HB 1287 Missouri House · 2025 Regular Session

Enacts the Missouri Educators and Parental Empowerment and Rights Act

HB 1287, the "Missouri Educators and Parental Empowerment and Rights Act," requires Missouri public schools to strengthen teacher authority and parental involvement through new policies. It mandates schools to create clear procedures for notifying parents about student safety incidents, disciplinary actions, and classroom behavior, and to post parental rights online. The bill also requires schools to adopt a student code of conduct emphasizing respect for teachers, fair discipline without racial bias, and parental engagement in behavioral issues. All schools must implement these policies for the 2025-26 school year and beyond.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Last action Apr 10, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → House Committee Substitute · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to combine two related bills (HB 1287 and HB 744) into a single House Committee Substitute. The number of new sections was reduced from five to four, and the bill's focus shifted to emphasize collaboration between parents and teachers rather than primarily teacher authority. New definitions were added for virtual schools, and the 'Parents' Bill of Rights' and 'Educators' Bill of Rights' sections were restructured to balance parental access rights with educator protections.

Scope change

The bill now applies to school districts, charter schools, and virtual schools (newly defined), whereas the original version only explicitly covered school districts and charter schools.

SCOPE

Bill title and section count changed from five sections to four sections, combining HB 1287 and HB 744 into one substitute bill.

DEFINITION

Added 'virtual school' as a defined local educational agency, expanding the bill's applicability to virtual learning environments.

REQUIREMENT

Replaced the original language emphasizing teacher authority with new language recognizing collaboration between parents and teachers as essential for educational success.

Added specific parental rights including access to curriculum information, teacher identity, school records, and data collection transparency.

Added specific educator rights including protection from abuse, evaluation processes, and the right to intervene in school violence situations.

Removed the original section that emphasized teacher authority and classroom discipline enforcement as the primary policy goal.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 10, 2025

Committee

Referred: Rules - Administrative(H)

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Lower · Passed

HCS Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 18 NOES: 0 PRESENT: 0

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Lower · Passed

HCS Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Feb 19, 2025

Committee

Referred: Elementary and Secondary Education(H)

lower

Feb 12, 2025

Introduced

Introduced and Read First Time (H)

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors