The Washington State Senate on Friday approved Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1296, one of this session’s most controversial and divisive pieces of legislation, on a 30-19 party-line vote.
Majority party Democrats contend the bill will provide safeguards for K-12 students. Minority Republicans worry it could penalize schools and infringe on parental rights by undermining Initiative 2081, which lawmakers passed last year.
I-2081 primarily focuses on providing parents with increased access to their child's school records, the right to review educational materials, and the ability to opt their child out of certain activities and instruction.
Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, said she introduced HB 1296 to help ensure that every student feels comfortable and safe at school in a supportive environment.
“My bill is student-centered; it starts with what students need to have conditions to where they feel they can belong and see themselves in their school and they are welcomed, so their basic needs are met,” she told a Senate Early Learning Committee during a March public hearing on the bill.
Ahead of the vote, Republicans offered several amendments to the bill. All were rejected.
Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, proposed an amendment removing language in the bill that would allow the withholding of state funds from schools.
“This amendment removes the ability to withhold the 20% funding for schools that are willfully noncompliant,” he said. “I find it very ironic that in a bill that's designed to protect students and student rights, that you would withhold funding that's necessary to keep students from being harmed.”
Sen. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, spoke in support of Gildon’s amendment.
“I find it ironic that this bill deals with intimidation and bullying, and yet I feel like we are intimidating and bullying in this bill,” Harris noted.
The bill calls for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop a process for investigating complaints from students or parents if schools are out of compliance with state laws. OSPI would take a series of increasingly consequential actions against districts that could escalate to the point of withholding state funding.
Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Wooley spoke in support of an amendment to remove an emergency clause on the bill that would have it take effect immediately upon Gov. Bob Ferguson’s signing the bill into law.
“This removes the right of the people to petition us for referendum,” he said. “There’s nothing more important to parents than how their children are being treated in schools. I would remind the body this came to us as an initiative of the people and not as a whisper, but a roar. I think we owe the voters of this state the respect to check our work.”
Just ahead of final passage, Sen. Liz Lovelett, D-Anacortes, urged support for the bill.
“God created little boys and little girls and little children that don’t feel like they are a boy or a girl, and those kids need just as much protection in our public schools as anyone else, and in fact, they need more because those are the kids that get bullied and beat up,” she explained. “Those are the kids who need a bathroom where they feel safe. When they don’t have parents in their world who are willing to accept them, they need other trusted adults to be able to fill that gap.”
School officials facilitating discussions with students about gender-related issues without parental knowledge or consent were cited by many opponents during public hearings over another bill addressing parental rights, Senate Bill 5181.
“This is dead wrong for our children if we want to get them the education they need, and they deserve to be successful in life,” Minority Leader Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, said ahead of the final passage of ESHB 1296.
Because the Senate amended the bill, it must be resubmitted to the House for concurrence before it can reach the governor’s desk.
Let's Go Washington, the organization behind I-2081, has filed two new initiatives that aim to repeal this year's proposed changes. If those initiatives get enough signatures by a July deadline, they will go to voters in November.
“I filed the repeal for 5181, and suddenly they pulled 1296 back out,” Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Haywood told The Center Square last month. “So, I said, ‘Alright, if you’re going to go that route and play games, it’s no skin off my back; we’ll just file another initiative.’”
