Senate Education Committee reviews draft 7.1 of H.480, advances several school policy changes

The Vermont Senate Committee on Education reviewed draft 7.1 of H.480 on an omnibus set of education changes, with staff from the Office of Legislative Council outlining amendments to school safety timelines, the Secretary of Education selection process, the Vermont National Guard tuition benefit, rules for awarding diplomas to students caught in a program transition and a new cardiac emergency response-plan requirement for schools.

Beth St. James, legislative counsel, Office of Legislative Council, told the committee the draft is "hot off the press" and highlighted changes from the earlier draft. On school safety, the bill would change the statutory timeline for behavioral threat assessment teams so districts and independent schools must identify and establish a team by July 1, 2025, and then take "all actions necessary to implement" those teams by Oct. 1, 2025. St. James said the distinction is between establishing teams (by July 1) and completing implementation steps (by Oct. 1).

The committee was shown language clarifying responsibilities: under current law the school board is responsible for policy and superintendents for procedures; draft 7.1 would make that allocation explicit and provide that a failure to adopt policy or procedures will be presumed to mean adoption of the most current model policy or procedures published by the Secretary of Education or the agency's model documents.

On the Secretary of Education appointment process, draft 7.1 would…