Teachers get a $2,000 raise, and schools get a new attendance law

The minimum salary schedule is the floor the state pays teachers by license and years of experience. It rises for the 2026-27 school year, and the raise is $2,000 for teachers and assistant teachers, Mississippi First reported. Special education teachers get an extra $2,000 supplement, for $4,000; school psychologists and occupational therapists get $2,000 and school resource officers $5,000, WLOX reported, and career-tech instructors get $2,000, Magnolia Tribune reported. The money is in a separate bill, HB 1935, the Department of Education’s budget, which Gov. Tate Reeves also signed April 8.

The law also raises the base amount the state sends districts per student to $7,201.77 from $6,845, Magnolia Tribune reported, and sets assistant teachers’ minimum pay at $19,000.

Attendance rules change too. A student counts as present for the day at 66% of the school day, according to the bill summary; Magnolia Tribune reported the figure as 60%. Missing 10% of school days makes a child chronically absent, schools must contact families after three absences, and eight unlawful absences build a legal case against the parent. Students at school-sanctioned activities are not counted absent.

Mississippi’s average teacher salary will be $55,704 after the raise, still last in the country, according to National Education Association figures reported by WLOX. The House wanted $5,000; the Senate offered $2,000, then $6,000 spread over three years; the chambers landed on $2,000, Mississippi Today reported.

After the haggling over school choice subsided, lawmakers in both chambers shifted their focus to a teacher pay raise, Mississippi Today reported.

Sen. Angela Burks Hill, a Republican, sponsored the policy bill, and Rep. Karl Oliver, a Republican, is listed as the sponsor of the budget bill. Both went to conference committees, small groups from both chambers that settle one version of a bill. HB 1935’s compromise was adopted March 29 and 30, SB 2103’s on April 1, and both bills were signed April 8, according to the bill histories.

The Mississippi Association of Educators said the raise is appreciated and every bit helps, but is somewhat canceled out by rising insurance costs and the cost of living, WMC reported.

The Wire could not find the Legislature’s cost figure for the raise. The education budget bill sets $2.81 billion for the student funding formula for the year that began July 1, 2026, according to the bill summary the Wire read. The Wire could not tell from the summary how much of that is the raise. For a teacher, $2,000 a year is about $167 a month before taxes.

Teachers and the listed staff see the raise in paychecks for the 2026-27 school year. Parents see new absence rules: after three absences the school must contact you, five excused absences per semester is the limit without the superintendent’s approval, and after the third illness absence the school needs a doctor’s note.

Retired teachers who came back under the old return-to-work law lose that option after July 2, 2026; the new path runs through the PERS law, HB 4073. PERS is the state retirement system.

Nov. 1, 2026: the deadline for districts’ written policies on excuse documents and family outreach; the state’s model policy was due Aug. 15. Districts must publish chronic absenteeism data every year; watch for the first reports.

The 2027 session. The House’s $5,000 bill, HB 1126, died this year, Mississippi First reported, and the Wire found no statement about next year’s plans.