Bill Summaries

Written by Empower Mississippi Senate Bill 2233, sponsored by Sen. Rod Hickman, would authorize the Mississippi Department of Corrections to conduct a study on the prevalence of dyslexia among those in prison and provide a report to the legislature.  A study in Louisiana found nearly half of the prisoners had dyslexia. Other research indicates that dyslexia…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 1439, sponsored by Rep. Zachary Grady, will require school districts to create a user-friendly dashboard that provides key data about schools in their district and about the district as a whole. The Mississippi School Accountability Dashboard Act will require districts to provide the following data points for their district and…

Written by Empower Mississippi Senate Bill 2290, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Sparks, would create a “Task Force to Study Work Force and Social Service Reform and Implementation of a One Door Policy.”  Under the proposed legislation, the task force would develop recommendations relative to increasing the labor force participation rate in Mississippi, as well as raising…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 1617, sponsored by Rep. Rob Roberson, would allow homeschool students to participate in public school extracurricular activities, including sports. Often dubbed the Tim Tebow Act after the Heisman quarterback who was homeschooled but able to play football for his local high school in Florida, similar legislation has been moving across…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 1433, sponsored by Rep. Rob Roberson, would provide new education options for students in failing schools in Mississippi. Under the proposed legislation, known as the Quality Desert Education Enrollment and Transfer Scholarship Act (QDESA), a student who has been enrolled in a school or district rated D or F within…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 1435, sponsored by Rep. Jansen Owen, would allow students to transfer to public schools outside of their residentially assigned school district without having to get approval from the student’s home district. Approval would still have to be granted by the district to which the student wants to move (the receiving…

Written by Empower Mississippi Senate Bill 2602, sponsored by Sen. Dennis DeBar, would require each school district to report information concerning student transfers to the State Department of Education. Mississippi’s current law allows student transfers with the mutual consent of both the student’s home district and the district they are attempting to transfer into.  Under this…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 1163, sponsored by Rep. Larry Byrd, would allow students with a dyslexia diagnosis to be eligible for the education scholarship account (ESA) program.  The current ESA program is designed to help students with special needs, but it is limited only to students with an Individualized Education Program. This would allow…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 1078, sponsored by Speaker Jason White, removes from the Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program the mandate that families be accepted into a private school before they can qualify for the program. The ESA program is officially known as the “Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs” program. This mandate, which…

Written by Empower Mississippi House Bill 781, sponsored by Rep. Tracey Rosebud, would authorize licensed barbers to operate mobile barbershops in the state.  Barber regulations in Mississippi, among other things, prevent barbers from operating a mobile barbershop. Mobile barbershops are not a new idea. Over the past decade, entrepreneurial barbers around the country have come up…