KASB Legislative Update, Monday, March 21

Posted Date: 03/22/2022

The Senate on Monday advanced bills on open enrollment, parental rights and transgender athletes. 

The three bills are expected to get final Senate approval Tuesday. Meanwhile on Tuesday, the House is scheduled to take up the education budget and the House version of the open enrollment bill. 

Movement on these and other measures will speed up in the next few days with less than two weeks left in the regular legislative session. The Legislature will take a break starting April 1 and return for the veto session April 25. 

On Monday, the Senate gave preliminary approval to: 

SB 455, which would require every school district to accept any nonresident student from any other school district who wishes to attend, subject to certain conditions. KASB opposes this bill, believing open enrollment policies should be determined by local school boards. 

SB 496, which enumerates rights reserved for parents and requires school boards to develop and adopt policies guaranteeing those rights. KASB testified as neutral to the bill but opposes HB 2615, which is also a parental rights bill but includes many more requirements. 

SB 484, which prohibits transgender students from participating on girls' teams from elementary school through postsecondary. KASB opposes this bill, saying that this issue should be handled by the Kansas State High School Activities Association. 

The Senate also gave first-round approval to SB 340, which makes some changes to the Kansas Promise Scholarship Act.  

On Tuesday, the House is scheduled to debate HB 2512, which is the education funding bill and includes a provision that would require districts purchase the Florida-based Math Nation online supplemental resource. 

Here is a video wrap up of Monday’s developments.