SB 555 Oklahoma Senate · 2026 Regular Session

Schools; creating the Education Regulatory Sandbox Program; providing purpose; providing for application process. Effective date. Emergency.

SB 555 creates an "Education Regulatory Sandbox Program" allowing Oklahoma school districts to apply for temporary exemptions from certain state education regulations. The bill specifically prohibits exemptions for mandatory requirements including teacher due process, background checks, disability education laws, standardized testing, salary schedules, financial reporting, and retirement/health insurance participation. School districts seeking exemptions must apply through a formal process, but the amendment explicitly blocks exemptions for the listed 8 critical areas. This program aims to provide regulatory flexibility while maintaining core educational standards and legal obligations.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 3, 2025 Last action Mar 17, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

SB555 (3-11-25) (PUGH) FA1.PDF → Floor (Senate) · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was converted from a committee amendment version to a Senate Floor version, with significant structural reorganization. The core policy content remains largely the same - creating an Education Regulatory Sandbox Program that allows school districts to request exemptions from certain Oklahoma education laws to test innovations. The main changes are formatting, page numbering, and the removal of specific prohibited exemptions that were listed in the committee version but not included in the floor version.

Scope change

The bill's substantive scope remains unchanged - it still creates the Education Regulatory Sandbox Program allowing school districts to seek exemptions from specific Oklahoma education statutes and administrative rules to test educational innovations. The floor version removed the detailed list of prohibited exemptions (such as teacher due process, criminal history checks, and salary schedules) that appeared in the committee version.

ELIGIBILITY

Removed the detailed list of prohibited exemptions (teacher due process, criminal history checks, employment contracts, special education laws, testing requirements, minimum salary schedules, financial reporting, and retirement/health insurance participation) that were specified in the committee version.

TECHNICAL

Converted from committee amendment format to Senate Floor version format with new page numbering and header information.

Added formal enactment language and section headers (SECTION 1, SECTION 2, SECTION 3) to conform to standard legislative format.

REQUIREMENT

Streamlined the program requirements by removing the specific list of prohibited exemptions while maintaining the core exemption and innovation testing framework.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 4, 2025

Upper · Passed

Reported Do Pass Education committee; CR filed

upper

Feb 3, 2025

Introduced

First Reading

upper

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors