HB 2682 Missouri House · 2026 Regular Session

Renames the "Missouri Student Religious Liberties Act" the "Missouri Safeguarding Personal Expression at K-12 Schools (SPEAKS) Act" and creates provisions safeguarding students' political and ideological expression at public schools

HB 2682 renames Missouri's "Student Religious Liberties Act" to the "SPEAKS Act" and requires public schools to protect students' expression of religious, political, or ideological views. It prohibits schools from discriminating against such expression in assignments, clubs, prayer activities, or clothing - requiring grading based solely on academic standards and equal access for student groups. Schools must also provide disclaimers clarifying that student speech does not represent district endorsement. The bill explicitly preserves schools' authority to maintain order and ban unprotected speech like threats or harassment.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Apr 2026

House Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 5, 2026 Last action Apr 30, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

House Committee Substitute → Perfected · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was perfected to correct a formatting error where a section of text was accidentally deleted. This change restores the requirement that school districts must not discriminate against students for their voluntary expression of religious, political, or ideological viewpoints, ensuring the law's full intent is preserved.

Scope change

The scope of the bill remains unchanged as the deletion was an accidental formatting error rather than a policy shift.

TECHNICAL

A line break and the number '18' were incorrectly removed from the text, causing the sentence about student viewpoints to be split across two separate lines in the draft.

The number '18' and the continuation of the sentence were restored to ensure the legal text flows correctly and is not broken.

A bracketed section labeled '[6.] 7.' containing the specific non-discrimination clause was accidentally deleted, likely due to a formatting glitch in the House Committee Substitute.

The bracketed section containing the non-discrimination clause was restored to the bill, ensuring the legal requirement is present in the final version.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 30, 2026

Upper · Passed

SCS Voted Do Pass (S)

upper

Apr 28, 2026

Upper · Passed

Public Hearing Scheduled (S) - AMENDED: Thursday, April 30, 2026, 8:45 a.m., Senate Committee Room 2 - 1st Floor

upper

Mar 12, 2026

Committee

Second read and referred: Education(S)

upper

Feb 26, 2026

Lower · Passed

Third Read and Passed (H) - AYES: 99 NOES: 47 PRESENT: 0

lower

Feb 26, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 5 NOES: 2 PRESENT: 0

lower

Feb 26, 2026

Lower · Passed

Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Feb 25, 2026

Committee

Referred: Fiscal Review(H)

lower

Feb 24, 2026

Lower · Passed

HCS Adopted (H)

lower

Feb 17, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 8 NOES: 2 PRESENT: 0

lower

Feb 16, 2026

Lower · Passed

Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Committee

Referred: Rules - Legislative(H)

lower

Jan 29, 2026

Lower · Passed

HCS Reported Do Pass (H) - AYES: 6 NOES: 3 PRESENT: 0

lower

Jan 28, 2026

Lower · Passed

HCS Voted Do Pass (H)

lower

Jan 8, 2026

Committee

Referred: General Laws(H)

lower

Jan 5, 2026

Introduced

Prefiled (H)

lower

1 primary · 4 co-sponsors