The 2018 Legislative Session Winds Down

The 2018 leg­isla­tive ses­sion is begin­ning to wind down to a close. In the House, most sub­com­mit­tees are now closed. In the Sen­ate, sev­er­al com­mit­tees have closed, and now only Finance and Judi­cia­ry remain open. As remain­ing com­mit­tees work their way through final cal­en­dars, the leg­is­la­ture also shifts to focus­ing on the Governor’s bud­get.

Last week, on Wednes­day March 28th, the bill seek­ing to grant access to in-state tuition for undoc­u­ment­ed stu­dents was killed, with­out com­ing up for a vote in the Sen­ate Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee or the House Edu­ca­tion Admin­is­tra­tion and Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. 

Update on SB 2563 arm­ing teach­ers bill:
Set for House Edu­ca­tion Admin­is­tra­tion and Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on Tues­day April 3rd at 8 a.m. In the Sen­ate, it is set for the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee on Tues­day at 1 p.m.

On Wednes­day March 28th the Governor’s office released the result from the school safe­ty task force con­vened ear­lier this mon­th. The rec­om­men­da­tions include a safe­ty review for all schools, more fund­ing for School Resource Offi­cers statewide, and the cre­ation of an app where indi­vid­u­als can report threats anony­mous­ly. The group also rec­om­mend­ed address­ing the need for addi­tion­al behav­ioral health train­ing to sup­port stu­dents with men­tal health needs. The rec­om­men­da­tions would use the 30 mil­lion pro­posed by Haslam for school safe­ty. Now the leg­is­la­ture must con­sid­er the school safe­ty pro­pos­al, along with the Governor’s bud­get.