Senate Education Committee reviews H.480, a miscellaneous education bill covering school safety, virtual learning, procurement and secretary search

Peter Palmer, chair of the House Education Committee, on April 1 told the Vermont Senate Education Committee that H.480 is a miscellaneous education bill the House passed and that the House has asked the Senate panel to review.

The bill packages a set of largely agency-requested changes, Palmer said, including amendments to Act 29 (2023) on school safety, language defining and counting virtual learning, a procurement exemption for purchases from nonprofit school food service accounts, a procedural change to allow supervisory unions to receive a $10,000 BOCES startup grant before formal BOCES articles are complete, additions to personalized learning plans to include military-related admissions information, and a requirement that the State Board of Education begin a national search for a new Secretary of Education within 60 days of a public resignation.

Palmer said much of H.480 is familiar to lawmakers because components track prior proposals. “This should look rather familiar,” he said, noting sections that push implementation dates and remove names of colleges no longer operating in Vermont. He described the school safety amendments as adjustments to Act 29 (2023) that move effective dates and, in one place, remove a data-collection…