Senate Education committee sends enrollment-disclosure bill to amendment after debate over protections for students with disabilities

The Idaho Senate Education Committee on Thursday voted to send House Bill 236 to the fourteenth order for amendment after members debated language that would require school districts to obtain disclosure of certain convictions and adjudications when students seek enrollment.

Sponsor Rep. Sean Dygert said the bill preserves local control while clarifying existing law. "We're not dealing with any kind of rumor or gossip. We're dealing with things that have happened as a result of legal action," Dygert said, describing the measure as aimed at a small number of students whose histories include serious juvenile offenses.

The bill revises statutory language that lets school boards deny enrollment or attendance. Dygert told the committee the measure: (1) keeps habitual truancy and conduct-based exclusions, (2) removes the vague term "incorrigible," (3) restates the longstanding provision that a student's presence may be "detrimental to the health and safety of other pupils," (4) creates an explicit category for students "disenrolled in lieu of discipline," and (5) would require disclosure at enrollment of certain convictions or adjudications for a specified list of serious offenses. Dygert also…