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House education committee advances five bills, including changes to school-bus fine allocations
Summary
The House Committee on Education on June 10 passed five bills on its calendar, including a substitute to HB 5421 that shifts revenue allocation for fines (40% to state, 30% to municipalities) and several duplicate bills related to school-bus safety and pupil health that the committee approved by voice or roll call.
The Rhode Island House Committee on Education advanced five bills on June 10, voting to approve substitute measures and pass duplicate bills tied to bus safety and pupil health.
House Bill 5421 substitute A was discussed as a measure that alters how fines and penalties are allocated: the substitute raises the state general fund share to 40% (from 12.5%) and the municipality share to 30% (from 12.5%). Committee members and staff clarified jurisdictional handling: if a citation is issued by a state agency it goes to traffic court, while municipal issuances go to municipal court in towns that have such courts. Representative Nore moved passage and the committee approved the substitute.
The committee also considered and passed several bills described as duplicates of measures previously enacted or sponsored: a House duplicate (House Bill 323 sub A) noted as similar to a House-sponsored measure passed earlier; Senate Bill 568 (sub A) and Senate Bill 771 (sub A) — both described as duplicates of school-bus safety or pupil-health bills already on the calendar — were moved and passed by the committee.
Committee members who spoke commended stakeholders and interagency work behind the bus-safety measures, listing participants including Teamsters, municipalities and the judiciary. Several members remarked that Rhode Island’s recent policies have made the state a leader in school-bus safety.
All measures on today’s calendar were passed out of committee and will proceed according to the legislature’s scheduling; the transcript did not record committee amendments beyond the described substitutes or specify House-floor scheduling.
