2020 House Education Bill Summaries

The summaries attempt to highlight major components of each bill. Click on the bill number to read the bill in its entirety and to view the latest action.

HB 1 – Appropriations; Department of Education for additional funding for teachers’ salaries

• An Act Making an Appropriation to The State Department of Education for The Purpose of Providing Additional Funding for Teachers’ Salaries for Fiscal Year 2020
• Approved by the Governor on January 23, 2020

HB 274 – Help Grant Program; align curriculum with changes for college preparatory as required by IHL

• To revise provisions of the Higher Education Learning Plan Grant Program to align the curriculum requirements with changes in the college preparatory curriculum required by the Board of Trustees of state Institutions of Higher Learning by removing the specific number of units required for admission to a state university
• Approved by the Governor on June 6, 2020

HB 667 – Public special purpose schools; clarify provisions related to administrative and licensed instructional personnel of

• To provide the State Board of Education with the discretion to delegate certain authority to receive and hold real and personal property or testamentary gifts or bequests for the benefit of the Mississippi School for the Blind and the Mississippi School for the Deaf to administrative staff of the State Department of Education of those schools
• To require all administrative and licensed instructional employees of MSBD to enter into contracts for terms of their employment
• To require the State Board of Education to determine the qualifications for those employees, who shall be transferred from under the authority of the Mississippi Personnel Board
• To provide for the retention of benefits and service with the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the state and school employees’ health insurance plan
• To provide that such employees shall be subject to the will and pleasure of the respective superintendents of MSBD
• To include the State Board of Education within the meaning of the term “school board,” when acting on behalf of the MSBD
• To amend the definitions of the terms “agency” and “governing authority” under the public purchasing laws to exempt the Mississippi School for the Blind and the Mississippi School for the Deaf from certain requirements of the Public Procurement Review Board
• Approved by the Governor on June 25, 2020.

HB 669 – School consolidation; require local school districts to close certain schools within the district of underperforming schools

• An act to provide that in any county having two or more school districts, one of which being a county school district, having jurisdiction over three high schools within the county school district, the county school district shall consolidate its system of high schools by closing the high school that has consistently and chronically underperformed as determined by its grade designation under the statewide school accountability rating system as determined by the State Board of Education, upon the completion of the 2019-2020 Scholastic Year
• To provide that upon such closure, students then attending the closing school shall have the discretion to choose whether to attend either of the two remaining high schools in The County School District or request a transfer to an adjacent Municipal School District based on closest residential proximity to the appropriate high school of attendance within the adjacent Municipal School District
• To require the County School Board and the affected Municipal School Board to enter into an agreement not later than July 1, 2020, To provide for the automatic transfer of any students enrolled in and attending the failing school at the time of its closure seeking transfer to that Municipal School District, as determined by the residence of the student in closest proximity to the boundary of the Municipal School District
• To provide that the attendance zone of the failing high school to be closed in the County School District shall be collapsed to be redrawn and distributed in equal proportion to the remaining two school attendance zones of the county school district
• Approved by the Governor on June 25, 200

HB 676 – State and School Health Insurance Management Board; authorize State Agency executive heads to designate to serve in his or her capacity

• To clarify the composition of the State and School Employees Health Insurance Management Board by authorization of State Agency Executive Heads to designate an individual to serve in his or her capacity

HB 751 – Mississippi Employer-Assisted Housing Teacher Program; remove requirement that the Department of Education administer with the FNMA

• To remove requirement that the State Department of Education administer the Mississippi Employer Assisted Housing Teacher Program in conjunction with the Federal National Mortgage Association
• To extend the date of the repealer on this section
• Approved by the Governor on June 29, 2020

HB 1176 – School bus drivers; increase maximum speed limit on interstate highways

• To increase the maximum speed limit for the driver of any school bus transporting children to sixty-five miles per hour on interstate highways
• Approved by the Governor on June 22, 2020

HB 1336 – “Mississippi Learn to Earn Act”; enact to authorize earning of graduation credit thought apprenticeships and other alternative courses

• An act to establish the “Mississippi Learn to Earn Act”
• To provide for legislative findings
• To define terms
• To require the State Board of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Employment Security, the State Workforce Investment Board and The Mississippi Community College Board, to identify high school-to-work apprenticeships and other student internship programs that may be eligible for exemptions from federal and state labor laws and regulations for which exemptions are available for Student Apprenticeship Programs, and establish procedures by which such exemptions may be obtained by such programs
• To authorize the State Board of Education to substitute industry certification and state licensure examinations for any other state assessments for the purpose of awarding elective credit for career and technical education courses
• To allow student who earns credit upon completion of a registered apprenticeship program to use such credit to satisfy high school graduation requirements
• To require State Board of Education to develop guidelines for the establishment of high school-to-work apprenticeships between public high schools and local businesses
• To require the State Board of Education to authorize local school boards to develop an extended learning opportunity to include alternative educational opportunities available to students in grade 7 through grade 12 and to adopt a policy to include alternative educational opportunities for course credit that recognizes learning opportunities outside of the traditional classroom
• To provide for a Two-Tiered Application Process for the implementation of alternative learning courses, program or opportunities and apprenticeships in local school districts
• To require the State Department of Education to provide an annual report on districts providing alternative courses, programs and opportunities or apprenticeships
• To require State Licensing Authorities to grant a license to any student applicant who participates in an alternative learning course, program or opportunity or apprenticeship program and satisfies the licensing requirement for said occupation upon certain conditions
• Approved by Governor on June 29, 2020

HB 1700 – Appropriations, Education Department of

• Bill was partially vetoed by the Governor

HB 1577 – Hunter safety course; authorize school districts to offer as part of their curriculum

• An act to authorize public school districts to offer a course in Hunter Safety as a component of its curriculum for students in grades 7 through 12
• To prescribe requirements for the course instructor
• To prohibit the use of operable weapons and live ammunition in the course
• To authorize parents to opt out a student’s participation in the course
• Approved by Governor on June 25, 2020

HB 1788 –  Mississippi Pandemic Response Broadband Availability Act; create

• An act to direct the state fiscal officer to transfer $50,000,000 to the Mississippi pandemic response broadband availability grant program fund
• To create the “Mississippi pandemic response broadband availability act”
• To provide a statement of legislative intent and findings
• To create the “Mississippi pandemic response broadband availability grant program fund” as aa special fund in the state treasury for the purpose of providing funds for grants to Mississippi public school districts, independent schools and Native American tribal school districts
• To provide that the Mississippi pandemic response broadband availability grant program shall be administered by the Mississippi department of education, for the purpose of making grants to eligible school districts and schools to provide them with grant monies for eligible expenses
•  To direct the Mississippi department of education to develop regulations and procedures to govern the administration of the program
• To prescribe the requirements for the grants
• To specify that the use of grant funds shall be subject to audit and regulation of the Mississippi department of education, and noncompliance with the terms of the grant shall require repayment of grant monies to the state
• To specify that all monies shall be disbursed from this special fund in compliance with the requirements of the cares act and guidelines from the united states department of the treasury regarding the use of monies from the coronavirus relief fund
• To transfer undistributed monies in the fund as of December 1, 2020, to the unemployment compensation fund
• To provide that a declaration of any portion of this act as invalid shall not affect the remaining portions of this act
• This bill became law without the Governor’s signature