An Act To Establish a Process for the Consideration and Implementation of Changes to School Curricula
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1860
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: KORNFIELD, MILLETT, BRENNAN, DODGE, FARNSWORTH, INGWERSEN, SAMPSON
Amends: 20-A MRSA §4710-C

Legislative Document
No. 1860
H.P. 1331
House of Representatives, December 23, 2019
An Act To Establish a Process for the Consideration and 
Implementation of Changes to School Curricula
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203.
Received by the Clerk of the House on December 19, 2019.  Referred to the Committee on 
Education and Cultural Affairs pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed pursuant to 
Joint Rule 401.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative KORNFIELD of Bangor.
Cosponsored by Senator MILLETT of Cumberland and
Representatives: BRENNAN of Portland, DODGE of Belfast, FARNSWORTH of Portland, 
INGWERSEN of Arundel, McCREA of Fort Fairfield, SAMPSON of Alfred.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  20-A MRSA §4710-C is enacted to read:
§4710-C.  Establishment or substantial expansion of mandated instruction or 
training
A joint standing committee of the Legislature that considers proposed legislation to 
establish mandated instruction or training for students in elementary or secondary school 
not required under this Title or rules adopted pursuant to this Title or substantially expand 
mandated instruction or training for students in elementary or secondary school shall 
evaluate the proposed legislation in accordance with this section.
1.  Request to commissioner.  Upon referral to a joint standing committee of the 
Legislature of legislation that proposes new or substantially expanded mandated 
instruction or training, the joint standing committee shall, without a public hearing, 
briefly and informally review the proposal.  Following this informal review, the 
committee shall request that the commissioner convene a review committee composed of 
teachers, administrators, and content specialists within the department to conduct an 
evaluation of the proposal.
2.  Evaluation.  The review committee established by the commissioner pursuant to 
subsection 1 shall review the legislation that proposes to establish or substantially expand 
mandated instruction or training and shall identify whether the subject of the proposal is 
already addressed within existing courses of study aligned with the system of learning 
results as established in section 6209.  If the subject of the proposal is not already 
addressed within existing courses of study, the review committee shall analyze the impact 
of establishing or substantially expanding the mandated instruction or training contained 
in the proposal and shall specifically consider issues of availability of resources, staff 
expertise, the number of required courses of study that exist in accordance with the 
system of learning results and the available hours of instruction.
3.  Recommendations.  The commissioner shall submit a final report containing the 
commissioner's recommendations to the joint standing committee of the Legislature that 
requested the review pursuant to this section that includes any legislation required to 
implement the commissioner's recommendations.  The commissioner may recommend 
that no legislative action be taken on a proposal.
4.  Rulemaking.  The commissioner shall adopt rules to implement this section.  
Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, 
chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
SUMMARY
This bill requires that, upon referral of proposed legislation to establish or 
substantially expand mandated instruction or training in public schools, the joint standing 
committee of the Legislature considering the proposal must request that the 
Commissioner of Education convene a review committee to review whether the subject of 
the proposal is already addressed within existing courses of study aligned with the system 
of learning results and, if it is not, analyze the impact of establishing or substantially 
expanding the mandated instruction or training, including the availability of resources, 
staff expertise, the number of required courses of study that already exist and the 
available hours of instruction.  The commissioner is directed to submit a final report to 
the joint standing committee that includes any legislation required to implement the 
commissioner's recommendations.