Closing the door on 2026 Legislature just opens a window on 2027 bills

Even though Oregon has a part-time Legislature, it's a year-around job. As soon as one session ends, legislators start positioning issues for the next one.

That effect is particularly pronounced in the interim following a short session. Legislators just had a month to try out some bill ideas that didn't pass while picking up ideas for other bills. Now it's time to workshop them before the long session when the Legislature can do some really heavy lifting.

A good example would be this session's attempts to replace the Quality Education Commission with a different means of determining what Oregon should be spending on public education. Education advocates asked legislators to slow down so we have some time to talk about this.

Now it's time to talk, and these discussions will affect a likely wave of education funding-related bills next year.

Another example would be class size. The short session had yet another bill aimed at requiring districts to bargain over class size and caseloads. OSBA maintains that such an approach would increase labor costs and the likelihood of teacher strikes without making any educationally significant change in class sizes. This year's bill didn't even make it out of committee, but the bill's supporters have practically guaranteed it would be back in 2027.

Both those topics will likely be the subject of workgroup meetings as will big issues such as instructional time, absenteeism, rising pension and health care costs, and statewide labor bargaining. In fact, before the 2026 session ended, we had already begun scheduling workgroup and task force meetings to discuss topics for the 2027 session.

I sit on an attendance advisory group organized by the Oregon Department of Education that will continue for the remainder of the year. We are discussing potential changes to attendance statutes and rules and how we can improve Oregon students' attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism. The workgroup consists of associations, nonprofits, school district representatives and other interested parties. The advisory group will provide the Legislature with recommendations for the 2027 session.

I will also sit on a workgroup for the Office of Training, Investigations and Safety to examine restraint and seclusion in child care facilities and school districts. We will be discussing where there needs to be updates or changes to the laws, hopefully to provide more clarity for school districts.

Stacy Michaelson is already engaged with other partners in a conversation about the impact that rising health care costs have on district budgets and whether there might be anything that can be done in the 2027 session.

Over the next 10 months, Stacy and I will be spending a lot of time talking to legislators, educational experts and our members, trying to chart directions and build consensus. We will research what can be done, what should be done and what our members think would be best.

There was a time, particularly before Oregon's Legislature started meeting annually, when there was a lull in the calendar. No more.

The Legislature closed up Friday, March 6, so we will take the weekend off. On Monday, we start shaping the bills that will define the 2027 Legislature.

- Adrienne Anderson
OSBA government relations counsel