Utah Legislative Bills 2024

Water efficiency landscaping requirements for new building or when addressing current buildings

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This bill addresses threatening or falsely reporting an emergency at a school. Fiscal Note – $45,000 on-going from the General Fund

Makes penalties stiffer

This bill expands the eligibility of a PRIME program certificate.

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This bill amends provisions regarding the evaluation of instructional material to identify and remove pornographic or indecent material.

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This bill extends the repeal date for the SafeUT and School Safety Commission.

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This bill amends the First Responder Mental Health Services Grant Program (program).

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This bill amends and makes technical and conforming changes to certain provisions of Utah Code.

Amending certain reporting requirements, amending certain school fee requirements; consolidating student data advisory groups; providing for parent seminars to be held on Saturday and virtually; providing rulemaking authority for educator licensing complaints

This bill establishes a system for school safety incidents.

This is hard logistically, parents not comfortable with armed volunteers, prioritize other safety measures, availability of personnel, financial;

Cannot do a Lease Revenue bond above $30m without voter approval

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Makes certain speech-language pathologists and audiologists eligible for the Teacher Salary Supplement Program

Includes them in the salary supplement program; $5m; in a lot of districts, they are not on a teacher salary schedule

This bill enacts an income tax credit for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by an educator.

$26m fiscal note; educators get tax credit up to $500 for out of pocket expenses; did not pass last year.

This bill requires a school traffic safety committee to include recommendations for infrastructure improvements in a child access routing plan.

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This bill removes human sexuality from the definition of sex education instruction.

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This bill creates the Educator-Protector Program to incentivize school teachers to responsibly secure or carry a firearm on school grounds by providing reimbursements and liability protection

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Prohibits a Local Education Agency from collecting background check fees from licensed employees and non-licensed substitute teachers.

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Subject to certain exceptions, provides that a law passed by a local school board, including a law imposing a new tax or tax increase, may be referred to the voters of the school district for the voters approval or rejection

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Removes a requirement for teachers to get signatures from parents before submitting their application, changes the window of board approval from 60 to 45 days, and requires the state office to market the program to educators

Provides teachers an opportunity to be innovative. We supported the original bill last year. Not a lot of teachers knew about it last year. Passed unanimously out of House committee.

Allows immigrants who have lost their birth certificate to still participate in sports

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Subject to certain exceptions, provides that a law passed by a local school board, including a law imposing a new tax or a tax increase, may be referred to the voters of the school district for their approval or rejection

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Requires an LEA to update policies to require parental consent for any non-academic survey given to a student; to obtain the parental consent annually in writing; to obtain new parental consent from parents of a transferring student; requires training on implementation of bill

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Creates a grant program for a local education agency that has a parental leave policy which meets certain criteria.

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This bill enacts provisions relating to the use of the name, image, or likeness of a student athlete who participates in an institution’s collegiate athletic program.

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This bill addresses changes in teacher licensure requirements.

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Creates the Stipends for Future Educators Grant Program

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Requires certain government employers to, at a minimum, provide unpaid leave to an employee who is a state legislator on an authorized legislative day.

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Requires reporting of water usage by a state agency; requires the Division of Water Resources to conduct a study of public school water use; provides for procurement of smart irrigation controllers

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This bill amends the Statewide Online Education Program (the program).

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This bill enacts provisions relating to the use of the name, image, or likeness of a student athlete who participates in an institution’s collegiate athletic program.

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Makes changes to the way a local education agency may fund driver education classes.

USBE request; increases the reimbursement amounts to the districts; has not been raised in several years

Currently, retired employees can come back after a year or only make $19k. This bill keeps the year and also creates new path (any URS employees). The cooling off period would be 90 days (60 for public safety). Requires employers to pay full contribution rate to URS, just like any other employee.Reduces their pension allowance 20% (receive 80%). Suspends their URS annual cost of living adjustment while they are working.

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Enacts provisions regarding publicly owned or publicly funded sex-designated restroom, shower, or locker room facilities where the general public has an expectation of privacy; requires local education agencies to establish a privacy plan with parents and students in certain cases to address gender identity and fear of bullying; establishes components of the crimes of voyeurism and criminal trespass for certain actions within a covered sex-designated facility.

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Prohibits an institution of higher education, the public education system, and a governmental employer from: requiring an individual, before, during, or after admission or employment, to provide certain submissions or attend certain training that promotes differential treatment; using an individual’s certain characteristics in decisions regarding aspects of employment or education

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Clarifies that the state may sell or lease land to state entities for fair market value; exempts the sale or lease of certain large aggregations of trust lands from advertising requirements and mineral rights restrictions; excludes certain lands from sale or lease, & requires rulemaking for determining the fair market value of trust lands.

Allows us to convert under-performing lands.

Provides rulemaking authority to the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) for Statewide Online Education Program (the program) funding.

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Requires public schools to display a poster or framed copy of “The Ten Commandments”

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Amends provisions governing public employers and labor unions.

Dues cannot be paid through payroll deductions; if a district and association make deal before May 2024, they don’t need to follow the new law until it expires in a few years. Requires public employee labor organizations to conduct a recertification election every three years

Amends provisions for benchmark assessments in reading.

Adds the definition of dyslexia; parents have asked for this; uses a term used in IDEA, could quadruple the number of students eligible for IDEA

Amends provisions that prohibit school officials and employees from endorsing, promoting, or disparaging certain beliefs or viewpoints.

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This bill requires the Utah Board of Higher Education to establish admission pathways for accepting students who earn a degree from a non-accredited college or university into a graduate program.

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Modifies provisions related to the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration.

Could cost LandTrust about $7m; puts requirements on the SITLA process to sell lands; would dramatically lower the amount of money we would receive each year.

This bill removes language that exists in federal law.

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Addresses school enrollment through kindergarten enrollment requirements and certain notices to a school regarding students taken into custody.

Have to be toilet trained to attend K and creates an assurance page for parents to fill out; If they’re not, they create a plan with the school; students with IEPs exempt; incidents have increased with move to K; many states have this type of law on the books; makes this an expectation for parents; one district just did this and it has been a help; enrollment process includes parent assuring that student is toilet trained

Amends processes for school closures or school boundary changes.

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Bill requires an LEA provide a safe and minimally disrupted educational environment

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This joint resolution of the Legislature addresses the problem of illegal immigration.

Originally said those not here legally couldn’t attend school in Utah. That version was taken down. Current version talks about what is happening at the border and issues it creates. Not related to education directly anymore.

This bill provides a home-based education entity and micro-education entity with certain similar duties, requirements, waivers, and rights as private and charter schools.

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This bill modifies notice and public hearing requirements in the property tax code.

This allows you to do judgment levy at different time than truth in taxation – currently have to do it at same time. It hasmore flexiblity; requires more info in hearing: amount of additional revenue collected, the primary purpose for TnT, link to website for more info, percentage increase; notice to county auditor is due June 1- instead of March; requires county auditor to make sure LEA has complied

Combines the Carson Smith Scholarship and Special Needs Opportunity Scholarship Programs

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Employees of regional service education agencies can receive educator salary adjustments

These employees act as teachers. It is good to give them the same salary adjustments as our certified teachers.

Removes the notary requirement on a home school affidavit.

Concern: some districts put pressure on parents to sign the home school paper for students who are not attending/doing well and they want them off the books for their graduation rates

This bill requires the state board of education to notify each qualifying teacher of potential eligibility in the program.

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This bill requires the exclusion of a fully online student from a local education agency’s (LEA) capital outlay funding formula.

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This bill amends the educator evaluation frequency to include a biennial option.

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This bill amends the Higher Education for Incarcerated Youth Program to include students held in certain types of detention.

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This bill creates the Public Education Trust Fund.

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This bill prohibits local government entities from issuing a lease revenue bond unless the purpose of the bond is to pay for a correctional facility, the amount of the bond is within a specified limit, or the bond is approved at an election.

Cannot do Lease Revenue Bond over $30m

This bill requires local school boards to develop polices and procedures to ensure that students have non-electronic notification of and access to certain activities and events.

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This bill amends the required components for establishing and reporting data from the school climate survey.

Requires State Board to create school climate survey; questions to be evidenced-based; allow LEA’s to not administer up to 10% of questions.

Harper & Burton

This bill amends provisions related to cybersecurity, breach notification requirements, and authorized domain name extensions.

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This bill enacts provisions regarding a student’s reasonable expectation of individual privacy and personal modesty in the public education system.

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Subject to certain exceptions, provides that a law passed by a local school board, including a law imposing a new tax or tax increase, may be referred to the voters of the school district for the voters approval or rejection

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Acknowledges the contributions of school support staff and commits to celebrating their work

Encourages LEA’s to celebrate school support staff