SB81 - Revises various provisions governing education. (BDR 34-276)

- 83rd Session (2025) Senate Bill No. 81–Committee on Education CHAPTER.......... AN ACT relating to education; requiring the Department of Education to create and conduct certain surveys of public school employees; revising provisions governing the reimbursement of certain hospitals or other facilities that provide educational services; revising terminology related to services provided to certain students; revising various reporting requirements relating to education; revising provisions governing the authority of the State Board of Education; revising provisions governing the ratios of pupils to licensed teachers; eliminating certain audits of empowerment schools; revising provisions governing the licensure of administrators; repealing provisions governing the Nevada Teacher Advancement Scholarship Program and the Incentivizing Pathways to Teaching Grant Program; revising provisions governing certain scholarship and grant programs for students in education and related fields of study; requiring the Department to create a program of block grants for such scholarship and grant programs; eliminating provisions requiring the Department to recommend that a minimum amount be spent by public schools on textbooks and other instructional supplies; and providing other matters properly relating thereto. Legislative Counsel’s Digest: Existing law creates the Department of Education, which consists of the State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. (NRS 385.010) Section 1 of this bill requires the Department to create and conduct surveys of: (1) public school employees, assessing school climate and working conditions in schools; and (2) public school employees who are leaving employment at a public school. Section 1 additionally: (1) sets forth when such surveys must be administered; (2) sets forth how a school district must use the results of such surveys; (3) prohibits data collected from such surveys from being used in certain evaluations; (4) requires the Department to recognize schools which achieve a certain response rate on such surveys in the statewide system of accountability; and (5) requires the Department to submit annually to the Commission on School Funding and the State Board a report containing data from the surveys. Existing law requires the principal of each school, in consultation with the employees of the school, to prepare a plan to improve the achievement of the pupils enrolled in the school. (NRS 385A.650) Section 2 of this bill requires the plan to be informed by the results of surveys conducted pursuant to section 1. Existing law creates the Education Stabilization Account in the State Education Fund and requires each school district, each year after the close of the previous fiscal year and before the issuance of the State Controller’s annual report, to transfer from the county school district fund to the Education Stabilization Account any amount by which the actual ending fund balance of the county school district fund exceeds 16.6 percent of the total actual expenditures for the fund. – 2 – - 83rd Session (2025) (NRS 387.1213) Section 4 of this bill requires each school district to make this transfer after the close of the previous fiscal year and before the close of the then current fiscal year. Existing law establishes certain requirements governing the use of information concerning the average daily enrollment of pupils, including, without limitation: (1) requiring each school district to submit a quarterly report to the Department containing the average daily enrollment of pupils; and (2) providing the method for computing the yearly apportionment to the school district from the State Education Fund. (NRS 387.1223) Section 4.5 of this bill applies these provisions to charter schools and university schools for profoundly gifted pupils. Under existing law, certain hospitals and other facilities that provide residential treatment to children and also operate a licensed private school or an accredited educational program approved by the Department are authorized to request reimbursement from the school district or charter school in which a child is enrolled for the cost of providing educational services to the child who is: (1) verified to be a patient or resident of the hospital or facility; (2) attends the private school or educational program for more than 7 school days; and (3) meets certain other requirements. (NRS 387.1225) Section 4.7 of this bill: (1) changes the entity from which reimbursement is authorized to be requested to the Department; and (2) makes conforming changes to reflect this change. Under the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan, existing law requires a public school that receives weighted funding for one or more at-risk pupils or pupils who are English learners to use such funding only to provide services to such pupils, which are referred to as “Victory services” and “Zoom services,” respectively. (NRS 387.121, 387.12445) Section 5 of this bill changes the term “Victory services” to “services for at-risk pupils,” and “Zoom services” to “services for pupils who are English learners.” Existing law requires the board of trustees of each school district and the governing body of each charter school to submit to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and certain other recipients, on or before November 1 of each year, a report regarding the budget of the school district or charter school. (NRS 387.303, 388A.345) Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, on or before November 25 of each year, to submit a compilation of the reports made by each school district and charter school to the Office of Finance in the Office of the Governor and the Fiscal Analysis Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. (NRS 387.303, 388A.345) Existing law requires the governing body of a university school for profoundly gifted pupils to submit a similar report to the Department of Education on or before November 15 of each year. (NRS 388C.250) Sections 6, 13 and 15 of this bill require these reports to be submitted annually, on or before the Friday of the first week in January that contains 5 business days. Sections 6 and 13 require the compilation of reports to be submitted on or before the last Friday in January. Existing law requires the Governor, on or before January 1 of each year, to compile a report on the status of the finances of the State, including the information published in the most recent annual report regarding the budget of each school district. (NRS 353.333) Section 32 of this bill requires that this report be compiled on or before February 15 of each year, to conform with the change made by section 6 to the date by which the compilation of reports regarding the budget of each school district is required to be submitted to the Office of Finance. Existing law requires the clerk of the board of trustees of a county school district to publish a quarterly expenditure report for the school district in a newspaper that meets certain qualifications. (NRS 387.320) Section 7 of this bill – 3 – - 83rd Session (2025) requires the expenditure report to instead be published on the Internet website of the county school district. Existing law: (1) provides that the State Board is the sole state agency responsible for the administration of career and technical education; and (2) sets forth actions the State Board is authorized to take in relation to such authority. (NRS 388.360) Section 7.3 of this bill authorizes the State Board to request, rather than direct, the Superintendent of Public Instruction to make studies and investigations relating to career and technical education. Existing law requires the Executive Officer of the State Board to designate a program professional to perform certain duties relating to programs of career and technical education that have received grants of money. (NRS 388.396) Section 7.7 of this bill instead requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to designate a program professional to perform such duties. Existing law authorizes the board of trustees of a school district, with the approval of the juvenile court and the board of county commissioners, to employ qualified teachers for the instruction of children detained in facilities for the detention of children, alternative programs and juvenile forestry camps. (NRS 388.550) Existing law requires the board of trustees of a school district providing such instruction to report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction at such times and in such manner as the Superintendent of Public Instruction prescribes. (NRS 388.570) Section 8 of this bill eliminates the requirement for the board of trustees of such a school district to provide such reports to the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Existing law prohibits the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher in certain classes from exceeding certain ratios during each school quarter of a school year. (NRS 388.700) Existing law requires the board of trustees of each school district to report to the Department, on a quarterly basis, the average daily enrollment of pupils and the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher for certain grade levels. (NRS 388.725) If the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher at one or more elementary schools in a school district exceeds the ratio prescribed by statute during any quarter of a school year, existing law requires the school district to request a variance from the State Board for each such school for the subsequent quarter. (NRS 388.700) Section 12 of this bill eliminates the requirement to submit quarterly reports regarding the average daily enrollment of pupils and the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher for certain grade levels and requires the board of trustees of each school district to instead report such information to the Department only on a semiannual basis each year for: (1) the period beginning on July 1 and ending on September 30; and (2) the period beginning on January 1 and ending on March 31. Section 9 of this bill requires a school district to request a variance for an elementary school which exceeds the maximum ratio of pupils per licensed teacher only if the ratio is exceeded during a reporting period. Section 9 also: (1) reduces the frequency of the reports regarding variances requested by school districts which the State Board is required to submit to the Interim Finance Committee from quarterly to semiannually; and (2) eliminates the requirement for the State Board to submit a report to the Legislature regarding variances and the data collected by school districts on the effectiveness of plans to reduce pupil-teacher ratios. Existing law requires each school district, in cooperation with the recognized associations representing licensed educational personnel, to develop a plan to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio per class in certain grade levels and submit that plan to the State Board. (NRS 388.720) Section 10 of this bill requires this plan to be submitted to the State Board on or before October 1 of each year. – 4 – - 83rd Session (2025) Section 11 of this bill eliminates the requirement for the Department to develop policies and procedures for the distribution of money to each school district for the reduction of pupil-teacher ratios. Existing law requires the sponsor of a charter school that has received, within each of the immediately preceding 3 consecutive school years, one of the two lowest ratings of performance pursuant to the statewide system of accountability for public schools to submit a report to the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Education on or before December 15 of each odd-numbered year describing certain actions taken by the sponsor of the charter school. (NRS 388A.355) Section 14 of this bill requires this report to be submitted annually, on or before February 15. Existing law requires: (1) certain charter schools that are approved to operate as empowerment schools to submit a quarterly report to the Department containing certain financial information and information concerning the school’s compliance with its empowerment plan; (2) the board of trustees of a school district and the Department to conduct financial audits of empowerment schools; and (3) such reports and audits concerning empowerment schools to be compiled and forwarded to certain entities. (NRS 388G.200) Section 16 of this bill eliminates these requirements. Existing law authorizes the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of a charter school to offer a work-based learning program upon the approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. (NRS 389.167) Section 17 of this bill eliminates the requirement for a school district or charter school offering a work-based learning program to submit a biennial report to the State Board and the Legislature concerning the manner in which the program has been carried out. Existing law requires the Commission on Professional Standards in Education to prescribe by regulation the qualifications for licensing teachers and other educational personnel. (NRS 391.019) Section 18 of this bill: (1) eliminates the requirement for the Commission to prescribe qualifications for licensing administrators through an alternative route to licensure; and (2) requires the Commission to prescribe qualifications and procedures for licensed teachers and other licensed educational personnel to become licensed as an administrator without restricting the ability of such a person to obtain employment as an administrator. Existing law requires each school district that employs a consultant to submit a report to the Interim Finance Committee at least once every 6 months. (NRS 391.155) Section 19 of this bill reduces the frequency of this report to at least once annually. Existing law: (1) establishes the Teach Nevada Scholarship Program, the Nevada Teacher Advancement Scholarship Program and the Incentivizing Pathways to Teaching Grant Program; and (2) sets forth requirements for the administration of these programs. (NRS 391A.550-391A.595, 391A.650-391A.695, 391A.700, 391A.705, 391A.710) Sections 20-31 of this bill transfer the administration of these programs from the State Board to the Department. Section 19.5 of this bill requires the Department to create a program of block grants to provide one lump-sum grant to an institution that receives a grant from each of these programs. Section 21 expands the eligibility for Teach Nevada Scholarships to include Nevada residents who graduated from high school in another state or who, before the age of 20, successfully completed the high school equivalency assessment selected by the State Board in another state. Se [Text truncated for display. Full text available on LegiScan.]