Committee approves bipartisan charter schools package, gives State Board rulemaking role

A legislative full committee approved Senate Bill 369, a bipartisan package combining multiple House and Senate charter-school measures, and added language giving the State Board of Education authority to adopt rules implementing key sections.

The chair called on Senator Still to present the measure, which sponsor testimony described as a consolidation of prior bills (including provisions on virtual extracurricular participation and technical renumbering). Senator Still said the only substantive change since subcommittee work was language beginning on line 27 that makes the State Board the “overarching body” to establish definitions and rules for the program.

Committee members commended the collaborative drafting and asked clarifying questions about whether the bill would allow an existing charter school to change its type; Senator Still said the measure does not change charter status but standardizes definitions so districts and the State Board can apply comparable measures across dropout-recovery charter programs. A committee member called the measure “a beautiful bipartisan bill.”

Representative (seat 25) moved to pass the bill and the motion was seconded; the committee approved SB369 on a voice vote. Senators and members noted Jan Jones will carry the measure in the House.

The committee recorded no roll-call tally in the hearing transcript; the chair characterized the vote as passing by voice. The committee’s action sends the consolidated charter-school bill to the next stage with the State Board of Education identified as the rulemaking authority.

Next steps: the committee approved the bill for further action and named a House sponsor to carry it across chambers.