Deadlines sharpen education advocates’ focus

The short session is beginning to wind down with a little over two weeks left until constitutional sine die, and that means the bills with a real chance are starting to stand out.

Out of 300 bills, OSBA was tracking about 100 bills. Deadlines have whittled that number down and focused our attention. . Here are some of the bills we have worked on this session that are still in play:

House Bill 4079 A and Senate Bill 1538 A: The House bill would require school districts to adopt a policy for notification if immigration enforcement is on campus. The Senate bill would require school districts to admit all students regardless of citizenship status as well as requiring districts to share model sanctuary state policies adopted by the attorney general.

HB 4160 A would require districts to adopt a cardiac response policy that must, to the extent practicable, model a national cardiac organization's model policies.

HB 4154 A would require the Oregon Department of Education to publish attendance data four times a year and. for chronic absenteeism and regular attender purposes, start counting student attendance at 10 days as opposed to 75 days.

SB 1504 would permit school districts or students to administer the nasal spray version of epinephrine for treating severe allergic reactions, updating a statute that only permits the injectable version.

HB 4138 A would prohibit employees of a public body from intentionally assisting federal law enforcement or out-of-state law enforcement if the employee knows the investigation is for someone's First Amendment or Oregon Article I, Sec. 8 rights or if the investigation is in connection with an unlawful search and seizure. It would require public bodies to adopt policies based on such. The number of realistic bills will be chopped again with the second chamber work session posting deadline of Friday, Feb. 20. If a bill doesn't have a work session posted by midnight, the bill will not be moving forward. The deadline, though, doesn't apply to bills in rules, revenue or joint committees.

Bills must receive a work session in their policy committee by Thursday, Feb. 26, (the second chamber deadline) to keep going.

The Legislature's last possible day is March 8, when all bills must have passed both chambers and be headed to the governor's desk.

- Adrienne Anderson
OSBA government relations counsel