{"id":39644,"date":"2026-01-23T15:56:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39644"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:05:19","slug":"option-enrollment-measure-scaled-back-exception-for-suspension-of-young-students-added","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39644","title":{"rendered":"Option enrollment measure scaled back, exception for suspension of young students added"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill aimed at expanding option enrollment for students with Individualized Education Programs received first-round approval Jan. 23 after being significantly scaled back and amended to restore schools\u2019 ability to suspend pre-K through second grade students in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Dave Murman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB653, sponsored by Glenvil Sen. Dave Murman, option school districts not in a learning community would be required to automatically accept siblings of currently enrolled students.
\nAs introduced last session, the bill also would require districts to:<\/p>\n

\u25cf notify parents when a requested school is full but another building has space;
\n\u25cf alert applicants within 10 business days if an application is incomplete and subject to rejection;
\n\u25cf cap denied option enrollment applications from students with IEPs at 16% per school year; and
\n\u25cf allow districts to apply by Oct. 15 for Education Future Fund reimbursement if they accept a high-cost IEP option enrollment student.<\/p>\n

An Education Committee amendment would have added provisions of five additional bills.<\/p>\n

Murman said many original LB653 provisions already were enacted or no longer needed. As a result, he offered an amendment that would replace the committee amendment and remove all option enrollment rules except the sibling acceptance requirement for districts not in a learning community.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents shouldn\u2019t have to worry that their next child can\u2019t attend the same school as their siblings,\u201d Murman said. \u201cWe should keep siblings and families together [and] I think this is a reasonable ask of our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amendment also includes provisions from Murman\u2019s LB430, which would revise a 2023 law banning suspension or expulsion of pre-K through second grade students by allowing an exception for students who engage in physical violence that harms others.<\/p>\n

Additionally, schools would be required to provide parents written notice when a child is suspended outlining available resources, steps taken to address the behavior and strategies to keep the student in school.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward supported LB653 and the Murman amendment, saying students are becoming increasingly violent at younger ages, creating challenges for small school districts with limited staff and resources.<\/p>\n

Additionally, she said, the proposal is a better alternative than a bill introduced by the Education Committee this year, LB1053, which would outright repeal the suspension ban without the additional requirements included in Murman\u2019s amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s better for the kids, family, the schools \u2014 all the way around \u2014 versus just a straight up repeal,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney, who sponsored the 2023 suspension ban, offered a motion to indefinitely postpone LB653. He said the ban was intended to address racial disparities and reduce the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly for Black, Latino and Native American students.<\/p>\n

Districts have failed to implement alternatives to suspension allowed under current law, he said, and instead are pushing to reinstate punitive measures.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha supported McKinney\u2019s motion, saying lawmakers should prioritize additional services and address underlying issues, such as student trauma, before resorting to suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to ensure that we are not passing more punitive policy consequences that don\u2019t address those core root issues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Also supporting the motion was Lincoln Sen. George Dungan, who said removing the suspension ban could disproportionately affect young students with developmental disabilities who may be perceived as violent.<\/p>\n

McKinney later withdrew his motion and said he would work with Murman to attempt to find a compromise on the suspension portion of the bill before the next round of debate.<\/p>\n

Plymouth Sen. Tom Brandt said that while he supports reinstating the suspension provisions, he opposes requiring districts to automatically accept siblings of option enrollment students, citing capacity and staffing concerns.<\/p>\n

After voting 33-8 to adopt Murman\u2019s amendment, lawmakers adopted the committee amendment 34-3.<\/p>\n

Senators then advanced LB653 to select file on a 30-6 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill aimed at expanding option enrollment for students with Individualized Education Programs received first-round approval Jan. 23 after being significantly scaled back and amended to restore schools\u2019 ability to suspend pre-K through second grade students in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[255],"class_list":["post-39644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-sen-dave-murman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/LB653Murman1-23-26a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39648,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644\/revisions\/39648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}