House Education Committee advances package of bills on school health, background checks, adult education and extracurricular access

The House Education Committee concluded its final 2025 meeting by advancing a broad package of bills on school health transparency, personnel screening and accountability, adult education funding, extracurricular eligibility, and other education matters.

Senate Bill 13-83: school health credentials Senate Bill 13‑83, brought by Senator Epstein, would require a school district or charter school that provides routine health services in a school health office to provide, upon parental request, the healthcare credentials of each individual who provides such services and to explain the types of emergency‑response training required for employees. Julie Lazara and Mark De April testified that they lost their son Landon after an on‑campus medical emergency and urged lawmakers to approve the bill. Lisa Alexander, a nationally certified school nurse and president of the School Nurse Organization of Arizona, described cases where unlicensed staff are colloquially called “nurses” and said the bill is a first step toward transparency. Committee members asked whether CPR training is already required; sponsors said statewide teacher‑certification requirements do not uniformly impose CPR for all staff and the bill would ensure parental access to credentials. The committee gave SB 13‑83 a due‑pass recommendation (recorded as 12 ayes, 0 no's).

Senate Bill 12‑92: fingerprint clearance and SBE jurisdiction Senate Bill 12‑92 would expand the State Board of Education’s (SBE) jurisdiction to investigate non‑certificated staff who provide services directly to students and remove the exemption for classified staff supervised by certificated employees so more staff must obtain IVP fingerprint clearance cards. The bill conditions enactment on a $1.2 million FY26 appropriation to the State Board to hire investigators and related staff. Supporters — including Senator Warner, Rebecca Beebe of Arizona School Administrators, and parents of students with disabilities — said the measure closes a gap that allowed…