Committee approves after‑school bus fix and a measure to keep truancy records from restarting after reenrollment

The Senate Education Committee adopted an amendment to SB1951 that restores earlier statutory thresholds for after‑school program buses and advanced the bill to the calendar, and it also approved SB1968 to prevent reenrollment from resetting serious truancy records.

Senator Lowe described SB1951 as a correction to prior statutory language that had reduced the allowable service life for certain buses to 15 years; the bill moves the limit back to 20 years and 300,000 miles and removes some Department of Safety obligations imposed after a previous legislative change. Kevin Ormby, board president for the Boys & Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains, told the committee the change matters for nonprofits that rely on older buses, saying bus purchases "cost upwards of a $150,000" and explaining that the amendment would allow clubs and after‑school programs to continue transportation services without diverting funds from programming. The committee adopted the amendment and advanced SB1951 to the calendar (9 ayes).

On truancy, Senator Lowe sponsored SB1968 to ensure that students who have reached tier‑3 truancy and are in juvenile court cannot evade that record by disenrolling and later reenrolling in another LEA; sponsors said the bill does not apply to homeschooling and that tier‑3 represents cases already subject to court attention. After committee amendment and discussion about record transfers, the committee advanced the bill to the calendar by vote (9 ayes reported).