Implementing Threat Reporting & Response Systems Under HB 5549
By Tom Lietz, MASSP Associate Director for Training and Development, and Bob Kefgen, MASSP Associate Director for Government Relations. Michigan’s new Behavior Threat Assessment and Management Team (BTAM Team) requirements, established under HB 5549 (Public Act 272 of 2024), go beyond simply forming a team—they require clear systems for identifying, reporting, and responding to potential threats. In our previous article, we defined the statutory requirements of HB 5549 and suggested some first steps districts…
This Week in Politics in 5 Sentences (or Fewer)
On Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced HB 4150, HB 4151, HB 4152, and HB 4153, moving forward bills that would eliminate teacher licensing fees (but also create an $8 million revenue shortfall for MDE), allow teachers to add subject-area endorsements to their teaching certificates without additional coursework if they pass the appropriate Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC), and empower local school districts to award limited teaching certificates. These…
What Schools Need to Know About HB 5549 and Threat Assessment Teams
By Tom Lietz, MASSP Associate Director for Training and Development, and Bob Kefgen, MASSP Associate Director for Government Relations. A package of school safety laws that passed during the 2024 lame duck session are going to require some advanced planning and implementation work from Michigan's school leaders. Over the next several weeks, MASSP will be doing a deep dive into the details of these new requirements from a principal's perspective and covering…
Governor Whitmer’s State of the State: Key Education Takeaways
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s 2025 State of the State Address touched on several issues that impact Michigan’s secondary schools, including student mental health and wellness, school accountability, and postsecondary opportunities. Proposed incentives for limiting cell phone use, a call for additional vaping regulations, and a focus on engaging young men with the state's scholarship programs all found a place in Wednesday's speech and all could have direct implications for high school administrators. With…
This Week in Politics in 5 Sentences (or Fewer)
On Wednesday, the House Education and Workforce Committee took testimony but did not vote on HB 4060, which would allow Intermediate School Districts (ISDs) to contract with other ISDs for Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs—potentially expanding access and reducing costs for districts that currently send students across county lines for training. Also this week, lawmakers in both chambers worked late into the night on Thursday to pass a bipartisan compromise on…
Navigating New Requirements: A Principal’s Guide to Native American Regalia Policies
By Joe Esper, Principal, Traverse City West Senior High School House Bill 4854, sponsored by state Representative Helena Scott, establishes new protections for Native American students participating in school ceremonies of honor. Beginning April 2, 2025, all Michigan schools must allow Native American students to wear traditional regalia and carry culturally significant objects at events such as graduation and honor society inductions. This law affirms the rights of Native American students to…
Gov’s Budget Increases Core Funding, Creates New Accountability Program
Governor Whitmer has released her Executive Budget Proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The proposal includes a 4.1% increase in the foundation allowance, which would bump the amount to $10,000 per pupil. The budget continues significant investments in student mental health, early literacy, and career readiness while also expanding free preschool access for all four-year-olds. A major new initiative in this year’s budget is the so-called SMART (Students, Metrics, and Results with…
This Week in Politics in 5 Sentences (or Fewer)
It was a chaotic week of federal directives, including an executive order freezing federal education funding, which was temporarily halted by the courts and then further complicated when the White House rescinded the directive’s memo but clarified that the order itself remains in full force, leaving school leaders uncertain about potential long-term impacts on programs like school meals and Impact Aid (this blog post from AASA, which they have continued to update…
New Education Laws from Lame-Duck 2024: What Principals Need to Know
Well, it took until late-January, but as the deadline for the Governor's review and signature came and went this past Wednesday, we finally got clarity this week on how the 2024 lame-duck session ended up…mostly (some exceptions may apply). So today, let us, at long last, dig into the new laws that came out of the 2024 lame-duck session. We are going to provide a bullet-point overview of each new set of…
This Week in Politics in 5 Sentences (or Fewer)
The House’s failure to conduct an effective lame-duck session, which dominated political headlines in December, has now spilled into the new year—while, as we noted in our lame-duck recap, the Senate powered through a record-setting 29-hour final session and passed nearly 100 bills, the House completely botched its responsibilities on the back end, delaying presentation of those bills to the Governor until just last week, meaning we still don't have a complete…