The House Education Committee returned to H.461 on Thursday to review an amendment from Senator Hardy. A topic of conversation was the number of signatures required to get on the ballot for school board in some of these different districts. The Senate Government Operations Committee decided to replace the existing language with 60 signatures or 1% of the population of the district. This would lower the threshold in some of the smallest towns.

The House Education Committee returned after lunch on Thursday to review a strike-all amendment to S.133 that would continue PCB remediation with 100% funding. Completion dates for the program would be set for 2027.

The House Education Committee returned Wednesday to review the Senate’s as-passed version of the bill with Legislative Counsel. Chairman Conlon acknowledged that the House did not yet have possession of the bill, but he wanted to start preliminary discussions.

Senate Floor

The Senate brought H.461 to the floor on Tuesday after skipping over it Monday. The bill makes a number of changes to education policy in the state. Senator Gulick presented the bill on behalf of the Education Committee, which had supported the bill unanimously.

The House Education Committee walked through the Senate Version of H.461 on Friday in preparation to receive it early next week.

On Wednesday, the House Education Committee took up H.409 with Rachel Seelig (DLP Director, Vermont Legal Aid) who shared in her presentation that she “represented or advised around six hundred students with disabilities and their parents on education law issues. Approximately 15% of these cases have some element involving improper or illegal use of restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities.” She believes that the nature of using restraints is “re-traumatization” of these students.

Senator Campion joined the House Education Committee on Friday to discuss S.133. He began with proficiency-based learning and explained they were trying to determine if the actually had a “handle on what was out there.” This is what led, indirectly, to the curriculum audit idea that is in the bill.

The House and Senate Education Committees met jointly on Tuesday for a presentation from Legislative Counsel on the Vitale v. Vermont Supreme court case. Chairman Campion introduced the topic by noting that the decision came out in March and because the Senate Education Committee is likely to take up the independent schools’ bill soon, he thought it was prudent to get a briefing on this case.

On Thursday, the Committee took up H.409 with Representative Taylor, who had served six years as the behavior interventionist at Milton Elementary School and is currently the Behavior Services Coordinator there.”

On Wednesday in the House Education Committee, Chairman Conlon asked Legislative Counsel to review if H.483 conflicted with the 2200 series rules. Legislative Counsel did not believe that there were any conflicts, however there are some provisions in the rules that are not in statute and vice versa.