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Senate panel advances bill to let districts optionally admit allied military children by calendar-year age
Summary
Senators discussed a bill permitting school districts to admit children of allied foreign military members based on calendar-year age so students do not fall behind when returning home; the committee reported the bill favorably.
A bill to give school districts discretion to admit children of allied foreign military members based on calendar-year age — instead of the U.S. school-year age cutoffs — advanced through the Senate Committee on Education Friday.
House Bill 27 57, presented by Sen. Hagenboo, responds to differences in enrollment-age systems between some European countries and the United States. The bill would authorize, but not require, districts to admit children of allied military members to pre-K or kindergarten based on the child’s calendar-year age so those students do not lose a grade level when they return to their home country.
Hagenboo said Shepherd Air Force Base in his district hosts the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program and that about 40% of trainees are foreign allies; he said the commander of Shepherd had called to express the importance of the proposal. The bill creates an optional policy that districts may adopt to avoid education delays for visiting allied families.
There was no public testimony for or against HB 2757. The committee closed public comment and later voted to report the bill favorably to the full Senate; the clerk recorded 11 ayes and 0 nays on the roll call.
