LINCOLN — Lawmakers advanced a measure Thursday designed to increase parental involvement in K-12 learning and expand access to certain educational materials. State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue. Jan. 5, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska News Service)
Legislative Bill 71, from State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, would update a 30-year law about what rights parents, guardians and educational decision-makers have in K-12 schools. A public school district would need to adopt a new policy by July 1 and state how the district seeks to involve parents in their children’s education.
The policy would also need to include how districts would allow access to certain testing and curriculum information or request that their child be excused from specific instruction or activities. The district would need to prominently post the policy online by Aug. 1.
Sanders, in conversations with the Nebraska Examiner, said lawmakers would likely need to delay implementation of some of the bill’s provisions until 2025, such as creating the new parental involvement policy and posting it online, to give schools time to prepare.
Lawmakers gave LB 71 first-round approval 43-0 on Thursday. If passed, the bill would not take effect until three months after the Legislature adjourns, or about mid-July.
‘It all started with parents’
Sanders said LB 71’s focus is parental rights, but it doesn’t tell schools what or how to teach, just that they need to be transparent and ensure that parents have proper access to materials.
“It all started with parents and their need to know,” she said Thursday.
LB 71 would be a “reasonable, common sense update,” Sanders said, and address what former Commissioner of Education Matthew Blomstedt described as a “crisis of confidence” in system leadership.
“It’s my hope that LB 71 can play a role in restoring that trust,” Sanders said.
LB 71 would expand what educational materials parents can access, in addition to textbooks and tests, to also encompass:Activities information.Digital materials.Websites or applications used for learning.Training materials for teachers, administrators and staff.Procedures for the review and approval of training materials, learning materials and activities.
School districts would need to specify how they would “accommodate” — not merely “handle” — parental requests to attend and monitor classes, assemblies, activities or counseling sessions.
Repeating grades
Lawmakers voted 40-0 to add LB 1193 from State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln that would allow parents to request that their child repeat a grade for select reasons. State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln. (Craig Chandler/University Communications)
In K-4, the reasons could include academic needs, illness or excessive absenteeism (50% or more school days missed). Students in grades 5-12 would be limited to excessive absenteeism.
“In the rare instances where there are disagreements with a parent — and to be clear, most of the time there’s not,” Conrad said at the bill’s Feb. 6 hearing, “… the parent’s decision should really carry the day.”
Conrad praised Sanders’ bill as a way to “heed the call” from parents and other stakeholders who have hit roadblocks as they were trying to get more information from K-12 schools.
Library book amendment withdrawn
State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil attempted to add an amendment based on some provisions in his LB 1399 that would require school districts to publicize the library books they have available for checkout and notify parents via email when their student checks one out.
It would also have allowed students or parents a way to give a presentation at a school board meeting on a school book or other material. The board would then decide whether the material remains available. State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil. Jan. 9, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska News Service)
Murman said his amendment was designed to improve Sanders’ bill, not bring it down, while also addressing concerns he heard from both supporters and opponents of LB 441 this week. Supporters failed 30-17 to end debate Wednesday on that bill. While focused on obscenity, the debate often extended more broadly to what senators generally found objectionable in schools.
“We can only improve the process of communication between parents and schools and educators,” Murman said.
Murman withdrew his amendment shortly after Sanders labeled it as “unfriendly.” She said she respects and appreciates Murman’s work on his amendment but that LB 71 needed to be a “bipartisan deal” for all involved.
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