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Board hears legislative warning: proposed option-enrollment changes could create unfunded special-education and transportation costs
Summary
District legislative staff briefed the Millard board on draft state legislation (LB653 and related bills) that would change how option-enrolled students with disabilities are admitted and transported, warning the proposals could create significant unfunded mandates for school districts.
District legislative staff told the board that a priority package tied to LB653 (option enrollment) under consideration in the Legislature would change several operational rules for option-enrolled students with disabilities, and could create fiscal and operational challenges if enacted.
Todd Triple, providing the legislative report, said the draft language would require districts to accept option-enrolled students who require certain levels of special-education services up to a state-wide percentage (the example discussed in the meeting was roughly 16 percent) “regardless of capacity,” and that additional bills being discussed could require districts to transport accepted students up to 35 miles. Triple cautioned the board that the bill language was still in committee and that timing was tight — “day 61… 29 more days” in the session — making it difficult to model fiscal impacts before possible floor debate.
Board members and district specialists asked operational questions. Carrie (special education staff) told the board the district receives roughly 50 applications per year from students with disabilities and currently accepts about 60–90 percent of those applications after staff review. She noted some applications lack paperwork, which complicates early capacity planning. When asked about timeline for the state percentage, staff said the October statewide reporting number is the official count that would likely be used for any percentage calculation, but that exact legislative language had not yet been released.
Board member Mike Kennedy voiced concern about fiscal effects: “what I'm more worried about is gonna we're gonna get one of these Christmas tree bills… putting this unfunded mandate… it’s actually gonna hurt us down the road,” he said in the meeting transcript, urging more time for modeling and stakeholder input. Legislative staff and other board members stressed the difference between policy intent and operational reality — for example, the draft definitions of “level 1/2/3” services would change how students are categorized (the bill text proposed percent-of-classroom-time thresholds rather than hours of service), which would require substantial operational changes to IEP review and capacity accounting if adopted.
Other bills discussed that are sometimes folded into the same package include LB507 (transportation responsibilities for option-enrolled students), LB497 (extracurricular participation for nonpublic or homeschool students), LB430 (discipline/suspension language for early-grade students), and LB3390 and LB140 (related to library transparency and student cell-phone policy processes). Triple and district staff recommended continued monitoring, requested authority to model likely fiscal impacts, and said they would provide updates as bill language emerges from committee.
No formal action was taken; the session record shows this item was reported and discussed. Board members asked staff to return with cost estimates and operational models if the bills advance.
