State education department details standards, graduation and special-education rule changes; committee debate focuses on communications and digital literacy

The Idaho Senate Education Committee heard a multi-part presentation from Greg Wilson, chief of staff at the Idaho Department of Education, on administrative rule dockets that would incorporate the 2024 content standards, adopt an updated Special Education Manual to comply with federal guidance, and revise high-school graduation requirements to add digital literacy, localize pathways and replace the senior project with a "future readiness" project.

Wilson told the committee the department facilitated multi-stakeholder reviews of content standards in 2024 and that the State Board of Education approved those standards in June and November 2024. He said the Special Education Manual was revised after the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) indicated parts of Idaho’s manual conflicted with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; the department revised the manual to bring districts into compliance for the current school year.

On graduation requirements Wilson said Idaho currently sets a statewide minimum of 46 credits (29 core academic credits and 17 electives) but many districts set higher local requirements. The proposed administrative changes would preserve the statewide minimum while adding several statewide changes: a one-credit digital literacy course (to be required beginning with the class graduating after Jan. 1, 2028); updated science credit language that clarifies lab/“applied science” options and prohibits double-counting a course for both math and science; consolidation of communications into an eight-credit English language arts requirement (making communications an embedded standard or an elective rather than a separate, required credit); a requirement that districts develop at least two localized pathways (college, military, career/trade, exploration, etc.); and conversion of the senior project into a future readiness project that must include an experiential component (work-based, service-based, research-based or portfolio-based experience).

Senators pressed the department on process and implementation details. Senator Carlson said he was concerned legislators had expected to be involved in the social-studies standards work following a concurrent resolution (SCR 116); Wilson responded the department had solicited public and legislative feedback and that the State Board approved the standards following the review cycle. Senator Ward Engleking and others raised objections to removing a stand-alone communications/speech credit and to whether online options such as the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA) adequately substitute for face-to-face speech instruction in rural districts. Wilson said the department aimed to reflect how districts currently deliver communications instruction — acknowledging many rural districts rely on IDLA — and promised templates and support for districts implementing the new digital literacy and future readiness components.

Committee members also asked about the scope of the digital literacy requirement; Wilson said draft standards include computational thinking, algorithms, coding, artificial intelligence and internet safety, and that the department is preparing model course content. He said digital literacy is intended to teach "fundamental computer science concepts," online safety, privacy considerations and responsible engagement in the digital public sphere. The department said it would provide templates and technical support and that district implementation should be flexible to accommodate small and large districts.

During public comment, Sam Laird, director of the Center for American Education at the Idaho Freedom Foundation and state representative to the National Association of Scholars, urged the committee to reject the proposed social-studies standards. Laird said the draft standards emphasize diversity and global perspectives over western civilization and patriotic civic education and expressed concerns about language that he said echoed settler-colonial or post-colonial frameworks. Committee members asked Laird about engagement with tribes and clarified that the committee expects local and state stakeholders to be part of future deliberations.

At the end of the hearing the committee approved two rule dockets by voice vote (docket numbers recorded in committee as "8-0113-2401" and "802012401"). Earlier in the hearing the committee delayed voting on at least one docket pending a written departmental response to legislative questions. The department committed to sending the committee the Special Education Manual and incorporated-by-reference standards and to continuing to work with districts on implementation templates for digital literacy and the future readiness project.