Senate Education Committee advances amended House Bill 8 after adopting clarifying amendments

The Senate Education Committee on the record advanced a substitute for House Bill 8 on its seventh hearing, adopting several amendments that clarify how released‑time religious instruction will operate in public schools. The committee voted to favorably report the subbill to the committee on rules and authorized Legislative Service Commission to harmonize adopted changes.

The measure was amended to specify that a student excused from instruction that contains certain contested content may participate in an on‑campus alternative assignment so the student remains engaged in school during the day. “It specifies that a student who is excused from instruction that includes [specified] content is permitted to participate in an alternative assignment,” Vice Chair O’Brien explained when moving AM 3388‑1.

Lawmakers also removed a bill provision that had defined a district’s “core curriculum,” replacing it with language directing local school boards to work with sponsoring entities of release‑time courses to identify a time during the school day that balances the interests of students and those attending released‑time instruction. The chair said the change grew out of concerns that a narrow statutory definition might unintentionally include courses such as music, art and physical education.

The committee adopted AM 3515, which permits a school district board to include in its released‑time policy a requirement that instructors and volunteers providing religious instruction undergo criminal records checks; the district would determine how those checks are conducted. “This amendment permits a school district’s board of education to include in its released time religious instruction policy a requirement for criminal records checks of any instructor and volunteer providing the religious education,” Vice Chair O’Brien said when offering the amendment.

Ranking Member Ingram introduced other amendments concerning data collection by sponsoring entities; the chair said much of that content is already covered by current law and the committee tabled certain redundancy proposals. No public testimony was presented at the hearing, and the chair said members would allow LSC to harmonize the amendment language into the subbill before further action.

The committee concluded the seventh hearing on amended House Bill 8 by voting to send the substitute to the committee on rules and reference.