HB 169 Utah House · 2025 General Session

State Board of Education Amendments

HB 169 requires Utah's State Board of Education to establish a formal code of ethics for its members, directly affecting all board members. Key provisions include mandating ethics training, creating a process for filing and reviewing complaints (with privacy protections), setting disciplinary options, and prohibiting complaints filed before elections. The board must annually report to the Education Interim Committee on ethics compliance, complaint data, and effectiveness, with recommendations for potential future changes. This bill makes no new funding commitments and focuses solely on procedural ethics standards for the board.

Bill status passed 3 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

Governor

Introduced Jan 21, 2025 Last action Mar 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Substitute #1 → Substitute #2 · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill was revised to simplify the ethics framework by removing the independent review commission and replacing it with a requirement that the State Board of Education establish ethics standards in its own bylaws. The new version adds reporting requirements to the Education Interim Committee and expands privacy protections for ethics complaint records by amending the state's public records law.

Scope change

The bill's scope shifted from creating a separate independent review commission to having the State Board of Education manage ethics oversight internally through its own bylaws and policies.

ENFORCEMENT

Removed the independent review commission that would have investigated ethics complaints and made recommendations to the board.

REQUIREMENT

Added requirement for the State Board to report to the Education Interim Committee on ethics standards, complaint statistics, and recommendations for statutory changes.

Changed ethics standards from being established by administrative rule to being established within the board's bylaws and policies.

Added prohibition on filing ethics complaints before primary or general elections.

DEFINITION

Amended the public records law to explicitly include ethics complaint records as private records, protecting their confidentiality.

TIMELINE

Removed specific deadlines for seeking input from legislative committees and replaced with a requirement to report to the Education Interim Committee by October 2025.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 4, 2025

Upper · Passed

Senate/ committee report favorable

upper

Mar 3, 2025

Upper · Passed

Senate Comm - Favorable Recommendation

upper

Feb 27, 2025

Committee

Senate/ to standing committee

upper

Feb 26, 2025

Introduced

Senate/ 1st reading (Introduced)

upper

Feb 25, 2025

Upper · Passed

House/ passed 3rd reading

upper

Feb 20, 2025

Lower · Passed

House Comm - Favorable Recommendation

lower

Feb 14, 2025

Committee

House/ to standing committee

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Introduced

House/ 1st reading (Introduced)

lower

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor