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House rejects bill requiring LEAs to include statewide online program notice in registration materials
Summary
Senate Bill 37, which would have required local education agencies to include a notice about the Statewide Online Education Program in registration materials for eligible students, failed on the House floor after members raised equity and administrative-burden concerns.
The House considered and rejected Senate Bill 37 on March 11, a proposal to require local education agencies (LEAs) to distribute a statewide notice about online-course options in registration materials for eligible students. Proponents, including Representative Stratton, said the intent is to create awareness and point families to the State Board of Education's online-program website for secondary students; Representative Stratton said the bill "is intended to create awareness of an option."
Opponents argued the mandate could impose extra work and costs on small districts and charter schools and force public LEAs to advertise private or competing online providers. Representative Moss said it was "not equitable to require public schools to do all the advertising for private providers"," and Representative Polson noted that many families can already find the material on the state website and that printing and distribution requirements could be onerous for some smaller LEAs.
Sponsor and amendment proponents clarified that amendment #2 narrows the requirement: notices must be included in registration materials provided to eligible (secondary) students and published prominently on an LEA’s website; the sponsor said the provision does not require hard-copy printing where districts provide registration materials online. After debate the House recorded a floor vote and the bill failed with 50 nays, 20 yeas and 5 absent.
