Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Legislative Update topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Superintendent summarizes 2026 short session bills affecting K–12
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Purnall summarized several bills from the recent short legislative session that the district should watch, including measures on immigration enforcement on school property (HB 4079), model policies and resources (SB 1538), cardiac emergency planning and AEDs (HB 4160), McKinney-Vento codification (HB 4149), attendance reporting (HB 4154), and play-based learning (SB 1596).
Superintendent Dr. Purnall used her superintendent report to summarize key takeaways from the 2026 short legislative session and identify bills that could affect K–12 operations in Oregon.
Dr. Purnall said more than 300 bills were filed in the short session and singled out about a half dozen measures tracked by district advocates and the Oregon School Boards Association. She described House Bill 4079 as a response to concerns about federal immigration enforcement actions on school property; the bill will require districts and institutions of higher education to adopt policies for responding to verified immigration enforcement actions, including notifications to students, families, staff and service providers, and requires such policies to be in place by Sept. 30, 2026. She also cited Senate Bill 1538, which requires the Oregon Department of Justice to update model policies for schools related to access and to distribute those updates to employees when available.
Other measures noted included House Bill 4066 (education technical fixes and ESD board stipend language), House Bill 4160 (cardiac emergency response plans, expanded CPR/AED training and equipment requirements, with compliance dates into 2027), House Bill 4149 (codifying McKinney-Vento protections into Oregon law) and House Bill 4154 (expanded chronic absenteeism and attendance reporting requirements). Dr. Purnall said the measures cited are pending the governor's signature and that OSBA will publish a more detailed session report in April.
Board members discussed the effects of the session on district advocacy and noted concern about some education dollars being repurposed in the budget process. Dr. Purnall said the district's advocacy helped protect K–12 funding in this session and that staff will share OSBA's full analysis when available.
