2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION REPORT OUT

The Oregon legislature gavelled out a hectic and productive short legislative session on March 8th, 2024 – 3 days sooner than constitutionally required to, surprising some pundits given some legislation left unfinished because of the early adjournment. As expected, the legislative session focused primarily on 3 big issues: Measure 110 repeal and reform (2020 voter approved decriminalization of possession of controlled substances), Governor Kotek’s housing production package (which failed to pass in the final days of the 2023 legislative session), and campaign finance reform. A few pieces of health care policy legislation did pass, though more were left undone than were passed this session. This shouldn’t be seen as unusual or problematic, necessarily, as short sessions tend to be limited to “fixing” legislation passed in previous years, agency budget realignments, and any pressing matters that cannot wait another year to address.

In education news, as expected, the short session focused on mostly small policy changes and funding priorities. Most bills that passed were done so on a bipartisan basis. The Oregon Coalition of Community Charter Schools focused the majority of our efforts on funding for Summer Learning Program grants, and ensuring that charter schools are able to access those funds. HB 4082 was funded at $30 million, the original ask was $50 million, but it was far more than the zero dollars received in 2023! See below for more information on bills that passed this session and how they may impact charter schools.

SB 5701, General Fund Adjustment
Oregon Department of Education

Stipends to special education employees: $8,900,000
Student Investment Accounts: $4,882,252 increase
The Community Care Demonstration Project targeting student mental health and substance abuse: $1,012,500
Summer SNAP program to reduce child hunger: $338,328

Department of Administrative Services

The Willamette Education Service District to fund career and technical education at Willamette Career Academy: $1,000,000

POLICY BILLS THAT PASSED

Administrative

SB 1502: Requires school districts, community colleges, and university boards to post recordings of their board meetings online to ensure public access and transparency. Public charter schools will be subject to these requirements, which become effective January 1, 2025). Allows audio to be posted for facilities that lack broadband internet and adds an exemption for school districts of less than 50 students in resident average daily membership (ADM).

Passed Senate 29-1 on February 21. Passed House 55-1 on March 5th.
ORC3S will be engaged with ODE on the rulemaking process for implementing this legislation during 2024.

SB 1558: Makes clarifying changes to SB 819, the special education legislation from 2023 session designed to ensure that all students with IEPs or 504 plans have access to a full school day if they and their parents so desire, irrespective of their disability. SB 1558 creates exemptions from the full school day requirement for students in grades 11 and 12 who are on track to graduate to:

Take open block period(s);
Take an online/asynchronous course for credit recovery or for a specialized credit bearing course (ie. Russian language course not offered by the resident high school)

Passed Senate 30-0 on February 21st. Passed House 54-0 on March 5th.

SB 1552: Education omnibus bill (a piece of legislation with many components many of which are unrelated to one another), items of note in this bill:

Establishment of a youth advisory council. The legislation outlines the membership and duties of the council. Directs the Department of Education to collect course-level completion and grade data for all public school students in grades 6 through 12 and provides requirements related to the use of data, including making data available to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission for direct admissions.
Directs the Legislative and Policy Research Office to conduct a study on the Quality Education Model (the QEM, which is developed to highlight what the commission believes is the required SSF number to achieve Oregon’s K-12 education goals) and the state's system of financing public education for kindergarten through grade 12.
Passed the Senate 23-5 and the House 48-8.

Curriculum

N/A

Funding / Spending

HB 4082: Provides $30 million to fund summer learning grant programs and study other options to provide learning outside of school hours. Allows school districts, ESDs, and charter schools to establish these programs and receive grant funding. The types of programs covered include both traditional academic programs, school readiness, and hands-on learning and arts programs that "support students’ mental, emotional, and social well-being." must be at least four hours a day, at least four days a week, and have at least 80 hours in each session. Appropriated $30 million for the 2nd half of the 2023-2025 biennium.

Passed House 53-4 on March 4th. Passed Senate 26-4 on March 5th.

Due to the amount of funding provided and time constraints on releasing the funds, the grant program will be administered through the Student Investment Account fund and will have similar As such, charter schools meeting certain eligibility criteria will be independently eligible and others will be required to participate in district wide applications. The State Board of Education adopted rules pertaining to summer learning grants on March 14th, 2024. For more information, including specific grant allocations, please see ODE Summer Learning webpage here.

Graduation Requirements / Diploma

HB 4137: Directs the State Board of Education to develop rules that would exempt students who have completed full International Baccalaureate programs from having to meet all other high school graduation requirements. Essentially, this legislation ensures that students who complete IB programs can use those credentials as their high school graduation requirements.