TAKE ACTION NOW!
1/20/2025
URGENT Advocacy Action Requests!
The 2025 legislative session is off to a big start! We have a lot of bills of interest with hearing scheduled this week, so you may hear more from us throughout the week!
Right now we need your voice for a 3 hearings happening Tuesday, 1/21, at 8 am. Several bills have hearings scheduled that are of utmost importance to our students. These bills (listed below) are facing significant opposition. WSASP GPR urges you to electronically sign in "PRO" in order to show our overwhelming support for our students.
To sign in PRO, click on the bill below, select "sign up to testify/submit written testimony", then select "I would like my position wanted for the legislative record," (this is not signing up to give testimony) and finally, fill it out and submit having your position officially noted for the record. You must do this by 7 am Tuesday,1/20/25.
You may also want to sign in to give testimony, which we encourage, if you are available! The legislature also allows the submission of written testimony now, which can be sent up to 24 hours after the hearing. Both of these options are on the same page referenced above. Any and all support for these bills will show how important these issues are to our students and our communities.
Below are the three bill numbers, official description, and in brackets are the GPR description.
SB 5180: Securing the rights of students to have a safe, civil, and respectful learning community. [This bill mandates all schools adopt/enforce gender-inclusive protections/policies]
SB 5181: Amending the parents rights initiative to bring it into alignment with existing law. [This bill amends the recently enacted Parent's Rights Bill to comply with existing law, including FERPA and HIPPA records protecting parents rights to access educational records, while making clear some records are not so protected, things like medical or mental health counseling notes from which the Parent's Rights Bill currently defines as a school record to which parents can request to have access.]
SB 5123: Expanding protections for certain students to promote inclusivity in public schools. [This bill extends anti-discrimination protections for public school students, protecting LGBTQ+ and marginalized youth]
Thank you for your engagement and action!
ABOUT ADVOCACY ACTION STEPS
Who: WSASP's Government and Public Relations (GPR) committee has been hard at work in Olympia, and now we need your vital contribution and active support!
What: Advocate for your self, your field, and kids! Contact your representatives TODAY about the below-mentioned important issues! Your representatives value your opinion as a constituent, and the more of us they hear from, the louder our collective voice!
When: The legislature is in session. As bills cycle through the process and move to a vote from the entire legislative body, we will alert you to action through our member email system. When the time is right for each bill, the Form Letter Link will be activated, and you will get an email reminder to take action!
Where: Thanks to NASP, you will only have to send the message once to get to all three representatives based on your home address, and we will be able to pull data about how many of us are taking action!
Why: With more letters of support and phone calls from all stakeholders and professionals in school psychology and allied fields, the legislators in the House and Senate will be informed and can realize the wide range of importance these issues represent. If we are not at the table, we are on the menu!
How: You can contact your legislators today. You can submit public comment via the legislative website (see directions below, via NASP, directly with an email address, or via Our Voice, through WEA (Click here for a step by step tutorial on how to use Our Voice to email your representatives). The GPR Committee will provide form letters as appropriate for each bill of interest to WSASP. When these letters are made available, you can use them exactly, add personal stories or comments, or write an original letter to submit to your legislators. Once your letter is ready, using NASP's Advocacy Action Center, you can send it to all your state representatives with one click. We ask that you send one letter for each bill, as this is how representatives prefer communication, and it keeps our message clear.
