HB 1466: Schools; accreditation standards; deficiencies; permitting school districts to request a hearing on accreditation recommendations; effective date; emergency. - Oklahoma

Floor (House) → Floor (Senate) · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended to clarify its title and add the Senate sponsors to the authorship list. The core policy content regarding school accreditation standards, counselor requirements, and enforcement procedures remains substantially unchanged, though some text was reorganized and minor wording adjustments were made for clarity.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on school accreditation standards, counselor staffing requirements, and accreditation enforcement procedures for public schools in Oklahoma.

TECHNICAL

Header information was updated to reflect the Senate Floor Version with the date April 22, 2025, and added Senate sponsors McCane and Waldron to the authorship list.

Minor text reorganization and wording adjustments were made throughout the document, including changes to section numbering and some phrasing for clarity.

The act title was slightly modified to better reflect the Senate Floor Version format while maintaining the same substantive content regarding accreditation standards, counselor requirements, and enforcement procedures.

House Committee Substitute → Floor (House) · 2 edits

MINOR

The bill text was reformatted from a House Committee Substitute version to a Floor version, with minor text adjustments and the addition of a Senate co-sponsor. The substantive policy content regarding school accreditation standards remains unchanged.

TECHNICAL

Header and title page formatting was updated to reflect Floor version status with Senate co-sponsor added.

Minor text adjustments and line breaks were made throughout the document during the formatting conversion.

Proposed Policy Committee Substitute 1 → House Committee Substitute · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was revised from a Proposed Policy Committee Substitute to a House Committee Substitute, which significantly restructured the accreditation standards and hearing procedures for Oklahoma public schools. The House version clarifies the Department of Education's role in investigating complaints, establishes specific timelines for hearings, and adds provisions for assisting schools with nontraditional instruction methods.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on public school accreditation standards, but the procedural requirements for hearings and the Department's enforcement powers were clarified and modified.

REQUIREMENT

Changed the hearing request deadline from ten working days of receipt to ten working days of notice, with clearer language about when the right to a hearing is waived.

Added explicit provision that the State Board must provide assistance to districts considering nontraditional instruction methods and cooperative arrangements.

ENFORCEMENT

Clarified the Department's authority to investigate complaints about failure to provide educational services or comply with accreditation standards within 30 days.

DEFINITION

Expanded accreditation standards to include educational services provided in partial hospitalization, day treatment, day hospital, residential treatment, and emergency shelter programs for children ages 3-21.

MODIFIED

Removed formatting artifacts and committee amendment language while retaining the substantive policy provisions.

Proposed Committee Substitute (full committee) 1 → Proposed Policy Committee Substitute 1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended from a 'Proposed Oversight' version to a 'Proposed Policy' version, changing the committee designation and date. The substantive content of the bill regarding school accreditation standards, hearing procedures, and enforcement mechanisms remains largely the same, with only minor formatting and numbering adjustments.

TECHNICAL

Changed committee designation from 'Proposed Oversight Committee Substitute' to 'Proposed Policy Committee Substitute'

Updated bill date from February 17, 2025 to February 5, 2025

Minor formatting and numbering adjustments throughout the document, including line reorganization and page number updates

Enrolled (final version) → Proposed Committee Substitute (full committee) 1 · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill text was completely replaced with a committee substitute version that maintains the same substantive policy provisions as the enrolled version. No meaningful policy changes were made to the accreditation standards, hearing procedures, or enforcement mechanisms. The changes are primarily formatting and markup differences between the final enrolled version and the committee substitute version.

TECHNICAL

The entire bill text was replaced with a committee substitute version that contains identical substantive policy language to the enrolled version, with only formatting and markup differences.

Engrossed → Enrolled (final version) · 4 edits · May 12, 2025

MODERATE

The bill was finalized from its engrossed version to the enrolled version with minor formatting and stylistic improvements. The substantive policy content regarding school accreditation standards, counselor requirements, hearing procedures, and program monitoring remains unchanged.

TECHNICAL

Removed redundant text such as '1...' markers and page headers that were present in the engrossed version but not needed in the final enrolled version.

Fixed a typo where 'Department State Department' was corrected to 'Department' in the enrolled version.

Removed the '1...' numbering markers that were used in the engrossed version to indicate text insertions and deletions during the legislative process.

Adjusted bill sponsor attribution to include additional House sponsors (McCane and Waldron) in the enrolled version.

Introduced → Engrossed · 6 edits · May 8, 2025

MODERATE

This bill was amended to strengthen school accreditation protections by adding a requirement that schools be given a hearing opportunity before their accreditation status can be downgraded from warning to probation or non-accredited. The changes also clarify the roles of the State Board of Education and State Department of Education in the accreditation process, including complaint investigation timelines and reporting requirements. Additionally, the bill now explicitly requires standards for school counselors to be included in accreditation standards.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on school accreditation standards, but the enforcement mechanisms have been modified to provide greater procedural protections for school districts facing accreditation challenges.

REQUIREMENT

Added prohibition on changing accreditation status from warning to probation or non-accredited without first giving the school district an opportunity to request a hearing.

Modified accreditation standards to explicitly require inclusion of standards for school counselors, including information on counselor duties, student ratios, and staffing levels.

Removed exemption from accreditation penalties for failing to meet media materials, equipment, program expenditure, and media personnel standards.

ENFORCEMENT

Added requirement for the State Department of Education to investigate complaints about failure to provide educational services or comply with accreditation standards within 30 days.

Added requirement that the State Board of Education send notice of right to a hearing within 10 working days of receiving accreditation recommendations.

TIMELINE

Modified reporting timeline for accreditation deficiencies to require State Department of Education to report recommendations to the State Board of Education within 90 days.

Schools; accreditation standards; deficiencies; permitting school districts to request a hearing on accreditation recommendations; effective date; emergency.

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