New standards coming in 2025 for parental involvement, menstrual products, computer science, dress codes and school funding.
Nebraska Examiner Press Release
BY: ZACH WENDLING
LINCOLN — A new state law could lead to greater efficiency in setting rules, regulations, and safety standards for some of Nebraska’s smallest school districts.
Nebraska Education Commissioner Brian Maher reclassified or shifted roughly 80% of the state’s 245 school districts to new, smaller levels at the beginning of the year.
(Heartland’s School District was previously classified as a Class III. It is now classified as Class II, which means the district has between 1,500 and 4,999 inhabitants.) Read below how this may affect the Heartland School District.
State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, the sponsor of Legislative Bill 1329 from 2024, said his legislation could lead to more efficiency in creating laws or regulations that include the districts with fewer than 5,000 total residents.
“I’m just trying to make a more efficient way of addressing the needs of different sized districts and different demographics,” Murman told the Nebraska Examiner.
Firearms and school safety
One of the immediate effects of the law gives school boards of smaller districts the option to authorize select school security personnel to carry firearms on school grounds.
That change, also included in LB 1329, applied to private schools beginning last July.
State Sen. Tom Brewer of north-central Nebraska introduced the measure last year for school districts of all sizes before working with Murman and other senators on a narrower approach.
Brewer had said smaller school districts are more often farther away from emergency services in crises, such as in a school shooting, when every second matters. He said those districts usually don’t employ an armed school resource officer as many larger districts do.
Reclassification of Nebraska school districts — Jan. 1, 2025
The State Board of Education in December adopted a model policy regarding the firearms law created in consultation with the Nebraska State Patrol.
It suggests general guidelines for how a district can authorize who would be allowed to carry firearms, including proper storage and training and evaluation requirements.
In December, the Education Department distributed $10 million to more than 120 public school districts and 43 private schools to improve school safety and security infrastructure as part of a different law from State Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont.
Efficiency of state requirements
Murman led LB 1329 as chair of the Education Committee and said during a 2024 hearing that district size can impact how new laws, rules or regulations are implemented.
For example, pre-K-12 enrollment in the current school year ranged from McPherson County Schools with 60 students to the Omaha Public Schools with more than 52,000 students, according to most recent Education Department tallies.
Prior to Jan. 1, nearly every public school district was a Class III district, meaning the districts had up to 200,000 inhabitants, with the exception of the larger districts of Lincoln Public Schools (Class IV) and Omaha Public Schools (Class V), which has a separate public retirement system.
Of 243 districts that had been in Class III, 193 were reclassified as Class I (up to 1,500 residents) or Class II (up to 5,000 residents).
Murman said his aim was in part to better tailor regulatory requirements on some of the state’s smallest school districts.
“It’s just not logical to tell a district that is about 2% of the size of the other district that all of your staff need to complete this training program,” Murman said as an example at his 2024 hearing.
The new classifications could potentially factor into ongoing discussions to reduce unfunded or underfunded mandates on K-12 schools as goals to reduce local reliance on property taxes.
Murman said he’s not looking to consolidate or change school district boundaries, just to ensure the system makes a little more sense.
“If we’re better equipped to be able to classify schools, we will be better equipped to make rules that fit each district’s needs, rather than a nearly one-size-fits-all approach,” Murman said.
Other 2025 laws, so far
Here’s a breakdown of some other education-related laws set to take effect later in 2025:
- Modernized parental involvement policies — School districts must update policies regarding how parents and guardians can access certain school materials or be involved in their children’s education by July 1. This includes access to testing information and curriculum and explaining how a child could be excused from specific instruction or activities. (LB 71 of 2024, from State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue).
- Dress code protections — K-12 school boards must adopt written student dress codes and grooming policies by July 1. The push came after a school secretary cut two Lakota girls’ hair in the spring of 2020 without parental consent. The State Board of Education passed a model policy in August 2024 (included in LB 298 of 2023, from State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha).
- Tribal regalia protections — Indigenous students are explicitly protected in wearing tribal regalia in public K-12 schools and postsecondary education institutions after July 1 (included in LB 43 of 2024, from Brewer, a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe). State Sen. Terrell McKinney of North Omaha, right, talks with State Sen.-elect Victor Rountree of Bellevue at a legislative retreat in Kearney on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
- Computer science and technology education — Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, school districts must offer computer science and technology courses in elementary, middle and high schools. By the 2027-28 school year, students must have at least five high school credit hours to graduate (LB 1112 of 2022, by McKinney; amended by LB 705 of 2023, by Walz).
- Free menstrual products — A pilot program for schools to distribute free menstrual products in bathrooms, including tampons and pads, beginning in the 2025-26 school year. Priority goes to school districts classified as “needs improvement” or in which more than 40% or more of students are poverty students. The program is subject to available funds, up to $250,0000 (included in LB 1284 of 2024, from State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln).
- Increased financial support for schools — Beginning in 2023, the Legislature gave public school districts roughly $1,500 per student as new “foundation aid.” Another bucket of funds, “equalization aid,” is calculated from a district’s needs minus resources. In the next school year, the state’s calculation of a district’s resources will include 60% of foundation aid, rather than 100%, increasing the “needs” side of the equalization aid formula (LB 583 of 2023, from Sanders).
The Legislature returns Wednesday. Legislative proposals can be introduced in the first 10 days.
