The newest policy and legislative developments in Louisiana education, summarized and annotated by Orleans Public Education Network. This is a still-developing list and will be continually updated throughout the session. This is not a full list of all movements up before the legislature; to access that list, please click here.
Highlighted in red are bills we feel may contain harmful, ineffective or inequitable policy outcomes; in yellow are bills that are still developing and/or should be closely watched; and in green are bills OPEN supports in line with its values of equity, transparency, and justice.
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Criminalization
Curriculum
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Early Childhood
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Health
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Special Education
Students
System-wide Supports
Teachers
Transparency
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HB 100
Authorizes school boards (by majority vote) to reestablish their membership with between 5 and 15 members or the number presently authorized for that school board. The new part of law is that they can choose which standard to use (5-15 OR number presently authorized) instead of using whichever is greater.
HB 11
Authorizes the release of a seventeen-year-old taken into custody for a misdemeanor-grade delinquent act upon the issuance of a summons or upon his written promise to appear.
HB 158
Prohibits juvenile detention centers from detaining juveniles for insufficient reasons, including to punish, treat or rehabilitate the child, to allow the child's parent/guardian to avoid their legal responsibilities, to facilitate further interrogation or investigation, the unavailability of a more appropriate facility, etc.
HB 160
Requires the collection and reporting of information related to school safety and discipline, including numbers of school resource officers, student suspensions, expulsions, and removals to alternative settings, referrals to law enforcement, and school-related arrests.
HB 167
Regarding criminal history, applies certain requirements for certification and employment of teachers and other school employees only to those who have been convicted of certain offenses instead of those who have been either convicted or pled nolo contendere (accepting conviction without admitting guilt) to such offenses.
HB 184
Creates the crime of harassment of a school or recreation athletic contest official and provides criminal penalties for commission of the offense.
HB 193
Revises procedures related to students being investigated for making threats of violence or terrorism, giving more discretion to both school administration and law enforcement.
HB 211
Limits the number of hours per day of certain behavioral health services reimbursable by Medicaid.
HB 212
Requires schools to be either approved by BESE or registered with the state DOE to be classified as a school for compulsory attendance and other purposes.
HB 225
Requires charter school facilities financed through tax exempt bonds to be offered to charter operators or local school boards under certain circumstances.
HB 227
Allows the LA Special Education Center's licensure to determine at what age to stop providing services for individuals, instead of requiring services until age 32.
HB 240
Provides that movement in music class and marching band counts as physical activity for purposes of satisfying present law requiring that students receive at least 30 minutes of physical activity each school day. OPEN is in support of this bill only if that activity and length of time are generous enough to actually support physical education goals, skills and competencies.
HB 254
Puts burden of proof to prove there is no risk of substantial harm on parents instead of non-parental figures.
HB 266
Removes requirements for summer remediation programs related to poor student progression and requires that pupil progression plans be made publicly available.
HB 267
Authorizes the establishment of arts-based programming at juvenile detention facilities operated by any governmental, profit, nonprofit, private, or public agency and authorizes funding of such programming.
HB 283
Requires video cameras in classrooms and other educational settings where students with exceptionalities receive special education and related services. This policy requires charter schools to adhere.
HB 310
Removes grade point average requirement for entrance to teacher certification programs in lieu of successful, progressive work experience
HB 320
Currently, law prohibits a public school governing authority from denying student access to behavioral health service providers at school during school hours if requested by the student's parent or legal guardian. The proposed law would add "applied behavioral analysis provider" to the definition and requires the public school governing authority to make their policies publicly available.
HB 321
Authorizes local public school boards and charterering authorities to adopt policies regarding student attendance at virtual (online) schools in compliance with present law.
HB 324
Establishes a systemwide needs program for Orleans Parish school system. The school system would be funded by allocating money per total students in OPSB ($120/ student or $5.7 million dollars), but schools would have access through a competitive process. Potential for inequitable distribution of equitably collected public money.
HB 334
Authorizes the installation and use of monitoring devices in the rooms of residents of intermediate care facilities for people with developmental disabilities. See HB 283, as there are several bills this session concerning video recording in this type of setting.
HB 337
Adds protections for teachers and more information about grievance procedures for teachers and administrators who are frustrated by evaluation ratings, including those portions of such ratings derived from the observation and value-added assessment model components.
HB 338
Expands training on bullying to include student and family engagement, discrimination on the basis of race/gender/nationality/ELL status/disability status, and staff/faculty diversity.
HB 373
Creates a four-bed peer group for intermediate care facilities for people with developmental disabilities and provides for the calculation of Medicaid per diem rates for those facilities.
HB 386
Requires courts to consider prior delinquent acts committed when determining whether release of a child who has been taken into custody for a delinquent act is appropriate.
HB 393
Changes the amount of sales tax dedicated to the school facilities preservation and systemwide needs programs in certain public school districts to .13%. Requires continued use of a portion of these funds to pay school facility debt, in the same amounts being paid on July 1, 2014, until such debt is retired.
HB 395
Provides that federal funds may not be used as matching funds and changes the minimum match rate to 1:1, using only money from the LA Early Childhood Education Fund. Proposed law also authorizes BESE, if there is money in the fund after the board has funded every qualifying project pursuant to present law, to award remaining money in the fund for the exclusive use of Type III early learning centers to provide quality care for children ages birth through 2 who are eligible for CCAP.
HB 403
Provides that the the date for congressional primary elections, which occurs every other year, shall be a holiday for public schools in any parish where the parish governing authority has established a polling place at a public school.
HB 409
Prohibits Medicaid managed care organizations from denying licensed and qualified behavioral health services providers the opportunity to enroll in provider networks.
HB 430
Authorizes a $1,000 annual, refundable tax credit for eligible certified full-time teachers who have been employed as certified teachers for three consecutive years as well as members of the teaching staff at eligible early childhood education facilities.
HB 446
Provides for a voucher program for public school students in 3rd through 5th grade who score below mastery in English language arts on state assessments.
HB 453
Prohibits school boards from entering into contracts with labor unions that are not certified.
HB 467
Provides for school boards to optionally participate in the LA Optical Network Infrastructure and allows this infrastructure to be included in the statewide educational technology plan.
HB 47
Increases the penalty for the crime of improper supervision of a minor, including allowing children to be truant or tardy to school. This bill would lead to more criminalization of parents.
HB 482
Requires schools to involve parents in developing academic improvement plans, decreases time frame for plan presentation from 60 to 30 days, and adds reporting requirements for local superintendents and the state Department of Education.
HB 488
Requires local school boards to receive approval of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget in order to be provided legal services.
HB 490
Expands the definition of a child occupied facility regarding the present law that requires testing of child-occupied facilities for lead and mercury.
HB 5
Creates a crime that prohibits a convicted sex offender from volunteering for, providing services to, or being employed by a home study program or from being physically present in a home used by a home study program
HB 517
Requires public school governing authorities to adopt policies regarding the assessment, collection, and use of fees charged to students in elementary and secondary schools or their parents or legal guardians. Requires schools participating in the voucher program to identify all fees paid with voucher funds and provide certain information about fees to the parents or legal guardians of voucher students. Increases financial transparency.
HB 53
Increases requirements for youth suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention in schools, in-service training for school employees, services available to students, and reporting data to the DOE.
HB 537
Assigns parental rights of parents or other individuals with children in the foster care system to the Department of Children and Family Services and amends rights of parents, including prohibiting any parent or individual who has had a child removed from their custody or voluntarily placed in foster care from entering into a contract for the collection of financial support.
HB 550
Provides that the identify of a person making a complaint relative to an early learning center, family child care or in-home provider, or fraud pertaining to the Child Care Assistance Program and related state Department of Education investigation records shall be confidential and shall not be public records.
HB 562
Amends the licensure, regulation, and oversight requirements of proprietary schools (private, for-profit schools) by the Board of Regents.
HB 62
Creates a system in which Thrive Academy shall receive an appropriation of $75,000 plus the average per pupil amount paid to public schools and laboratory schools approved by BESE and operated by public postsecondary education institutions will receive appropriations equal to the average per pupil amount paid to public schools.
HCR 1
Provides for legislative approval of the minimum foundation program (MFP) formula for fiscal year 2019- 2020 to determine the cost of a minimum foundation program of education in all public elementary and secondary schools as well as to equitably allocate the funds to local public school systems as developed by BESE.
SB 109
Establishes an extended foster care program for children ages 18-21.
SB 120
Revises bullying standards, increasing the possibility of student criminalization and involvement with law enforcement.
SB 128
Removes prohibition against sectarian (religious) charter schools, prohibits BESE or DOE from requiring any school to follow either common core OR state standards, and lets localities/charters decide which standards they want to follow.
SB 132
Establishes a systemwide needs program for Orleans Parish school system. The school system would be funded by allocating money per total students in OPSB ($120/ student or $5.7 million dollars), but schools would have access through a competitive process. Potential for inequitable distribution of equitably collected public money.
SB 137
Amends and reenacts a bill regarding school discipline practices. This bill adds new definitions and subsections regarding school discipline policies. OPEN is in support of this bill to help move the work forward, but acknowledges the bill has imperfections and should be improved.
SB 151
Provides for the transfer of the Louisiana Special Education Center from the Special School District to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH)
SB 158
Requires each public school governing authority to establish a special education advisory council to provide advice and feedback regarding special education policies, procedures, and resources and engage in community outreach. 60% of this advisory council must be parents of students with an exceptionality other than gifted and talented.
SB 194
Develops and implements a statewide dual enrollment framework to maximize participation in college courses by current high school students.
SB 43
Provides that when conducting the annual review of the crisis management and response plan for a high school, the school principal shall seek and consider input from the students enrolled in the school who shall be represented in the review process by either the president of the senior class, the president of the student council, and at least one other responsible student selected by the principal. OPEN takes issue with pre-determining where student leadership should come from/what it shold look like, and the lack of guidance on how to really include student voice.
SB 52
Requires BESE to prescribe a process for the review and adoption of free textbooks and to establish a process where DOE will review textbooks/instructional materials to ensure alignment with state standards. This policy has potential to either increase or decrease equity depending on the standards these textbooks are being held to.
SB 6
Authorizes an individual income tax deduction for eligible teachers of up to $250 of eligible expenses made by the taxpayer.
SB 66
Retains present law requiring open meetings of public bodies and changes the amount of the civil penalty from $100 to $500.
SB 78
Retains present law that student behavioral health services must be provided during school hours if requested and paid by a student's parent or legal guardian, and adds "behavior analyst" to the definition of "behavior health provider" and "evaluator". Further includes "applied behavior analysis" in the definition of "behavioral health services".
SB 78
This law adds the term "behavior analyst" to the definition of "behavior health provider" and "evaluator". Further includes "applied behavior analysis" in the definition of "behavioral health services".
SB 95
Clarifies the role of the state superintendent, including that they shall administer, execute, and implement BESE policies and programs and shall serve as the administrative head of the Dept. of Education.
SCR 3
Provides for legislative approval of the minimum foundation program (MFP) formula for fiscal year 2019- 2020 to determine the cost of a minimum foundation program of education in all public elementary and secondary schools as well as to equitably allocate the funds to local public school systems as developed by BESE.