House concurs in Senate changes to H.480; bill adds phone‑ and social‑media‑free school model policy and other education amendments

The Vermont House on Monday concurred in the Senate’s amendments to H.480, a miscellaneous education bill, and ordered that measure to the governor.

The bill makes a range of statutory changes and additions affecting school safety, student supports and operations. Among the most visible provisions, the Senate added a new subchapter requiring the Agency of Education to develop a model policy for “bell‑to‑bell” cell‑phone restrictions and restricting how schools may use social media to communicate directly with students. The House accepted the Senate changes and sent the bill on to the governor.

Representative from Williston, who reported the Senate’s proposal of amendment, summarized the bill’s main elements: a one‑year delay in some behavioral threat assessment implementation deadlines originally set by last year’s school safety act (Act 29); new requirements that schools maintain cardiac response and athletic emergency plans in templates maintained by the Vermont School Safety Center; the expansion of the Vermont National Guard Tuition Benefit Program under existing appropriations; an energy performance contracting change allowing contracts up to 20…