RI General Assembly ends overnight session early Saturday morning

By Mario Hilario
NBC 10
June 18, 2016

http://turnto10.com/news/local/ri-general-assembly-ends-overnight-session-early-saturday-morning

Providence, RI — Rhode Island lawmakers burned the midnight oil, and then some, to wrap up the 2016 legislative session.

The General Assembly officially wrapped up the year after 6:00 a.m. Saturday.

The Senate passed the State's nearly nine billion dollar budget just after 1:30 a.m., and there were still many pieces of legislation left to tackle for both Senators and Representatives.

Both chambers passed a bill requiring 20 minutes of supervised, but unstructured play time in elementary schools, while discouraging teachers from taking away recess as punishment.

Another bill that passed would allow children with disabilities to stay in a postsecondary or transitional education program, even if they turn twenty-one before the school year is out.

One piece of legislation that also passed related to schools, would add educational institutions to the State's mandatory reporting requirements to ensure schools report allegations of abuse to the Department of Children Youth and Families. The bill's sponsors say it closed a loophole that came to light with the revelation that decades of alleged abuse at St. George's school in Middletown was not reported to authorities and there was no law requiring the school to do so.

As for gun legislation, lawmakers also approved a mechanism for anyone convicted of felony domestic violence to surrender their firearm within twenty-four hours, though critics argued even that was too long a period of time.

A measure that did not pass the General Assembly would have created a standard statewide checklist for issuing concealed weapons permits, something the Rhode Island Association of Police Chiefs opposed, saying it would take discretion away from local chiefs. While the measure passed the House, the Senate did not take it up for a vote.

The House, meanwhile, did not take up probation reform legislation aimed at reducing the number of people on probation and the number of people sent to jail for minor violations. The Senate had previously passed the bills.

The General Assembly did pass bills aimed at addressing the State's opioid overdose crisis, as well as a ban on the sale of non-liquid alcohol.

All of the measures that lawmakers approved will head to Governor Gina Raimondo's desk for action.