The Senate Education Committee will meet at 9 a.m., Wednesday, March 8, to hear testimony on the following seven bills:
- SB 68 (Zaffirini) would permit a school district to excuse a student who is a junior or senior in high school from school for a “career investigation day” that involves visiting a professional at their workplace for the purpose of determining the student’s interest in pursuing a career in the professional’s field. The district must adopt a policy to determine when an absence can be excused for this purpose and to provide a procedure to verify the student’s visit at the workplace. Districts may only excuse up to two absences in the student’s junior year and two absences in the student’s senior year for this purpose.
- SB 133 (West) would prohibit peace officers and school security personnel who are performing security-related duties on school property or at a school-sponsored or school-related activity from restraining or using a chemical irritant spray on a student who is 10 years old or younger unless the student poses a serious risk of harm to the student themself or to another person.
- SB 294 (Johnson) relates to the use of medication designated for treatment of respiratory distress on public and private school campuses.
- SB 357 (Hall) relates to the employment of honorably retired peace officers as school district security personnel and the applicability to those officers of certain law governing private security.
- SB 629 (Menéndez) relates to the use of opioid antagonists on public and private school campuses and at or in transit to or from off-campus school events.
- SB 798 (Middleton) would mandate that the qualifications for certification as a school counselor may not include a requirement that a candidate for certification have experience as a classroom teacher.
- SB 891 (Zaffirini) would require school districts to excuse a student from attending school for a maximum of five days in a school year so that a student may seek or receive mental or behavioral health treatment, support, or diagnosis with documentation from a health care provider.
Watch a live broadcast of the hearing at 9 a.m., March 8.
