Legislative Update 2/11/11

This week was quite busy for the General Assembly with hearings being rescheduled due to the weather last week and trying to get bills through before next week's deadline of hearings scheduled in their house of origin. I had the privilege of providing testimony on Wednesday on SB538 Bullying Prevention in the Senate Education and Career Development Committee. The hearing began at 1:30 and the review and testimony for this bill didn't start until 6:30 p.m. due to a highly contentious bill, SB01 regarding teacher evaluations. Needless to say, it was a long day. I'm hopeful that all who testified were heard and that we will get this much needed bill passed. The committee meets again next Wednesday, 2/16 to review amendments and vote.

Here is a list of other bills that had movement this week:

SB56 Child Care Regulation (Holdman et al) - Still no hearing scheduled, but on 2/7 Senator Gard was added as a co-author.

SB93 Concussions and head injuries in student athletes (Landske et al) - Hearing scheduled for 2/11 at 9:30 a.m. Senate Health and Provider Services Committee.

SB101 Driver education issues (Holdman et al) - 2/8 Third reading: passed; Yeas 41 nays 8. House sponsor: Rep. Hinkle, cosponsor: Re. Soliday, Senator Leising added as coauthor.

SB 406 Use of school bus safety belts (Rogers, Kruse) - 2/8 Third reading: passed; yes 46, nays 3. House sponsor: Rep. Behning, cosponsor: Rep. Porter, Senator Landske added as coauthor.

SB 446 Use of public school property by charter schools (Schneider et al) - 2/8 Second reading; amended, ordered engrossed; Senator Rogers added as coauthor.

SB465 Department of Child Services (Lawson) - 2/11 Hearing scheduled 9:00 a.m. Judiciary Committee.

HB1002 Charter Schools (Bosma et al) - 2/8 Third reading: passed; Yeas 59 nays 37. Senate sponsor: Sen. Kruse

HB1083 Child solicitation (Crouch, Lawson) - 2/7 Third reading: passed; Yeas 96 nays 0. Senate sponsor: Senator Head, Representative Delaney added as coauthor.

HB1340 Adult Education (Behning) - 2/10 Second reading: amended, ordered engrossed.

HB1341 Special Education Grants (Behning, Frizzell) - 2/10 Third reading: passed; yeas 92 nays 1. Senate sponsors: Sens. Yoder & Kruse.

HB 1369 Pay to performance program for school administrators (Soliday) - 2/8 Committee report: amend do pas, adopted; referred to Committee on Ways and Means. 2/10 Referral to Committee on Ways and Means withdrawn.

HB1399 Participation in school athletics (Wesco) - 2/10 Second reading: amended, ordered engrossed.

HB1418 Child protection registry (McNamara et al) - 2/10 Third reading: passed; Yeas 94 nays 0. Senate sponsor: Sen. Head.

HB1422 Notice to parent, guardian or custodian (Davisson, Reicken) - 2/10 Committee report; amend do pass; adopted.