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Senate Education committee advances bill to consolidate school internet-filtering rules
Summary
The Senate Education Committee voted to send House Bill 275 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation after lawmakers and witnesses said the measure merely consolidates existing internet-filtering requirements for Idaho schools and libraries.
The Senate Education Committee on Thursday voted to send House Bill 275 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation after representatives and technical witnesses said the bill consolidates existing internet-filtering language currently scattered across state code.
Representative Wendy Horman, a Republican from Bonneville County (District 32), told the committee the measure reorganizes requirements already on the books without changing their substance. “Essentially, what this does is take Internet filtering policies that are located in a variety of different code sections and without changing the substance of any of them, consolidates them down into one section,” Representative Horman said.
Committee members asked whether the rewrite added new technical requirements or unnecessary reporting. Senator Cook said he worried the bill might be “too prescriptive” and asked why the consolidated section lists detailed filter capabilities and reports that districts must maintain. Will Goodman, a board member of the Idaho Education Technology Association who testified for the bill, said the draft preserves existing language and that much of the specificity dates to when earlier filters required precise technical standards so vendors could meet the law. “Going back historically, the reason those were put into code is there were content filters at the time that could not do a lot of this,” Goodman said. He added the committee was careful not to remove existing requirements when consolidating the sections.
Representative Horman and Goodman both told the committee the bill does not add new requirements; it reorganizes and clarifies existing ones. Senator Cook said he would not oppose the bill but wanted to avoid creating unnecessary administrative burdens for districts.
The committee took a motion to send House Bill 275 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation. Senator Cook moved the motion; it was seconded and the committee voice vote was recorded as “aye.” The chair announced the motion carries.
The bill’s supporters included the Idaho Education Technology Association, which Horman said helped draft the consolidation. Committee members did not request amendments during the hearing and no formal vote tally with member names was recorded in the transcript.
