The 2024 legislative session closed last night with some wins for public education, but many of teachers’ biggest priorities are left unaddressed.
“Members did an amazing job of sharing their stories with legislators this session—you got out there and made sure lawmakers heard what is really going on in classrooms today,” says CEA President Kate Dias. “When legislators listened, we got a number of important issues passed. Unfortunately, most lawmakers were not willing to take on legislation that required spending state funds this year, meaning that many or our biggest asks went unanswered.”
Some of the most significant wins for educators include mandated reporter reform and certification changes.
“Changes to mandated reporting mean that teachers will no longer be driven to report to DCF out of fear for their livelihoods but instead will be able to focus on the merits of situations before them,” says Dias. In recent years, 96% of DCF-related cases were unsubstantiated, indicating that mandated reporters were overreporting, which harms school-family relationships and overwhelms DCF.
When a teacher changes jobs and moves to a new district, the improvements to mandated reporting no longer require the district where the teacher was previously employed to report if the teacher has been the subject of a DCF investigation when the case was unsubstantiated.
“When a teacher is found to be innocent, they shouldn’t have the weight of an investigation hanging over their head for the rest of their career,” Dias says.
Changes to teacher certification streamline the process, provide more certification reciprocity flexibility, and simpler certification renewals. The legislation also creates a certification standards board to reform the certification regulations and to address certification policies on an ongoing basis.
Other measures passed that will benefit public schools include the following.
- Improved school air qualify — Provides additional funding for air filtration projects and a commitment to keep the IAQ Working Group in place until 2030
- Review of graduation requirements — Creates a formal state workgroup of educators, including CEA, to address high school graduation requirements
- Notification of problematic student behavior — Requires schools to notify parents or guardians within 24 hours when a student causes serious disruption, self-harms, or harms others
- Formation of an Assessment and Grading Work Group — Led by educators, the group will lead the discussion on what is important when assessing student success and review the state’s strategy of relying on standardized tests to determine school quality
- Protected kindergarten start age — Successfully kept the raised kindergarten start age and ensured there are increased pre-k opportunities for families
- Maintained promised school funding — Fought off the governor’s plan to cut $60 million in education funding
- Additional funding for retired teachers’ healthcare — Adds $550k to the Teachers’ Retirement Board Health Care Fund
- Reduced the impact of edTPA on preservice teachers — Educator preparation programs can no longer use the exam as an assessment of their programing or as a program completion requirement
- Successfully opposed voucher tax credit — Stopped a bill establishing a school voucher program
“While the legislature took a number of small steps to improve the teaching profession this session, there was no bold action to address the significant problems facing public education,” says Dias. “With a growing state surplus, this was the perfect time to provide the funding and supports needed that would allow our education system and students to thrive. Instead, the lack of action will continue to add to the dismantling of our public education system, promote dissatisfaction, and further drive teachers out of the profession they love.”
Dias adds, “The inaction will be recorded in CEA’s Legislative Report Card and will be remembered by teachers in the voting booth come Election Day.”
