LB71 LB71
2024 2024
LEGISLATIVE BILL 71
Approved by the Governor April 15, 2024
Introduced by Sanders, 45; Albrecht, 17; Briese, 41; Linehan, 39; Murman, 38;
Lippincott, 34; Dover, 19; Ballard, 21.
A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to education; to amend sections 79-530, 79-531,
79-532, 79-533, 79-1101, and 79-1103, Reissue Revised Statutes of
Nebraska, and section 79-1003, Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement,
2022; to change provisions relating to the involvement of parents and guardians in the education of their children; to require each public school district to develop and adopt a policy relating to the rights of
each parent and guardian to access testing information and curriculum and excuse their child from certain instruction or activities; to provide powers and duties to the Commissioner of Education and the State Board of
Education; to redefine terms under the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act; to restate legislative intent, redefine a term,
and change provisions relating to early childhood education; to provide a process for a parent or guardian to request that such person's child repeat a grade under certain circumstances; to eliminate obsolete provisions; and to repeal the original sections.
Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska,
Section 1. Section 79-530, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, is amended to read:
79-530 (1) For purposes of sections 79-530 to 79-533 and sections 5 to 7
of this act, educational decisionmaker means a person designated or ordered by
a court to make educational decisions on behalf of a child.
(2) The Legislature finds and declares:
(a) (1) That parental involvement of parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers is a key factor in the education of children;
(b) (2) That such individuals parents need to be informed of the educational practices affecting their children; and
(c) (3) That public schools should foster and facilitate access by such individuals to parental information about and involvement in educational practices affecting their children.
(3) It is the intent of the Legislature, through the enactment of sections
79-531 to 79-533 and sections 5 to 7 of this act, to strengthen the level of
parental involvement and participation by parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers in the public school system of the state.
Sec. 2. Section 79-531, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, is amended to read:
79-531 (1) On or before July 1, 2025 1995, each public school district in
the state shall develop and adopt a policy stating how the district will seek to involve parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers in the education of their children schools and the rights of each parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker to: what parents' rights shall be relating to access to the schools,
(a) Access testing information, and curriculum; and matters.
(b) Request that a child be excused from specific instruction or
activities.
(2) The policy of each public school district relating to how the district will seek to involve parents in the schools and what rights parents have relating to access to schools that is in effect prior to the effective date of
this act shall remain in effect until a new policy is developed and adopted on
or before July 1, 2025, pursuant to subsection (1) of this section.
Sec. 3. Section 79-532, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, is amended to read:
79-532 (1) The policy required by section 79-531 shall include, but need not be limited to, the following:
(a) (1) How the school district will provide access to parents, guardians,
or educational decisionmakers concerning textbooks; , tests; 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; , and other curriculum materials used in the school district;
(b) (2) How the school district will accommodate handle requests by
parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers to attend and monitor courses, assemblies, counseling sessions, and other instructional activities;
(c) (3) Under what circumstances parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers may ask that their children be excused from testing, classroom instruction, learning materials, activities, guest speaker events, and other school experiences the parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers may find objectionable;
(d) (4) How the school district will provide access to records of
students;
(e) (5) What the school district's testing policy will be; and
(f) (6) How the school district participates in surveys of students and
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the right of parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers to remove their children from such surveys.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require disclosure of
information in violation of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 1232g, or any federal regulations and applicable guidelines adopted in accordance with such act, as such act,
regulations, and guidelines existed on January 1, 2024.
Sec. 4. Section 79-533, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska, is amended to read:
79-533 The policy required by section 79-531 shall be developed with parental input from parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers and shall be the subject of a public hearing before the school board or board of
education of the school district before adoption by the board. The policy shall be reviewed annually and either altered and adopted as altered or reaffirmed by
the board following a public hearing. Any public hearing under this section shall include a reasonable opportunity for public comments.
Sec. 5. By August 1, 2025, each school district shall make the policy required by section 79-531 accessible on the school district's public website.
The policy shall be accessible by a prominently displayed link on such website.
If the policy is altered, the new version of the policy shall be made accessible within a reasonable time thereafter.
Sec. 6. To the extent practicable, each public school district shall make
a reasonable effort to make any learning materials, including original materials, available for inspection by a parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker upon request.
Sec. 7. If the Commissioner of Education determines that any school district has intentionally refused, in a material manner, to comply with sections 79-530 to 79-533 and sections 5 and 6 of this act, the commissioner shall notify the school district of the noncompliance and allow the school district a reasonable time to comply. If the commissioner determines, after such time has elapsed, that the school district is not in compliance and has not made a good faith attempt to comply, the commissioner shall take appropriate remedial action within the commissioner's authority, up to and including qualifying such noncompliance as a violation of the rules and regulations for the accreditation of schools.
Sec. 8. Section 79-1003, Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement, 2022, is amended to read:
79-1003 For purposes of the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act:
(1) Adjusted general fund operating expenditures means the difference of
the general fund operating expenditures increased by the cost growth factor calculated pursuant to section 79-1007.10, minus the transportation allowance,
special receipts allowance, poverty allowance, limited English proficiency allowance, distance education and telecommunications allowance, elementary site allowance, summer school allowance, community achievement plan allowance, and focus school and program allowance;
(2) Adjusted valuation means the assessed valuation of taxable property of
each local system in the state, adjusted pursuant to the adjustment factors described in section 79-1016. Adjusted valuation means the adjusted valuation for the property tax year ending during the school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in which the aid based upon that value is to be paid. For purposes of determining the local effort rate yield pursuant to
section 79-1015.01, adjusted valuation does not include the value of any property which a court, by a final judgment from which no appeal is taken, has declared to be nontaxable or exempt from taxation;
(3) Allocated income tax funds means the amount of assistance paid to a local system pursuant to section 79-1005.01;
(4) Average daily membership means the average daily membership for grades kindergarten through twelve attributable to the local system, as provided in
each district's annual statistical summary, and includes the proportionate share of students enrolled in a public school instructional program on less than a full-time basis;
(5) Base fiscal year means the first school fiscal year following the school fiscal year in which the reorganization or unification occurred;
(6) Board means the school board of each school district;
(7) Categorical funds means funds limited to a specific purpose by federal or state law, including, but not limited to, Title I funds, Title VI funds,
federal career and technical education funds, federal school lunch funds,
Indian education funds, Head Start funds, and funds received prior to July 1,
2022, from the Nebraska Education Improvement Fund;
(8) Consolidate means to voluntarily reduce the number of school districts providing education to a grade group and does not include dissolution pursuant to section 79-498;
(9) Converted contract means an expired contract that was in effect for at
least fifteen school years beginning prior to school year 2012-13 for the education of students in a nonresident district in exchange for tuition from the resident district when the expiration of such contract results in the nonresident district educating students, who would have been covered by the contract if the contract were still in effect, as option students pursuant to
the enrollment option program established in section 79-234;
(10) Converted contract option student means a student who will be an option student pursuant to the enrollment option program established in section
79-234 for the school fiscal year for which aid is being calculated and who
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would have been covered by a converted contract if the contract were still in
effect and such school fiscal year is the first school fiscal year for which such contract is not in effect;
(11) Department means the State Department of Education;
(12) District means any school district or unified system as defined in
section 79-4,108;
(13) Ensuing school fiscal year means the school fiscal year following the current school fiscal year;
(14) Equalization aid means the amount of assistance calculated to be paid to a local system pursuant to section 79-1008.01;
(15) Fall membership means the total membership in kindergarten through grade twelve attributable to the local system as reported on the fall school district membership reports for each district pursuant to section 79-528;
(16) Fiscal year means the state fiscal year which is the period from July
1 to the following June 30;
(17) Formula students means:
(a) For state aid certified pursuant to section 79-1022, the sum of the product of fall membership from the school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in which the aid is to be paid multiplied by the average ratio of average daily membership to fall membership for the second school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in which the aid is to be paid and the prior two school fiscal years plus sixty percent of the qualified early childhood education fall membership plus tuitioned students from the school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in
which aid is to be paid minus the product of the number of students enrolled in
kindergarten that is not full-day kindergarten from the fall membership multiplied by 0.5; and
(b) For the final calculation of state aid pursuant to section 79-1065,
the sum of average daily membership plus sixty percent of the qualified early childhood education average daily membership plus tuitioned students minus the product of the number of students enrolled in kindergarten that is not full-day kindergarten from the average daily membership multiplied by 0.5 from the school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in which aid was paid;
(18) Free lunch and free milk calculated students means, using the most recent data available on November 1 of the school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in which aid is to be paid, (a) for schools that did not provide free meals to all students pursuant to the community eligibility provision, students who individually qualified for free lunches or
free milk pursuant to the federal Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act,
42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq., and the federal Child Nutrition Act of 1966, 42 U.S.C.
1771 et seq., as such acts and sections existed on January 1, 2021, and rules and regulations adopted thereunder, plus (b) for schools that provided free meals to all students pursuant to the community eligibility provision, the greater of the number of students in such school who individually qualified for free lunch or free milk using the most recent school fiscal year for which the school did not provide free meals to all students pursuant to the community eligibility provision or one hundred ten percent of the product of the students who qualified for free meals at such school pursuant to the community eligibility provision multiplied by the identified student percentage calculated pursuant to such federal provision, except that the free lunch and free milk calculated students for any school pursuant to subdivision (18)(b) of this section shall not exceed one hundred percent of the students qualified for free meals at such school pursuant to the community eligibility provision;
(19) Full-day kindergarten means kindergarten offered by a district for at
least one thousand thirty-two instructional hours;
(20) General fund budget of expenditures means the total budget of
disbursements and transfers for general fund purposes as certified in the budget statement adopted pursuant to the Nebraska Budget Act, except that for purposes of the limitation imposed in section 79-1023, the general fund budget of expenditures does not include any special grant funds, exclusive of local matching funds, received by a district;
(21) General fund expenditures means all expenditures from the general fund;
(22) General fund operating expenditures means, for state aid calculated for each school fiscal year, as reported on the annual financial report for the second school fiscal year immediately preceding the school fiscal year in which aid is to be paid, the total general fund expenditures minus (a) the amount of
all receipts to the general fund, to the extent that such receipts are not included in local system formula resources, from early childhood education tuition, summer school tuition, educational entities as defined in section
79-1201.01 for providing distance education courses through the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council to such educational entities, private foundations, individuals, associations, charitable organizations, the textbook loan program authorized by section 79-734, federal impact aid, and levy override elections pursuant to section 77-3444, (b) the amount of expenditures for categorical funds, tuition paid to other school districts, tuition paid to
postsecondary institutions for college credit, transportation fees paid to
other districts, adult education, community services, redemption of the principal portion of general fund debt service, retirement incentive plans authorized by section 79-855, and staff development assistance authorized by
section 79-856, (c) the amount of any transfers from the general fund to any bond fund and transfers from other funds into the general fund, (d) any legal
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expenses in excess of fifteen-hundredths of one percent of the formula need for the school fiscal year in which the expenses occurred, (e) expenditures to pay for incentives agreed to be paid by a school district to certificated employees in exchange for a voluntary termination of employment for which the State Board of Education approved an exclusion pursuant to subdivision (1)(h), (i), (j), or
(k) of section 79-1028.01, (f)(i) expenditures to pay for employer contributions pursuant to subsection (2) of section 79-958 to the School Employees Retirement System of the State of Nebraska to the extent that such expenditures exceed the employer contributions under such subsection that would have been made at a contribution rate of seven and thirty-five hundredths percent or (ii) expenditures to pay for school district contributions pursuant to subdivision (1)(c)(i) or (1)(d)(i) of section 79-9,113 to the retirement system established pursuant to the Class V School Employees Retirement Act to
the extent that such expenditures exceed the school district contributions under such subdivision that would have been made at a contribution rate of
seven and thirty-seven hundredths percent, and (g) any amounts paid by the district for lobbyist fees and expenses reported to the Clerk of the Legislature pursuant to section 49-1483.
For purposes of this subdivision (22) of this section, receipts from levy override elections shall equal ninety-nine percent of the difference of the total general fund levy minus a levy of one dollar and five cents per one hundred dollars of taxable valuation multiplied by the assessed valuation for school districts that have voted pursuant to section 77-3444 to override the maximum levy provided pursuant to section 77-3442;
(23) Income tax liability means the amount of the reported income tax liability for resident individuals pursuant to the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967
less all nonrefundable credits earned and refunds made;
(24) Income tax receipts means the a