House Bill 257

AN ACT TO BE KNOWN AS THE "MISSISSIPPI SAVE OUR CHILDREN ACT"; TO REQUIRE FAILING SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO IMPLEMENT CERTAIN PROGRAMS IN ORDER TO IMPROVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. This act shall be known as the "Mississippi Save Our Children Act."

SECTION 2. (1) The Legislature recognizes:

(a) The need for positive reinforcement of higher educational opportunities, social usages, family commitment and spiritual development;

(b) That it is a difficult time in our society to raise children;

(c) That many African-American parents in this day and age, regardless of their socio-economic standard, are facing the same problems and that their children are out of control;

(d) That substance abuse, Internet pornography, rude defiant behavior and authority issues are a few of the challenges African-American parents and communities face each day;

(e) That parents work and labor on their children's behalf, but there are just too many negative influences bombarding children;

(f) That teenagers in crisis are difficult to reason with, talk to and understand;

(g) That many parents allow out of control behavior to escalate and continue because they do not know how to handle their own children;

(h) That parents have a difficult time asking for help because they feel like failures as parents;

(i) That our children are exposed to an environment where drugs, violence, sex, money and peer pressure are an ever-present force that affects both their behavior and perception of life;

(j) That television, telephones, movies, radio and video games are devastating to our children's success; and

(k) That many parents are guilty of protecting our children from the consequences of their behavior.

(2) The Legislature believes that society itself must correct the problems with children and reverse this culture of failure that leads to disproportionate minority confinement, teenage pregnancy, truancy, unemployment, underemployment, drug abuse and poverty. The Legislature further believes that an agenda that will help place life in a positive and productive perspective for our children must be developed and assistance must be provided to families in dealing with the issues and problems that our state is currently facing within its communities.

SECTION 3. Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, a school district that receives a Level 3 rating or below according to the Mississippi Report Card required under Section 37-3-53 for the previous school year must implement the following programs:

(a) Mandatory school uniforms;

(b) Mandatory separation of students by gender;

(d) Mandatory hiring of school resources officers;

(e) Mandatory hiring of school counselors;

(f) Distance learning in areas of mathematics, science, home economics and social usage and business and entrepreneurship if the district does not have a competent teacher available for these classes;

(g) Mandatory teaching of business and finance classes, including offering an entrepreneurship competition;

(h) Mandatory spelling bees, mathematics bees and science bees in every class; and

(i) Mandatory homework assignments every day in every class from kindergarten through Grade 12. Homework must include, but not necessarily be limited to, a minimum of five (5) vocabulary words to be learned from each class every week, including how to spell, define and use each word in a sentence.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2024.