Signed by Governor Joseph Lombardo

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that amends various laws relating to education in Nevada.

Highlights:

• Requires each public elementary school to prepare a plan to improve academic performance, and establishes consequences for the principal of a school that fails to meet the minimum required goals (Sec. 1).

• Authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction or the superintendent of a school district to modify, suspend, or eliminate a requirement for a public school or district to report information that is redundant, duplicative, or does not support educational outcomes (Sec. 1).

• Establishes a system of accountability for school districts and charter schools, similar to the existing system for public schools, which includes a method of rating academic performance and evaluating achievement targets (Sec. 6-8).

• Establishes procedures for the Superintendent to designate a school district or sponsor of a charter school as low or under-performing, and authorizes the Superintendent to place the district or sponsor on probation (Sec. 6-9).

• Establishes criteria for designating a public school as low-performing, and requires state intervention to implement corrective measures for those schools (Sec. 6, 14).

• Authorizes the impaneling of a Public Education Oversight Board under certain circumstances to remedy issues identified by the Superintendent of Public Instruction through actions normally granted to the board of trustees of a school district (Sec. 9).

• Amends the membership of the board of trustees for the Clark County School District to make previously nonvoting members voting members, and authorize those appointed members to serve as officers (Sec. 10-11).

• Requires the Commission on School Funding to review and propose any necessary revisions to the method of calculating the percentage of at-risk pupils in the state, and select a third party for oversight of this process (Sec. 12).

• Extends eligibility for early childhood literacy and prekindergarten program grants to institutions within the Nevada System of Higher Education (Sec. 13).

• Requires annual requests for and reports concerning temporarily authorized variances in the ratio of pupils per licensed teacher in each classroom (Sec. 16-18).

• Requires the statewide system of accountability for public schools to include targets for the proportion of elementary school pupils demonstrating adequate proficiency in reading (Sec. 8).

• Authorizes the Department of Education to adopt regulations for how the results of any district assessment of reading proficiency may be used in a literacy improvement plan (Sec. 15).

• Requires each school year to contain at least four days of professional development for elementary school staff (Sec. 15).

• Requires each public school located in a county with a population of 100,000 or more to provide availability of a school counselor or equivalent service (Sec. 15).

• Authorizes the board of trustees of some school districts to object to the placement of a proposed charter school (Sec. 19).

• Requires the sponsor of a charter school to prepare a report describing the expenditures and all revenue sources for the school (Sec. 26).

• Authorizes the use of school years prior to 2015-2016 for determination of consistent underperformance of a charter school, and requires the sponsor of a charter school to terminate or restart a charter contract if the school is underperforming for three consecutive years (Sec. 25).

• Amends the requirements for teachers at charter schools by increasing the percentage of teachers who must hold an in-state license or endorsement to teach from 80% to 100% (Sec. 28).

• Prohibits the governing body of a charter school from imposing rules relating to the truancy of pupils that are more restrictive than rules for public schools (Sec. 27).

• Authorizes a large school district to require certain uses of funds that a local school precinct carries forward from the budget of one school year to the next (Sec. 33).

• Requires schools that receive grants from scholarship organizations to administer examinations and assessments to pupils who benefit from the scholarship (Sec. 30-33).

• Requires scholarship organizations to register with the Department of Education and provide information concerning each pupil on whose behalf it awards a grant (Sec. 31).

• Authorizes a parent or guardian of a pupil to apply directly to a scholarship organization for a grant and establishes the order of priority that the organization must use to award grants (Sec. 31).

• Establishes the Commission on Recruitment and Retention within the Department of Education to study issues relating to the recruitment and retention of educators in the state (Sec. 37-38).

• Requires the Commission on Professional Standards in Education to establish requirements for a person to obtain a provisional license with an endorsement as a registered apprentice, and repeals the authorization for the State Board of Education to disapprove any regulation adopted by the Commission (Sec. 39-42).

• Authorizes a city or county to sponsor a new charter school or expand enrollment at an existing charter school beyond the allowed ratio of charter to public school pupils under certain conditions (Sec. 20).

• Requires the Department of Education to establish a pilot program for schools to apply for grants to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) into instruction in literacy and English (Sec. 33).

• Establishes immunity from civil and criminal liability for school employees who take actions in good faith to intervene in physical altercations or other incidents that pose an imminent risk to the safety of other school pupils or employees, if (Sec. 38):

• The employee is acting within the scope of their employment and their role in maintaining order or safety;

• The actions of the employee are consistent with state, federal, and local laws, and the policies of the relevant school district; and

• Any harm caused by the employee’s intervention is not the result of intentional, negligent, or reckless misconduct with indifference to the safety of the person harmed.

• Specifies that this immunity applies to employees of private schools (Sec. 58).

• Requires that, starting July 1, 2028,  teachers of kindergarten and grades 1-3 obtain an endorsement in foundational literacy by completing coursework approved by the Commission on Professional Standards in Education (Sec. 39-41).

• Requires the Department of Education to assist a school district in filling a vacancy left by the dismissal of an employee who receives a rating of ineffective during a probationary period (Sec. 52).

• Authorizes a probationary period of 2 school years for postprobationary teachers who meet certain conditions, and authorizes the dismissal of the teacher if they fail to meet goals defined in their performance improvement plan (Sec. 38).

• Requires the board of trustees of each school district and the governing body of each charter school to ensure that teachers and administrators of kindergarten and grades 1-3 complete professional development in the science of reading (Sec. 56).

• Repeals the requirement for teachers to resubmit a full set of their fingerprints for license renewal, and instead authorizes the Department of Education to participate in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Rap Back Program to retain school personnel’s fingerprints (Sec. 60).

• Requires each large school district to negotiate with employee organizations to establish a differential pay scale for licensed personnel assigned to certain Title I schools (Sec. 54-56).

• Requires the Board of Regents of Nevada State University to share student identification numbers with the Department of Education (Sec. 59).

• Authorizes institutions within the Nevada System of Higher Education to establish a pilot program to offer an alternative pathway for assessing the competency of prospective teachers (Sec. 81).

• Repeals the requirement for the boards of trustees of school districts to publish a fiscal report in a local newspaper (Sec. 67).

• Establishes the Nevada Registered Teacher Apprenticeship Support Account and Program to be administered by the State Apprenticeship Director (Sec. 69).

• Appropriates $12,000,000 to the Early Childhood Literacy and Readiness Account for the 2026-2027 fiscal year (Sec. 75).

Full Bill Text