2026 Louisiana Legislative Session Education-Related Bills: Key Highlights for Schools Several new Louisiana laws affect nonpublic schools, early learning programs, student safety, school operations, and college/career pathways. Below is a concise overview of the major themes and action areas. Child Safety & Reporting Mandatory reporter duties, child abuse reporting, forensic interview procedures, school-setting abuse reporting,
Strengthening Our Voice for Louisiana’s Nonpublic Schools As we reflect on another year of dedicated advocacy and collaboration, Citizens for Educational Choice (CEC) is proud to share its 2025 Annual Report — a comprehensive look at the progress we’ve made together to support Louisiana’s nonpublic schools, students, and families. Read the full 2025 Annual Report
Accompanied by Jared Cavalier, Principal of St. Michael’s Catholic School in Baton Rouge, we successfully testified to oppose attempts to make non-public schools adhere to public school testing and accountability.
Overview Citizens for Educational Choice was very active this session promoting the GATOR program, filing legislation to provide support for families with children with disabilities, defeating legislation that would have mandated non-publics follow public schools and championing legislation that will allow for stacking of ESA onto Tuition Donation Tax Credit programs. Funding ACT 1
Maintained 20 million Non-Public Assistance for Required Services, School Lunch Salary Supplement and Textbooks Facilitated the passage of SB 27 which will allow for stacking of the ESA onto a Tuition Donation Tax Credit from a School Tuition Organization Testified and defeated bill to require non-public schools to conform to public school curriculum and testing.
Funding HB 1 Citizens for Educational Choice testified during public testimony period on the budget. The testimony outlined the principle of parents as first formators and fully funding the Governor’s 93.5 million request for the GATOR program. This is an extremely critical time, and a reminder ACTION ALERT on the CEC Voter Voice was sent
The Senate Finance Committee meets tomorrow, June 1, 2025 and the session ends on June 12th, so action is needed urgently. Louisiana must move forward with parental choice in education and give parents the opportunity to allow their children to flourish. Please join us in fully funding the 93.5 million currently in the budget to
Overall, this was a major movement to open opportunities for parents, a consistent theme of everything a public school does then so should the private, a consistent support from the legislature to provide autonomy for private schools. There was acknowledgement the significant improvement in public education ratings for Louisiana from 49th to 40th, a movement
Since the session began, we have seen that every bill that has public schools attached will then have an associated movement to attach private schools to everything. This issue from their perspective is that if you receive any state funds, you must comply. Attempts but Rep. Frieberg and Rep. Schlegel to keep autonomy in private schools
The goals coming into the session were to (1) increase Required Services, (2) increase Scholarships and to (3) monitor publics for impact on non-publics. Increase Required Services We were able to increase Required Services by $1,000,000 from the State General Fund. This will be used for Continuing Education; data used 56% vs 36% by DOE;
