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House Education Committee concurs with Senate changes to content standards, rejects temporary rule and approves special education temporary rule
Summary
The committee largely concurred with the Senate's partial approvals of a pending rule docket covering content standards, statewide graduation requirements and the special education manual; it rejected a temporary rule for several content standards and approved a temporary special education manual to ensure IDEA compliance through July 1.
Greg Wilson, chief of staff at the Idaho Department of Education, briefed the committee on pending and temporary rule dockets (docket nos. 0802032401–2403), describing changes the Senate had already adopted and explaining the department's position. He said the pending docket includes updates to the special education manual, five content standard areas reviewed in 2024, and statewide graduation requirements.
Wilson told the committee the Senate accepted the special education manual in whole, accepted four content areas (with the exception of two social studies sections), and rejected a proposed elimination of the one-credit speech and communications graduation requirement. He explained acceptance by the two bodies would put updated materials in place for the 2025–26 school year and that, if needed, the department would return to the Legislature to revise the rejected social studies items.
Diane Bevan of the Idaho Technology Council testified in favor of keeping speech and communications as a credit and adding a digital literacy graduation credit, saying: "Digital literacy is no longer a specialized skill. It is a fundamental requirement across every industry and from agriculture to construction, health care to cyber, nearly every career today requires some level of digital competency." Samuel Lehr, representing the Idaho Freedom Foundation and the National Association of Scholars, testified he was "encouraged" the Senate rejected parts of the 4th-grade and 6–12 U.S. history social studies standards but said additional revisions may still be needed.
Representative Mathias moved the committee accept pending docket 0802032401. Representative Dan Garner offered a substitute motion to accept the pending rule with the Senate's exceptions — rejecting 4th-grade social studies and 6–12 U.S. history within the incorporated content standards and preserving the communications requirement — and the committee voted to concur with the Senate's action.
The committee then rejected temporary rule 0802032402 (a temporary incorporation by reference of the 2024-reviewed content standards) on a motion by Representative Clow.
Finally, the committee approved temporary docket 0802032403, a temporary rule incorporating the revised special education manual. Wilson told the committee the U.S. Office of Special Education had informed the department revisions were needed because parts of the 2018 manual were not compliant with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; the temporary rule was promulgated to ensure schools remained in compliance. Committee members and Division of Financial Management staff clarified that approving the temporary rule extends it from sine die until the corresponding pending rule takes effect on July 1.
The committee took three formal actions: it concurred with the Senate on portions of the pending rule docket (with specified exceptions), rejected the temporary rule for the 2024 content standards, and approved the temporary special education manual to maintain federal compliance.
Further substantive edits to social studies content and graduation requirements are expected in follow-up work by the Department of Education and the Legislature.
