In a vote of 53-32, with 4 members voting present, the House passed SB308 which gives existing charter schools the first option to buy or lease an unused public school facility.
The House also passed HB1957 which allows college students to continue to receive the 4th year Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship while they are finishing their undergraduate degree but also enrolled in graduate level classes. This bill also allows the scholarship to be pro-rated for college seniors who do not need to take a full 15 hours in their final semester to graduate.
The House passed HB1773 which allows a judge to grant a grandparent visitation rights to a child in cases where the parent of the child is deceased.
And the House passed HB1826, known as the Chocolate Covered Cherry Freedom Act. Currently, confections with .5% of alcohol are regulated in a similar manner to alcohol. This bill would raise that threshold to 5% alcohol content for confections.
The House will reconvene on Monday at 1:30pm.