Capital High School

 

2025 Legislative Session Priorities

 

2025 Legislative Session Bills/Resolutions to watch (Updated May 2, 2025)

 

• Complete this Google Form to be added to OSD's 2025 Legislative Action Network (LAN) list

• View our 2025 Legislative Session Priorities Poster (PDF)

• The "Big Three": Special Education Funding, Materials Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC) Funding and Transportation for Students

 

The Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Olympia School District No. 111, Thurston County, Washington (the “District”) supports legislative action at the state level as follows:

 

Materials, Supplies, and Operating Costs

The district has an obligation to deliver relevant and engaging learning experiences for our students. We ask the legislature to amply and sustainably fund basic operating costs, freeing up other funds to pay for curriculum and classroom supplies. Insurance along with utilities must be paid for before a district can explore learning options.

 

• The 2024-25 insurance premium increased 20 percent or $443,000. Utilities increased 8 percent last year, over $255,000.

• A $522 per student increase in MSOC is needed to cover Olympia non-staffing costs. The current general ed rate funded by the state in 2024-25 is $1,533 and should increase to $2,055 per student.

 

Special Education Support

The Legislature has made significant investments in Special Education over the last several years, making progress in our dependence on the levy for special ed costs. A next significant step will be to increase the per-pupil multiplier.

 

• In 2023-24, Olympia diverted more than $6.3 million from other programs to support the special ed program.

• To fill the gap in funding, both per pupil multipliers would need to be 1.5.

• Current multipliers are 1.12 for students spending at least 80 percent of their day in general education settings. And 1.06 for students spending less than 80 percent of their day in general education.

 

Transparent and Predictable Transportation Funding

Pupil transportation is a key part of the state’s program of basic education. We ask the legislature to address the shortcomings within the current system or consider alternate funding models. As designed, the STARS formula does not generate adequate funds for districts and is neither transparent, nor predictable.

 

Continued Priorities

The board continues to support the following initiatives:

 

• Raise school levy lids and restore local effort assistance to realize the full purchasing power of state investments made over the last five years.

• Take early action on Transition to Kindergarten, to ensure state funding for the number of students being served by the program.

• Address inequities among school districts created by regionalized salary model.

• Continue implementation of the state’s Staffing Enrichment Workgroup’s recommendations.

• Acknowledge the importance of substitutes for positions beyond teachers and align funding with the need for one day per month.

• Include African American studies and Native American studies as a required part of curriculum.

• Address the impact that social media and continuous access to cell phones have on student mental health.

• Expand access to full-day early learning programs.

• Improve student success in running-start by increasing the school district share of funding to support the necessary wrap around services in the home high school.

• Seek new, dedicated revenue sources for expanded education programs.

 

ADOPTED by the Board of Directors of Olympia School District No. 111, Thurston County, Washington, at a regular open public meeting thereof, of which due notice was given as required by law, held this 24th day of October 2024, the following Directors being present and voting in favor of the resolution. OLYMPIA SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 111, THURSTON COUNTY, WASHINGTON.

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2025 Legislative Session Bills/Resolutions to watch

 

Updated May 2, 2025

 

House Bill No.	Senate Bill No.	Name	Current Status	Sponsor	What it Does	Potential New Revenue (Unknown New Expenditures)
--	5192	Concerning school district materials, supplies, and operating costs.	Passed Legislature	Nobles, Wellman, Chapman, Cortes, Dhingra, Hasegawa, Krishnadasan, Pedersen, Slatter, Stanford, Trudeau, Wilson, C.	The state is required to increase funding for materials, supplies, and operating costs by the inflation each year. The current funding is $1,533 per student FTE and would increase to $1,579 with inflation. SB 5192 increases the per pupil rate to $1,614 (approximately $81 total or $35 for the maintenance level). Additional reporting is required.	$835,000
	5253	Extending special education services to students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which the student turns 22.	Passed Legislature	Pollet, Couture, Taylor, Callan, Simmons, Penner, Wylie, Kloba, Timmons, Bergquist, Salahuddin	Requires school districts to provide an appropriate education to students with disabilities from age 3 to the end of the school year in which the student turns 22.	Indeterminate. The district special education enrollment percentage currently exceeds the funded cap.
--	5263	Concerning special education funding.	Passed Legislature	Pedersen, Braun, Bateman, Chapman, Conway, Dhingra, Frame, Krishnadasan, Liias, Nobles, Orwall, Salomon, Shewmake, Stanford, Valdez, Wilson, C.	Special education funding is currently capped at 16% of enrollment. Funding is based on the average basic education per pupil funding multiplied by 1.12 for students that are in a general ed setting for at least 80% of the day and 1.06 for students spending less time in general ed. HB 5263 removes the 16% funding cap and replacing the two-tier system with a single multiplier of 1.16.	Estimated new funding could be as high as: $1,300,000.
	5358	Career and Technical Education in sixth-grade.	Governor Signed	Shavers, Leavitt, Salahuddin, Bergquist, Reed, Paul, Pollet, Simmons, Hill	Expands CTE courses to 6th grade when 6th grade is offered in middle school. Does not extend funding.	$0
1543	5514	Increasing compliance pathways for the clean buildings performance standard with alternative metrics and extensions for reporting.	Passed Legislature	Doglio, Ramel, Berry, Ryu, Reed, Duerr, Parshley, Ormsby	Exempts additional buildings from compliance with the State Energy Performance Standard.	--
2049		Investing in the state's paramount duty to fund K-12 education and build strong and safe communities.	Passed Legislature	Bergquist, Pollet, Santos, Peterson, Fosse, Ryu, Ormsby, Parshley, Macri, Wylie, Berry, Ramel, Street, Gregerson, Doglio, Farivar, Reed, Reeves, Hill, Callan.	LEVY: $2.4 million in 2025-26 and $5.2 million in 2026-27. Adds a per pupil enhancement between 2026 to 2030.  K-12 FUNDING FORMULAE Requires a study.	$2,400,000
2050		Implementing K-12 savings and efficiencies.	Passed Legislature	Ormsby, Parshley, Macri, Gregerson.	Limits the Alternative Learning Experience enrollment used to calculate Local Effort Assistance to 33 percent of a school district's total enrollment. Does not impact Olympia School District.	--

 

Please Note: The Governor must sign legislation before it becomes enacted.

 

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Thurston County Legislators

 

22nd District:

 

Senator Jessica Bateman: Democrat

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Representative Beth Doglio: Democrat

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Representative Lisa Parshley: Democrat

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35th District:

 

Representative Travis Couture: Republican

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Representative Dan Griffey: Republican

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Senator Drew MacEwen: Republican

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