Saturday, April 5, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Nevada lawmakers made progress this week on legislation addressing education issues across the state.
A series of bills advancing to floor votes would provide rural school districts with much-needed building improvement funds, potentially incorporate federal education standards into state law and simplify eligibility requirements for high school athletes.
Assembly Bill 224
The Assembly Government Affairs Committee on Thursday recommended passage of legislation calling on the state to sell $100 million in bonds to help needy rural school districts replace or repair their school buildings.
The financial strain of maintaining school infrastructure disproportionately affects Nevada’s small counties, where limited tax structures collide with narrow economic and property tax bases. Without adequate revenue streams for construction and maintenance, rural communities are seeing their school buildings deteriorate, threatening both educational quality and community vitality.
AB 224 would allow grants for school districts in counties with fewer than 15,000 residents and that are at their tax caps and have schools in serious disrepair.
Assembly Bill 494
This bill would codify several federal education provisions into state law should they be repealed at the federal level.
The bill addresses the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (Title VI) and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act (Title IX) as they apply in schools.
IDEA secures broad special education requirements and protections. FERPA governs the privacy and availability of education records. HIPAA protects the privacy of personally identifiable health information. Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin. Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex.
These laws have been in place for decades.
“However, in an era of shifting federal policies, we cannot take these protections for granted,” said bill sponsor Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett, D-Las Vegas, at a Tuesday hearing of the Assembly Education Committee.
The bill comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order to begin the process of dissolving the U.S. Department of Education.
Torres-Fossett said the laws provide fairness, equity, stability and privacy.
“To take these protections away is not only cruel but it sends a message that leaders do not care about our students who will be the future of our state,” she said. “It is important for every elected leader to focus on protecting Nevada children and not carry the bag for a party leader in Washington, D.C.”
The committee voted Thursday to recommend passage of AB 494 by the full Assembly.
The bill lays out in skeleton form that the federal laws, if peeled back, would still apply in Nevada. It does not include any dollar figures.
A similar bill was heard in the Senate Education Committee last week. It only addressed codifying IDEA. A committee vote, if there will be one, has not been scheduled on the Senate bill.
Assembly Bill 184
This bill, which would standardize the transfer and hardship appeals processes for high school athletes, was passed out of the Assembly Education Committee on Tuesday.
Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association rules generally require students to sit out a year after transferring schools. The organization, a nonprofit designated by the state to govern high school sports, rules on appeals of denied waiver requests from students at all public and private schools.
Assembly Bill 184 calls for the NIAA to grant immediate eligibility to transfers who switched schools under certain circumstances, such as documented financial hardship; being the victim of verified bullying or assault that was likely to continue if the student didn’t transfer; if the student’s school closed; and if transferring is in the best interests of a student’s documented mental health or emotional condition. It also allows immediate eligibility if they transfer before 10th grade, or if they transfer to a school that uses a lottery system for admissions.
If the NIAA doesn’t act on a student’s waiver request within 30 days, the request would be considered granted. Also, students would be allowed to appeal a hearing officer’s denial with their district school board.
Critics of the appeals system characterized the NIAA’s existing procedures as subjective, inconsistent and adversarial. The NIAA denied the allegations and opposed the bill as unnecessary and largely duplicating existing regulations while reducing the organization’s ability to adapt.
The NIAA favors its own solution, which allows students one transfer during their high school years without the burden of the waiver and appeals process. The NIAA’s proposal, which is a change to regulatory code but not to a more rigid statute, is pending final approvals.
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