Assembly education committee advances five Senate bills on school safety, CTE funding, promotion, bilingual endorsements and NIL

CARSON CITY — The Assembly Committee on Education on Wednesday advanced five Senate bills in a work session, recommending the Legislature take up measures affecting school emergency plans, career and technical education funding, third-grade promotion standards, bilingual teacher endorsements and student-athlete name-image-likeness contracts.

Kelly Lower, committee policy analyst, summarized each bill for the committee before members voted. “Senate Bill 38 authorizes the Division of Emergency Management to disseminate school emergency operation plans to a local public safety agency in the event of an act of terrorism or related emergency or for emergency preparedness, coordination, and response efforts,” Lower said. The committee heard that measure previously on April 24.

The panel approved SB38 on a voice vote after Assemblymember Hanson moved the measure and an Assemblymember Mosca seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously with one member absent, and Assemblymember Hanson was assigned the floor statement.

On career and technical education, Lower said Senate Bill 45 changes how the limit on grant amounts for districts and charter schools is calculated, tying the limit to the proportion of pupils enrolled in advanced courses within a CTE program rather than to the proportion of all pupils enrolled in CTE programs. The bill also requires districts and charter schools that offer work-based learning programs to submit reports to the State Board of Education and the Legislature containing information required under the federal Strengthening CTE for the 21st Century Act. The committee voted to do pass SB45; the motion was moved by Assemblymember Mosca and seconded by Assemblymember Leroux Hatch. The motion passed unanimously with one absent excused; Assemblymember Leroux Hatch was assigned the floor statement.

Senate Bill 52, the committee heard, authorizes a pupil who would otherwise be retained in grade 3 to receive a good-cause exemption for promotion to grade 4 by demonstrating mastery of the grade 3 reading standards (rather than standards beyond grade 3). The bill also revises reporting definitions, including defining a long-term English learner as a pupil classified as an English learner for more than six consecutive years after first identification. The committee voted to do pass SB52; the motion was moved by Assemblymember Mosca and seconded by Assemblymember Hunt. The motion passed unanimously with one member absent excused; Assemblymember Hunt was assigned the floor statement.

Senate Bill 115 (reprint 1), sponsored by Senator Cruz Crawford, would require the Commission on Professional Standards in Education to adopt regulations requiring an endorsement in bilingual education for teachers in bilingual programs. The bill authorizes districts or charter schools to provide an annual $2,500 stipend to teachers who hold that endorsement and teach in a bilingual program; where a charter school or a district with more than 100,000 students provides the stipend, it must be paid from the school’s budget. An amendment proposed by Senator Crawford would allow teachers currently enrolled in a bilingual endorsement program and teaching in a bilingual program to receive the stipend. The committee moved to amend and do pass SB115; the motion was moved by Assemblymember Moskin and seconded by Vice Chair Da Silva. The motion passed unanimously with one absent excused; Vice Chair Da Silva was assigned the floor statement.

On intercollegiate athletics, Senate Bill 293 (reprint 1) would eliminate prohibitions that had prevented student-athletes from being compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) by certain organizations, would allow current student-athletes to be compensated for NIL, and would prohibit altering a student-athlete’s scholarship because of NIL compensation. The bill also authorizes NIL contracts with institutions or the NCAA and makes such contracts and related communications confidential and not public records. The measure includes provisions about donor-restricted funds designated to support NIL and an amendment proposed by Senator Lang would remove a subsection requiring a university foundation’s NIL-designated money be used only as specified by the donor. The committee moved to amend and do pass SB293; the motion was moved by Assemblymember Flanagan and seconded by Vice Chair Da Silva. The motion passed unanimously with one absent excused; Assemblymember Flanagan was assigned the floor statement.

All five measures were presented without additional committee amendments at the work session. Committee members asked no substantive follow-up questions during the recorded portion of the session.

In public comment, Brad Keating, representing Clark County School District, offered a brief “good news” update about a working farm at Moapa Valley High School that provides CTE and STEM activities for students. “They’ve got a number of cows out there. They even have some chickens,” Keating said. Michael Flores of the University of Nevada, Reno, also offered a brief update noting the university’s women’s softball team won the Mountain West championship and noting the presence of educational farms across the state.

The committee closed the work session and adjourned after the public-comment period.