Idaho state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra is on her post-legislative session tour, addressing education officials – and some lawmakers – at gatherings around the state about what came out of the session for Idaho schools. Idaho EdNews reporter Clark Corbin covered the Boise session today, and reports that Ybarra was upbeat, cheering funding for teacher pay, school district operations, a new literacy initiative and funding for reading instruction that gives districts the option to launch all-day kindergarten for struggling readers.

Ybarra also repeated her calls to eliminate SBAC testing for 9th- through 12th-graders, saying the change won’t happen in 2016 or 2017, but by 2018 she wants to replace the SBAC with a college entrance exam such as the ACT at the high school level.

She also called for increased efforts to deal with youth bullying at school, including cyberbullying; she’s asking educators to earn a continuing education credit in bullying prevention. Ybarra said the Idaho Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows that 26 percent of Idaho high school students have been bullied at school “As a 20-year veteran in education and the mother of a public school student, I know our students cannot learn in an environment where they feel unsafe,” she said. Corbin’s full report is online here.