include a written transcript;
• require a student in grades four through 12 who isn’t reading at grade level to be screened for reading at least once a year until the student reaches grade-level proficiency;
• allow a parent, in coordination with a teacher, to opt out a student in kindergarten through third grade from a reading screening if they determine it won’t be beneficial to the student; and
• require the Department of Education to regularly review READ Act curriculum and intervention materials to ensure materials are up to date.

Rick Kaufman, executive director of community relations and emergency management at the Bloomington school district, appreciates the direction the school safety drill section is headed, but the bill language reflects an older model of school drills that practice specific incidents. Instead, the bill should have the expectation for the number of drills each year and allow schools to conduct those drills using a modern framework.

“Today, most school systems across the country and in Minnesota train very differently,” he said, explaining that many Minnesota school districts have adopted what is known as standard response protocol where students and staff learn “a small number of consistent actions that can apply to virtually any emergency.”

Rep. Sydney Jordan

The bill would also add transparency measures to state law regulating charter schools. Its proposals include clarifying that charter schools must follow state law on screen time limitations for preschoolers and kindergartners and requiring a charter school’s initial board of directors to include a licensed teacher, a prospective parent or guardian and an interested community member.

The Minnesota Association of Charter Schools supports the bill, writing that the proposed changes build upon and fine-tune work done in the last couple years to add more accountability into state law. However, the association also asked lawmakers to consider funding because resources are needed to provide transparency and accountability, but charter schools can’t levy for costs that continue to increase.