HB 557 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Revise education laws related to PIR days and meetings of teacher organizations

HB 557 would revise Montana education laws to limit how schools can use teacher professional development days. Specifically, it prohibits using "pupil-instruction-related days" (PIR days) for attending state teacher organization meetings, removes the requirement for school boards to close schools for these annual meetings, and changes attendance policies so teachers who skip these meetings may not be paid. The bill directly affects public school teachers, school districts, and the state's education funding structure by altering how professional development time is structured and compensated. These changes would have taken effect July 1, 2025, but the bill died in committee on May 22, 2025.
Bill status died 4 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Apr 2025
House Passage
Mar 2025
Senate Passage
Apr 2025
Governor
Introduced Feb 18, 2025 Last action May 22, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 4 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0557_2(5).pdf HB0557_2(6).pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill underwent minor formatting adjustments, including capitalizing the first letter of a 'WHEREAS' clause and removing a hyphen from the page number header. These changes are purely technical and do not alter the bill's substantive policy, scope, or legal requirements.
TECHNICAL

Capitalized the first letter of the word 'PUPIL' in the first 'WHEREAS' clause for consistency.

Removed a leading hyphen from the page number header text.

Floor votes · Senate Apr 18, 2025 · House Mar 6, 2025

How they voted

2624
Passed
Total votes 50
Apr 18, 2025
D Democratic18
18 Nay
100% Nay
R Republican32
26 Yea 6 Nay
81% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
35
Key actions
6
Committee
6
Apr 18, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (26-24)
senate
Apr 16, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Apr 15, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Mar 14, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Mar 6, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (56-43-1)
house
Mar 1, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) State Administration
lower
Mar 1, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) State Administration
lower
Feb 19, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) State Administration
lower
Feb 18, 2025
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Jodee Etchart
Jodee Etchart
RRepublican
MT
51