SALT LAKE CITY — Some private schools and day cares are voicing their concerns over a bill allowing public schools to charge for extended day kindergarten and lawmakers are wrestling with proposed laws on police use of body cameras.

Here's a roundup of what's happening on the hill:

Lawmaker seeks to raise the bar on Utah's school grading system

Lawmakers are once again proposing changes to Utah's school grading system with a bill that would gradually raise the bar for schools over the next 12 years.

SB149, sponsored by Ogden Republican Ann Millner, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, would modify the current point structure that assigns schools a letter grade based on year-end test scores, ACT performance and graduation rates.

Elementary and middle schools would have to earn a score between 66 percent and 100 percent to earn an A, 53 percent and 65 percent for a B, 41 percent and 52 percent for a C, 32 percent and 40 percent for a D, and 31 percent or less to earn an F. High school grading would be based on a similar scale.

Under Millner's bill, those percentage brackets would increase by 2 percentage points each year until the minimum percentage to get an A reaches a ceiling of 90 percent. If schools improve at a faster rate, the Utah State Board of Education could speed up the increase.

"We will already see this year an increase in the expectation for improvement," Millner said Wednesday.

Private schools, day cares fear public kindergarten bill would cut business

Some day care businesses and private schools are worried a bill allowing public schools to charge fees for optional extended-day kindergarten programs would be unfair competition.

But members of the Senate Education Committee advanced the bill Wednesday, hoping it will provide schools with the means and flexibility to provide children with more opportunities for learning.

"We're not (asking) should the state offer extended-day kindergarten because they already do," said bill sponsor Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy. "This is simply clearing a hurdle that if a school district wants to charge fees to parents who are willing to participate in such a program, they may do so simply for the extended hours."

Eliason's bill, HB41, gives school districts and charter schools the option to fund the extra teaching hours required for an extended-day kindergarten program by charging fees to families who choose to enroll. A rough estimate by legislative analysts indicates the cost of providing the supplemental hours of instruction would be about $1,400 per child, per school year.

It's a fraction of what some private schools and day care programs cost for the same time period, and that has some worried.

"Once you start adding a fee, you now become direct competition — tax-funded competition — against my private business, and that's not fair," said Michael Sibbett, chairman of Dancing Moose Montessori School. "I support extended kindergarten. What I don't like is for districts and charters to be able to charge a fee for what I'm charging, but I don't have the benefit of bonds and tax-supported buildings and infrastructure."

Yesterday's roundup:

Vaccination bill stalled in committee; Mental health bill narrowly advances

A bill that would require parents to watch a video every year to renew their child's vaccination exemption was held in a committee and the House narrowly passed a bill that advocates say would reduce access to critical psychiatric medications. Here's a roundup of what's happening in the legislature.

Joining lawmakers, students rally against e-cigarettes

The latest group of people joining the debate over e-cigarettes isn't old enough to vote yet.

"Adults in our community and state aren't seeing the problem," said McGyver Clark, a Davis High School senior who is a member of Students Against Electronic Vaping, or SAEV. "We see the problem, and that's why we're getting involved."

With three bills in the Utah Legislature taking aim at the e-cigarette industry, lawmakers are turning to students to weigh in on the controversial product that has surpassed traditional cigarettes in popularity among teens.

Cade Hyde, student body president at Davis High, said he started SAEV after a lobbyist working with Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, told him about Ray's bill.

HB333 proposes a 86.5 percent tax on e-cigarette products and nicotine inhalers. The revenue would go toward funding school nurses and athletic trainers in rural communities.

Hyde said members of SAEV have "all seen friends that have become addicted to nicotine."

State legislators wrestling with proposed police body camera laws

Utah lawmakers continue to wrestle with proposed laws on police use of body cameras.

The major disagreement is whether the Legislature or the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training division sets minimum standards for how police agencies use the emerging technology.

Questions about personal privacy, transparency and when to turn the cameras on and off also remain at issue.

"Will we have consensus by the end of the session? I don't know," said Rep. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, sponsor of HB300.

His bill would require police to record incidents from start to finish. It includes provisions for keeping footage private, such as children in a home, but leaves other standards to local agencies.

'Zero' likelihood Legislature will fully fund $27M in homeless initiatives this year, whip says

There's "zero" likelihood the Utah Legislature will fully fund a $27 million request for homeless shelters and services from Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County this session, but partial funding appears to be a possibility, a legislative leader said Tuesday.

House Majority Whip Francis Gibson said a more likely scenario for the legislative ask would be the appropriation of $7 million in ongoing funds for services, case management and homelessness prevention programs statewide.

"I'm going to try to get $7 million ongoing this year with the goal in mind to fund that $20 million over the next three years. Even if you had $20 million now, and our budget's extremely tight this year, I don't think the city and the county will be in a spot to adequately use $20 million within one year. You do have to ramp up with zoning and finding locations for new shelters," said Gibson, R-Mapleton.

The $20 million would be for renovation of existing facilities or to help fund construction of new facilities, he said.

More than half of the $7 million in ongoing funds would be for enhanced homeless services such as case management or skill building locally, Gibson said.

However, $3 million would target statewide homelessness prevention and diversion programs.

Contributing: Morgan Jacobsen, Daphne Chen, Dennis Romboy, Marjorie Cortez

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