Education reform was a major theme this session, and the Legislature also took action to protect kids from excessive cell phone use by prohibiting cell phone use in schools and regulating big tech companies that design social media platforms used by kids. We also expanded opportunities for career and technical education and access to community college for thousands of Vermonters.
The major K-12 education “transformation” bill, H.454 (Act 73), dominated the legislative session. The bill commences sweeping, generational change to Vermont’s K-12 education system – consolidating school districts, implementing education quality reforms, creating a foundation formula to fund schools, eliminating local school district budget votes, changing how private schools receive public funds, and initiating significant property tax reform measures. You can read a good summary of the bill written by the Legislative Joint Fiscal Office, as well as this overview of the bill described by Vermont Public. I have already written a huge amount about the bill and the process, so for more information, please read my longer piece about the bill. In addition, Seven Days published an article about the problematic process and its focus , especially in the Senate, but also the role I played (and didn’t play) in getting H.454 passed in the Senate.
The Miscellaneous Education Bill, H.480, includes a collection of updates to education law, including both a requirement that K-12 schools include in their emergency operations plans “hazard specific provisions for acute cardiac events in schools.” In addition, H.480 requires the Agency of Education to develop a model policy to prohibit the use of cell phones by students in school, with certain exceptions for academic purposes or educational accommodations. Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, school districts must adopt and enforce a cell phone use policy that’s at least as stringent as AOE’s model policy. In addition, schools will be prohibited from using social media to communicate with students and requiring that students use social media for any school purposes. Finally, the bill clarifies the ability of career and technical education (CTE) centers to enroll students outside their service area if a student’s home CTE center is over-enrolled or does not offer a specific program. This provision will specifically enable additional students to attend the Hannaford Career Center which has ample capacity to accommodate more students.
In order to keep kids safe while on social media or the internet, we passed, S.69/Act 63, the Age-Appropriate Design Code, also known as the Kids Code Bill. Act 63 requires relevant businesses, mostly large social media companies that run Instagram, TikTok, and other similar platforms, to protect minors from certain harms when processing the data of minors and when its digital products are used by minors. It requires these companies to set the default privacy settings at the highest level when used by a minor and prohibits the collection or sharing of the personal data of a minor unless otherwise necessary to provide a certain service to the minor. It also restricts the ability of these companies to permit an individual to monitor the activity or location of a minor on its digital product without providing a conspicuous signal to the minor. Enforcement and rules for the Kids Code will be completed by the Vermont Attorney General.
The FY26 State Budget, Act 27, includes funding to expand the 802 Opportunity program which provides free tuition at the Community College of Vermont to all Vermonters making up to $100,000 in family income. This will provide access to free community college to over 70% of all Vermonters. In addition, the Budget Bill provides modest increases to the budgets of Vermont State University, University of Vermont, and the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation.
Ruth for Vermont 