Bill Analyses and Ratings

Bill Summary

House Bill 831 amends Idaho Code Section 33-512 to prohibit in-person student instruction on any date when elections may be conducted under section 34-106, Idaho Code. School buildings used as polling places must be free of students on those days, though school boards retain discretion over staff activities such as professional development, teacher in-service training, and extracurricular or athletic events, provided students are not required or encouraged to enter polling place buildings. An exception exists if the county clerk and school district jointly agree that student-occupied buildings will not be designated as polling places, in which case normal instruction may proceed.

The bill also expands the existing waiver provision in subsection (h), adding elections as a qualifying reason—alongside natural occurrences creating unsafe conditions—for the state board of education to grant a districtwide waiver of minimum instructional hours. This waiver still requires a county or state disaster declaration and a written request describing makeup efforts and hours impacted. The bill takes effect January 1, 2028, giving school districts time to adjust their calendars and coordinate with county clerks, and includes a technical renumbering of existing paragraph (i) to (j) to accommodate the new election-day instruction prohibition.

Overall Assessment

House Bill 831 has a limited impact across most policy areas evaluated, earning a total score of -1. The bill’s primary effect is on education, where it mandates the cancellation of in-person student instruction on all election days statewide unless a specific agreement is reached between the county clerk and the school district to keep student buildings off the polling place list. This requirement overrides local school board scheduling authority and reduces available instructional days, resulting in a negative rating under the Education metric.

All other policy areas are unaffected by this legislation. The bill does not substantively alter election administration, civic participation frameworks, agricultural policy, natural resources, the economy, health and welfare, or any other evaluated domain. While the bill provides a logistical benefit by ensuring school facilities are accessible as polling places without student presence, this benefit does not rise to the level of a positive impact under any of the measured metrics, and the net effect of the bill is a modest reduction in educational opportunity statewide.