HB 1433 Mississippi House · 2025 Regular Session

The "Flexible and Rightful Education Enrollment (FREE) Act;" establish for students in "D" and "F" schools and districts.

HB 1433, the "Mississippi Quality Desert Educational Enrollment and Transfer Scholarship Act" (QDESA), allows students enrolled in Mississippi public schools or districts rated "D" or "F" by the state to transfer to higher-performing public schools or accredited nonpublic schools. Eligible students' families receive full base per-pupil state funding if transferring to a public school, or monthly reimbursement for tuition and qualifying expenses at nonpublic schools after exhausting nearby public school options. The bill requires transferee schools to publicly share enrollment capacity policies and mandates annual reporting by the state education department on program participation and compliance. It also separately establishes education scholarship accounts for foster children. The legislation aims to expand access to higher-performing schools while ensuring funding follows students.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 20, 2025 Last action Feb 13, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced → Current version · 8 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended from 'As Introduced' to 'Committee Substitute' version, changing the program name from 'Mississippi Quality Desert Educational Enrollment and Transfer Scholarship Act' (QDESA) to 'Flexible and Rightful Education Enrollment (FREE) Act'. The core policy remains largely the same, but the committee version reorganized the text, added clarifying definitions, and included additional provisions for foster children's education accounts.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded to include more detailed definitions of eligible schools and added specific provisions for foster children's education scholarship accounts (FESA) that were not as clearly structured in the original version.

SCOPE

Program name changed from 'Mississippi Quality Desert Educational Enrollment and Transfer Scholarship Act' (QDESA) to 'Flexible and Rightful Education Enrollment (FREE) Act'.

Created the 'Mississippi Foster Child Education Scholarship Account Program Act' with detailed provisions for FESA accounts, including eligibility criteria, qualified expenses, and accountability measures.

DEFINITION

Added clear definitions for 'Accredited nonpublic school', 'Base per-pupil funding', 'Eligible student', 'FREE program', 'Transferee school or district', 'Transferor school or district', and 'High-performing public school'.

ELIGIBILITY

Clarified eligibility criteria for students, including specific requirements about school ratings, geographic distance to high-performing schools, and sibling eligibility for scholarship funds.

FISCAL

Established the Flexible and Rightful Education Enrollment (FREE) Scholarship Fund with an initial $5 million appropriation for fiscal year 2026, with annual funding based on enrollment projections.

REQUIREMENT

Added requirements for transferee districts to establish transparent capacity policies and for the State Department of Education to audit reimbursements and publish findings.

ENFORCEMENT

Added provisions for the State Department of Education to develop rules for transfer procedures, public reporting of open seats, and appeals processes for denied transfers.

TECHNICAL

Reorganized the bill structure with clearer section numbering and formatting, though the substantive policy provisions remain substantially the same as the original version.

Floor votes

How they voted

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 4, 2025

Lower · Passed

Title Suff Do Pass Comm Sub

lower

Jan 20, 2025

Committee

Referred To Education

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors