House education committee holds House Bill 43 after debate over school safety records and training

BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho House Committee on Education voted 7–6 on Jan. 30 to hold House Bill 43 in committee at the call of the chair after a substantive debate over whether records tied to school emergency operations plans and staff training should be exempt from public disclosure.

Representative Chris Mathias, District 19, introduced House Bill 43 as a school-safety “housekeeping” bill that separates and clarifies provisions now compressed in a single paragraph of statute. Mathias told the committee the bill would (1) require a system of background checks for anyone with unsupervised contact with students regardless of frequency, (2) require school districts to create and maintain an emergency operations plan reviewed annually, and (3) require initial and annual emergency-operations training for district staff. Mathias said those provisions align with existing practice and cited Idaho law and existing guidance as the basis for the changes.

Mathias also addressed a new subsection that would exempt from public disclosure “all records and…