Wednesday marked another major deadline, one of the last before sine die, in the process. All policy bills that were moved to a fiscal committee must have moved from committee to the floor.  The exception as always are any bills that are deemed necessary to implement the budget.

A few higher education policy bills have already passed off the floor. This includes legislation to modify the requirements of the State Need Grant program to make the grant available to students enrolled or accepted for enrollment at a qualifying institution of higher education for at least three quarter credits, or the equivalent semester credits (SB 5638) and “clean-up” statute language related to community and technical college provisions  (HB 1961).

A handful of higher education policy bills now await to be advanced from the Rules Committee to the floor and ideally to the Governor’s desk.

• HB 1138: Creates a task force on mental health and suicide prevention in higher education
• HB 1546: Makes changes to dual credit programs offered by higher education institutions
• HB 1644: Allows children of eligible veterans or National Guard members to receive tuition/fee waivers before the age 18 and after age 26 in certain circumstances
• HB 1825/SB 5355: Aligns state residency policies with federal policies
• HB 1977: Creates a tuition and fees exemption for children and surviving spouses of certain highway workers.
• HB 2041: Creates a pilot project on performance-based scholarships in the state need grant program
• SB 5122: Encourages the public baccalaureate institutions to use multiple methods to determine whether a student must enroll in precollege courses and requires institutions to post placement information on institutional websites and in admissions materials
• SB 5328:Requires the public baccalaureate institutions to provide financial aid application due dates and distribution policies for prospective and admitted students
• SB 5518: Creates procedures to address campus sexual violence
• SB 5534: Creates the certified public accounting scholarship program
• SB 5719: Creates a task force on campus sexual violence prevention
• SB 5746: Adds Everett Community College as an aerospace training or educational program
• SB 5851: Concerns recommendations of the college bound scholarship program work group