Bills Survive Deadline Day

It’s Deadline Day at the state capitol and below is a list of bills in each of Empower Mississippi’s three pillars that have survived.

Education:

• HB 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 district).
• HB 1432, sponsored by Rep. Rob Roberson, would make several changes to Mississippi’s charter school law to expand the landscape where charters can be created in the state and foster a healthy charter sector.
• HB 1078, sponsored by Speaker Jason White, removes the Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program mandate that families be accepted into a private school before they can qualify for the program while also expanding eligibility to foster care children in Mississippi.
• HB 1434, sponsored by Rep. Rob Roberson, would establish specialized academic programs for high school students in grades 9-12, focusing on high-demand fields such as aeronautics, geospatial studies, engineering, nursing, and technical skills for high-demand jobs that require certification or other credentials. The bill focuses on low-income students near Alcorn State, Delta State, and Mississippi Valley State Universities.
• HB 1617, sponsored by Rep. Rob Roberson, would allow homeschool students to participate in public school extracurricular activities, including sports.
• HB 1439, known as “The Mississippi School Accountability Dashboard Act”, 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

Justice:

• SB 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.
• HB 1001, sponsored by Rep. Becky Currie, known as the “Mississippi Inmate Labor Accountability and Rehabilitation Act” would allow the sale of all goods, wares, services or merchandise manufactured by inmates.
• HB 1476, sponsored by Rep. Becky Currie, would establish a work release program at Delta Correctional Facility.

Work:

• SB 2248, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Sparks, expands the Fresh Start Act to make it possible for someone with a criminal record to be approved for an occupational license when the past crime doesn’t directly relate to the license for which the person is applying, or if the crime occurred long ago.
• SB 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.”