Wyoming lawmakers are taking a closer look at how schools handle discipline, with several draft bills on the table after a two-day Joint Education Committee meeting in Casper. The goal: give teachers more backing in the classroom while avoiding policies that could spark legal headaches, Gillette News Record reports.
One of the biggest debates centered on draft bill 26LSO-0088, which would let all school employees — not just teachers and administrators — discipline students. That raised alarms. Sheridan County Superintendent Jeff Jones told lawmakers he worried the language could open schools to lawsuits. Instead, he suggested employees should have the authority to enforce school rules but not hand out suspensions or punishments. Lawmakers agreed to rework the draft to reflect his concerns.
The same bill also says a student removed from class can’t be sent back without the teacher’s permission. It would further require administrators to support teachers’ disciplinary decisions — a sticking point in classrooms nationwide.
Lawmakers also kicked around the idea of a “Teacher Bill of Rights” (draft 26LSO-0091). Think of it as a guarantee that teachers and paraprofessionals have safe working conditions, professional respect, and backing from their administrators.
But not everyone’s convinced. Jones warned the 26-page draft could be overkill, saying:
“I get concerned that I’m going to spend February to August next year trying to stay out of jail with the policies we have to create.”
Another measure, 26LSO-0089, would require the state superintendent to draft model discipline policies to guide school districts. But state education leaders signaled they’d rather roll those ideas into the first draft bill instead of creating a separate law.
Meanwhile, a fourth proposal — 26LSO-0090, which would have funded training and professional development for teachers around student success — was scrapped altogether.
Lawmakers voted to keep working on the surviving drafts, especially 26LSO-0088, with amendments coming from the Wyoming Department of Education before the next committee meeting.
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