Rep George Sayler fights for kids safety rights

Idaho lawmakers will have the opportunity to consider a bill to require licensing of all day care facilities with four or more unrelated children. The day-care licensing bill from Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, and Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home. Proposed and killed each year for at least the last five years, this year’s version, Corder told the panel, is “a fine piece of legislation for you to consider this year.” He said, “We cannot cover every problem or guarantee all facilities are safe all the time, but we can … protect more children than we are now.”

The bill would set minimum standards for day cares, including criminal background checks.Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, says he is hopeful the bill introduced on Monday will pass muster with lawmakers who have declined to act on similar legislation for the past several years.

The state now licenses daycare centers with 13 or more kids and has a certification program for smaller facilities with seven or more children. Smaller daycare operations with six or fewer kids aren't subject to regulation.

House Education Committee introduces bill to elminate field trips

Last week,the House Education Committee introduced legislation that change funding for school trips and extracurricular events--HB 118.

HB 118, also sponsored by Rep. Bob Nonini (R-Coeur d’Alene), Sen. John Goedde (R-Coeur d’Alene), House Speaker Lawerence Denney (R-Midvale), and Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes (R-Soda Springs), would significantly change the way school districts are reimbursed for student transportation costs. Under current Idaho law, school districts are reimbursed 85% of the previous year’s bussing costs for transporting students to and from school and field trips. In effect, for every dollar a school district expends on bussing students, the state reimburses the district 85 cents the following year.

This legislation would do several things. First, it would eliminate reimbursement for student field trips. Second, it would require districts with high populations of students in centralized areas to use a different, less financially advantageous, formula for determining transportation reimbursement. Third, the state reimbursement would drop from 85% to 50% for student transportation costs, it would change reimbursement for virtual charter schools from 85% to 70%, and finally, it would reduce reimbursement for charter schools in the initial year of operation from 80% to 60%.

According to the bill sponsors, the changes outlined in HB 118 would potentially save the state millions of dollars. According, to IEA, the more likely scenario is that the savings the state would realize would be shifted to local school districts.