Lombardo’s school safety bill fails to advance after deadline

Gov. Joe Lombardo released a statement regarding his Assembly Bill 330, a proposal intended to help teachers remove students experiencing behavior problems in the classroom, after Friday’s committee passage deadline stating the legislation passed by the Senate Education Committee was “insufficient” and would not be signed without significant changes.

Lombardo’s AB330 passed out of the Nevada Assembly in April with bipartisan support. In March, he had sought support after referring to more than 6,800 incidents of violence in Clark County School District that had occurred between Aug. 21, 2022, and Feb. 22, 2023, and had said he would repeal sections of AB168’s public school restorative justice law that passed in 2019.

“We expect school safety legislation to actually make schools safer. Governor Lombardo will not sign legislation that allows a student to commit battery against a teacher and have the only mandatory punishment be a meeting with their parents,” said Ben Kieckhefer, Chief of Staff to Lombardo in a statement released Friday. “This is not good enough. We need to do better for our teachers and children.”

Friday’s statement elaborates on the support AB330 has received this legislative session from groups across the state, including all 17 Nevada superintendents, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA), the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees (CCASAPE), the Education Support Employees Association (ESEA), the Nevada Association of School Boards, the Latin Chamber of Commerce and the Charter School Association of Nevada, among others.

Senate Maj. Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager agreed to waive all deadlines on the Governor’s bill, keeping it alive for the remainder of the legislative session and allowing further negotiations on the legislation.

Public polling shows that 71% of Nevadans support Lombardo’s plans to make Nevada schools safer.