001Okay, happy February 13th everyone. Uh my name is Logan Nolandress. I'm WADA's director of strategic advocacy and with me today is Cynthia Tamayo, WASDA's legislative policy specialist. Um and we are here to share some legislative updates um with you on this Friday afternoon of week five of the 2026 legislative session. Um, before we get started, just want to remind folks that if you have questions for Cynthia at any time during our presentation today to please use the Q&A box and we'll be happy to either address those live um or address those in writing. Um, and if we get questions that we don't have the answers to in this moment, um, we'll be happy to get back to you. All right. Um you are pretty used to this agenda um for now um but just wanted
002to orient you um to how we're going to spend our time today. Um we want to share a little bit about um the leadership Wazda cohort that we got to spend time with on campus um this morning. We'll um look at weeks four and five in review, give you some updates on what's been happening um around here at the cap. um share what we know about week six, remind you of what resources we have to support you and close us out. Um so with that um just want to um let you all know and share that we had a lovely morning this morning um with the 2026 leadership WADDA class. Um this weekend is uh their first sort of programming together. As a reminder, um, Leadership Wazda is a program offered by our organization, um,
003that's essentially a leadership development training program for school directors. And the 2026 cohort was with us. Uh, Cynthia and I hosted them at the capital this morning um, alongside our leadership development staff team. And during that time, um, we got to talk through sort of some advocacy training. Um, we got to talk with some legislators face to face. Um, our legislators are very busy um on the floor right now, but we were able to pull um Representative April Berg, who's a former school director um active member, was legislative committee member um out to come and talk to folks um this morning, which was lovely. Um Cynthia and I took them on a tour of Capitol campus. Um, and during that time, we sort of ran into Lieutenant Governor Denny Hec um, who recognized us right
004away and spent about 15 minutes um, just chatting it up with members um, of the cohort asking some questions u, letting them ask him some questions. That was lovely. And then we all just spent some time um, over in the House gallery watching floor debate um, as that is what legislators are very busy doing um, during this time of the session. And um right before we got up to head out cuz uh they had to get going and so did we um the legislature was debating the isolation and restraint um bill on the house floor. So um anyway, just want to share that we had a lovely morning um with that crew and uh we'll share some pictures um of our time together in in session the written update later today. All right. So, as
005we think about weeks four and five um in review, um just want to um dive in and let you know that we've had a couple of cuto off dates um since we've last been together. And as a reminder, the cutoff dates that we're about to talk about are self-imposed by the legislature and they each mean something a little bit different. So, we'll dive into each one. Um on February 4th during week four of session um we experienced the policy committee cut off and um what that meant is that any bill that did not make its way through its original policy committee um was considered no longer moving. Um during week five on February 9th um we had a similar cutoff. However, this was for fiscal committees. So, um, essentially any bill that didn't make its
006way through its fiscal committee, thinking about the appropriations committee, the capital budget committee, the Ways and Means Committee in the Senate, um, there was an additional deadline by which um, a large number of bills sort of uh, were labeled inactive at that time. Um, what that means for our bill watch list at WASDA is that the number of bills that we are tracking um, has significantly decreased since we've last been together. Um I believe our bill watch had over a hundred bills on it the last time we had in session live and as of now we are down to 64 um bills on our bill watch list. Um the other thing I would just note for you all about cutoff dates is that any bill that is um subject to um the budget or tied
007to the budget in any kind of way um we refer to those as necessary to implement the budget or NTIB. Um you might hear us reference that acronym. um any bill that might have that designation on it is not subject to any particular cut off. So um this is what we know as of right now. Um in terms of bills that um have made their way through, we have 64 that we're continuing to monitor. Um wanted to share a couple of key bills um that are still sort of in action and have momentum um that we want to put on your radar. These are the ones we are most closely um watching and engaging with at this time. Um the first is House Bill 2257 and the Senate companion Senate Bill 6113. Um these bills
008are the ones that um would essentially clean up and address unintended consequences of last year's Senate Bill 5814. Um particularly for schools and public education. Um that would be the um sales tax on temporary services as well as live presentations. um over the course of week five um each of these bills had an amendment that included a full K through 12 um exemption from the taxes um that have been added on. Um so we are continuing to watch and engage in those bills. Um we anticipate both of those um to come to the House and Senate floor um for review and debate in the coming days. Right now, both of those bills are sitting in the rules committees um for the respective House and Senate bills. Um additionally, House Bill 1795, that is the bill
009um on the topic of isolation and restraint. Um that bill um actually is on the House floor um likely right now. Um it was as we were walking out of the House chambers just about 15 minutes ago. Um there are a number of amendments being proposed to that bill um that are being debated right now that will possibly be added to the bill. Um we'll be continuing to watch that one and engage with it as it moves over to the Senate. Um but want to let you know that that bill um is continuing to move. Um additionally, there are two sort of commission and workg groupoup bills that we've talked about in this space in the past. Um one is House Bill 2636. Um that is the bill that would create uh a performance funding
010and operations review commission for K through2 education. Um that would essentially be taking a look at the 28A RCW um and making recommendations to JARK. Um that is the joint legislative audit and review committee uh commission, excuse me. It's basically the legislaturator's independent research arm that's nonpartisan um to do some research and reporting as to um essentially how we can review and clean up the 28A RCW. Um House Bill 2661 creates a public records modernization workg group um to uh essentially address sort of all of the different things um that schools and others are having to navigate as it relates to public records requests. Um this work group um and this conversation in this bill is much larger than just education. Um so this involves multiple sectors and for the case of this work group
011um there is one sort of identified representative to represent the K- through2 education perspective and conversation. Um and that member as the bill currently sits um would be a member identified by WASA um the school administrators association. Um, finally want to flag for you Senate Bill 6247. Um, that is the school district financial management um, bill by Senator Doer. Um, we are watching and engaging that one in particular because of the school board um, training requirements that are included there. Um, that would um, this bill passed off the Senate floor uh, yesterday evening. Um, and this bill, um, as you've heard us say previously, um, would create a one-time training requirement for school directors within their first two years of, um, elected service um, to take funding and finance training um, through WASDA. Um, that
012training at this time would be funded by the state um, and therefore offered to school directors at no cost. So those are some of the key bills um that we are continuing to track and engage with. Um that is not 64 bills. Um so there are more um but just wanted to run through a couple of highlights with you today. Um in terms of sort of the big picture where we're at with our WASDA priorities. There were a couple of bills um that we have been really working hard on including the MSOC funding bill as well as the transportation safety net bill. Um both of those bills did not make it past um their uh respective fiscal cuto offs um last week. Um so neither of those bills is continuing to move at this time.
013Um however, we are still continuing to talk with legislators about the importance of these issues. Um we talked earlier about the sales tax exemption bill. Um that bill is still continuing to move. We spoke about that. Um and then finally, our work to remove unfunded mandates from bills um is definitely still ongoing. Um WA was and WBO sent a letter to legislative leaders earlier this week. Um that'll be linked uh in our in session written publication later today um essentially communicating to leadership that uh a very similar message that we've been communicating for the entirety of session about um no new school year requirements, especially those that are unfunded. Um, we added additional context this time to remind the legislature that, you know, that they are not moving the MSOC bill at this point in
014time. They're not funding the transportation safety net bill at this time. Um, just sort of that much more justification and reason for the legislature to press pause um on any bills that contain new school year requirements, especially those that are unfunded. So, wanted to share those updates with you as well. As we look ahead at week six, um a couple of things that we would pull out for you is um that there will be no committee hearings ahead of Tuesday. Um so February 17th um that would be Tuesday. Um is the floor action house of origin deadline. So, what that means is that the legislature will be um in session um very late tonight um tomorrow, possibly Sunday, all of Monday, uh all of Tuesday um debating bills as full House and Senate uh respective
015bodies. um they'll be in sort of that final crunch time um because February 17th at 5:00 pm is the deadline by which all bills that are going to continue to move need to be um discussed on their respective house or senate floor as in their full body discussion and then passed um by that time. Um next week there will be policy committee hearings um on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. Um however, many of those schedules have not yet been released. Um so we do not have any information at this time um as of which bills will be heard in which areas. Um but given that bills will be sort of passed through their house of origin or chamber of origin. What that means is that when we tap back into policy committees next week, the
016house will be engaging senate bills and the senate will be engaging house bills. Um, so bills will be in what we refer to as their opposite chamber to essentially repeat the same process um that they've been going through um over the last four to five weeks um in their original chamber. Additionally, next week um for anyone who registered for the legislative conference and attended that earlier this January um we'll be working with WASA and WASBO to host our midsession webinar. Um that webinar will be on February 17th at noon. Um and again is available for all legislative conference registrants. Um you should have received a Zoom related email link um generated from our colleagues at WASA um either yesterday or the day before um reminding you of that event and um putting that Zoom link
017back at the top of your inbox. Um, if you have not received such an email, um, and you'd like to participate in the webinar, please don't hesitate to reach out to Cynthia and I will be happy to help you get that link. Um, but February 17th at noon will be that webinar um, available for any legislative conference registrants. Finally, as we think about week six, um we are, as you have heard us say, continuing to talk and learn with legislators about what their plans might be for their respective House and Senate, uh proposed operating budgets. Um and we are sort of going to be in final preparation mode for budget release. Um that could happen in week six, um or possibly week seven. Um the most important thing for you to know on that front
018right now is that we'll be waiting for sort of one final um revenue forecast update that'll be coming out during week six. Um after that time um legislators will sort of move into their final phase of budget preparation. The other thing that's important to know about this stage of budgets is um you might remember at the beginning of session um the original budgets that we've seen so far have been governor proposed operating budgets. And what that meant for us is that the governor's proposed operating budget was heard in both the House and the Senate. um meaning our testimony in both committees, the House Appropriations Committee, the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and the House Capital Budget Committee was essentially all the same. Um because both chambers had received the same budget proposal um being one
019proposal coming from the governor's office. At this point in time, um as the legislature prepares to release their budgets, um there will be different and separate proposals. Um, for example, the House will release its own budget proposal and the Senate will release its own budget proposal, each of which will have similarities and differences. Um, so we will have multiple budgets um to be uh taking look at, reviewing um and uh giving testimony on over the next couple of weeks. And we anticipate those budgets um either at the very tail end of week six um or more likely during week seven. But we'll be preparing for those releases next week. Um, as I sort of stated earlier, um, the House and Senate will be, um, on the floor, um, debating bills, um, for many hours, um,
020between now and Tuesday's deadline called the House of Origin cutoff. Um last night um the house ended um after 10 pm. Um we they referred to that as a late night and the rumor around campus is that tonight will be a late late night. Um so the House and Senate will definitely be um doing their work on the floor um in their full bodies um to be passing bills. Um we will be monitoring and engaging in that work um basically every day between now and Tuesday um to sort of make sure that the bills that are moving are moving in the best way possible um or at least that we're communicating our perspectives on that. Um, and we'll continue to keep you apprised of which bills are moving, um, which ones are not moving, and
021where and when we need your direct advocacy, um, to, um, either make sure that a bill continues to move, um, or, um, help us to make sure that bills do not continue to move. Um, we will also keep you apprised um, over the weekend um, as we continue to learn about which bills will be heard in which policy committees next week. Um, as of right now, the committee hearings have been scheduled. Um, and the agendas say bills TBD, and that's usual. Um, that's typical. Um, those agendas will be filled in um, as soon as more bills get passed, um, off their respective House and Senate floors. All right. And before we wrap up today, um, I'll just remind you if you have any questions for us to please drop those in the Q&A box. We
022haven't seen any come in so far. um but we'll be happy to answer them as you submit them. And uh want to take this time to remind you that we have a number of resources that we hope you will use um to engage um in the legislative process. Um you've heard me reference our bill watch. Um our bill watch list has been updated to essentially remove any of the bills that have not made their way through their uh respective deadlines to date. Um so that number of 64 um is shown on our bill watch as of now. Um we have our legislative roster. Um that's a document that you can use to email legislators. Um at the bottom of that Excel sheet um there are tabs for many of the most relevant education uh budget
023and policy committees for your reference. So happy to have you grab those. um as well as links on how to sign in for testimony um legislative cutoff calendars um and the legislative action planning tool um that we've gone through before from WASA WASDA and WASBO. Um also just a reminder that TVW does live stream all of the programming that happens here at the legislature. Um that programming being floor debate, um committee time, etc. Um, so you're always able and welcome to um watch from afar from wherever you might be across the state um so that you're engaged in sort of civically um seeing what your legislators are doing day in and day out over here in Olympia. Okay. Um I see a question. Um thank you Jim. Jim Kakowski is asking um just any updates
024on what might happen with TTK that's transitioned to kindergarten this session. Um Jim, we aren't exactly sure um what's going to happen there at this point in time. Um we do know that that is um obviously a budget conversation. And what I would sort of say that I think that depends on right now is um what solutions might be viable um or proposals might be viable, if you will, from our legislators as it relates to revenue. Um we have heard um and seen references to um what Democrats are calling the millionaires tax. Um but we also know that that is not something that um would fill any sort of immediate budget hole. That's sort of a down the line um proposal. So um Jim, I think in terms of um what cuts, if any, uh
025or how much cuts to TTK will be included in the budget will be dependent on revenue conversations and what are thinking about in terms of any short-term revenue options. Um, all of which uh are details that we have not uh not heard about to date. Um, I do imagine we'll hear more and learn more about that during week six. Um, so hoping that we'll have a little bit more to share on that when we see you next week. Thank you for the question. Okay. Um, I don't see any others at this time. Um, Cynthia, is there anything that I missed um or that you want to jump in to sort of share um before we wrap today? >> Yeah. Um, I think one thing that I know was mentioned earlier is you'll see on our
026um bill tracker that we have 64 bills and some of those may be subject to come back, also known as the zombie bills. Um, but we'll keep you posted if a bill does come back. And usually if a bill does, it's because it's from the speaker of the house or the Senate majority leader. Um, but I just want to wanted to give you all a heads up that we dropped from 141 bills to 64 and if any return, um, we will make sure to give you an update. >> Thank you, Cynthia. Um with that, um we will wrap for the purposes of week five, February 13th. Um please check out in session our written publication that'll be coming out this afternoon. Um and with that, we will see you um back here on Zoom next
027Friday, February 20th. Uh we will be post uh House of Origin cutoff um by that time. So um we will have many more details um on some other bills. Thank you. We'll see you next week.