Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Nevada Senate bills would require school spending oversight

Carson City, Nevada

Wade Vandervort

Nevada State Legislature in Carson City, Nevada Wednesday, April 27, 2022.

Nevada lawmakers are taking aim at accountability in school spending with two bills introduced earlier this week.

Assembly Bill 395 creates the “Financial Oversight of School Spending Committee,” a nine-member citizen and educator-led advisory board that would meet at least quarterly to review school district spending of federal, state and local revenues.

It would also create annual reports of their reviews for the governor, the state board of education, and the director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

The reports would be delivered to the Legislature, Interim Finance Committee, Legislative Commission and the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Education.

Topics for committee review would include salary increases, special programming such as art and music, student mental health, school safety, and implicit bias and cultural competency training for staff, according to the bill.

AB395 comes from Assemblywoman Brittney Miller, D-Las Vegas, who is also a teacher in the Clark County School District. She is also sponsoring a bill this session, AB149, that creates the position of Inspector General of Education.

The proposed new inspector general would have the authority to audit, investigate and review the performance of any person or governmental entity that receives public money related to education, and pursue complaints of fiscal abuse, fraud and waste.

Another proposal — Assembly Bill 399 — creates a subcommittee on education accountability in the Interim Finance Committee.

Eight members, drawn from the Assembly and Senate, would meet at least semiannually during legislative off-years to study fiscal policy, the sufficiency of current revenues and expenditures, administrative support and policies, and possible corrective action plans for public schools.

AB399 comes from Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas.

A few more education-related bills that were introduced last week include:

AB339: This bill would differentiate the academic performance of students who are chronically absent from school and students not being taught by certified teachers on annual school accountability reports.

The state posts annual district and school-level accountability reports showing test score proficiency broken out by grade level, gender, race and ethnicity, qualification for free and reduced lunch, and special education and English language-learner participation.

This bill would add identifiers for students with at least 10 absences in the same school year and students who have a non-certified teacher in a core subject for at least four weeks out of the year — circumstances that educators say can negatively impact a child’s achievement.

The bill is sponsored by 14 Assembly Democrats led by Miller.

SB313: This bill refines academic standards in mental health education.

Under the bill, state standards for student achievement and teacher professional development in mental health education would need to correspond with any social and emotional learning standards and include the provision of mental health resources to students.

Teachers would also need to complete coursework in mental health education to obtain or renew a teaching license.

Mental health resources would include information that a student can use to seek help for mental health treatment, information on how to access mental and behavioral health workers, and information on suicide awareness and prevention.

Mental health issues are already included in the overall health curriculum, which also includes physical health.

The bill has 12 bipartisan sponsors and co-sponsors, led by former teacher Sen. Roberta Lange, D-Las Vegas.

SB339: This bill revives the Teachers’ School Supplies Assistance Account, covering the purchase of up to $1,000 in classroom supplies per teacher, per year with state money.

The bill seeds the account with $10 million and would put its management under the state department of education. Teachers would be allocated $500 a year for direct purchase or reimbursement of basic classroom supplies purchased out of pocket, but a teacher who has used up their full $500 allotment could request up to an additional $500 if there is money available because other teachers did not use their full initial shares.

The bill is sponsored by 10 Senate Democrats led by Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop, of Las Vegas, a former teacher.

Senate Republicans are carrying a similar bill, SB212, that allows up to $800 a year in supplies.