Nevada Exempt School Teachers from Public Employee Strike Ban Initiative (2026)

Nevada Exempt School Teachers from Public Employee Strike Ban Initiative
Election date November 3, 2026
Topic Labor disputes and strikes and Public school teachers and staff
Status Not on the ballot
Type Indirect initiated state statute	Origin Citizens

The Nevada Exempt School Teachers from Public Employee Strike Ban Initiative is not on the ballot in Nevada as an indirect initiated state statute on November 3, 2026.

This measure would have exempted licensed teachers, instructional support staff, school counselors, school nurses, and certain other school employees from state laws that prohibit strikes by public employees. In 1969, Nevada passed legislation making strikes illegal for state and local government employees, including public school teachers.

On May 29, Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) signed Senate Bill 161, which clarified that protests and pickets don't constitute a strike under state law, but would allow a school to discipline teachers for striking during school hours. As a result of the passage of SB 161, the initiative was withdrawn.

Overview

What would the ballot measure have done regarding teacher and school personnel strikes in Nevada?

See also: Text of measure

The ballot initiative would have exempted teachers and certain school personnel from the state’s ban on labor strikes by public employees, thereby allowing them to legally strike. The exemption would have applied to licensed teachers and specified school personnel, including:

• teachers who spend at least 50% of their work year providing instruction or discipline to students;
• instructional support staff who are not supervisors and who spend no more than 50% of their work year providing instruction, such as librarians and other instructional support staff; and
• school counselors, school nurses, and other employees who spend at least 50% of their work year providing emotional support, non-instructional guidance, or medical support to students.

The measure would have also extended the exemption to the labor unions, including employee organizations, bargaining agents, and bargaining units, representing these employees.

Prior to the signing of Senate Bill 161 in May of 2025, Nevada law prohibited state and local government employees, including public school teachers and personnel, from striking. In Nevada, a public employee strike is defined as any concerted stoppage of work, slowdown, or interruption of operations by public employees, including absences based on false pretenses, such as illness. SB 161 clarified that protests and pickets don't constitute a strike, but would not allow teachers to strike during school hours.

What were the arguments surrounding the measure?

See also: Support and opposition

Marie Neisess, president of the Clark County Education Association, supported the initiative, saying, "We’re looking for resolutions. This isn’t a quick fix to say oh, we’re immediately going to call for a strike. We don’t want to do that. We want to be able to change this process. Because, clearly, binding arbitration does not work and having our educators as well as our students and community wait months on end for things to be settled is not acceptable."

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) opposes the initiative. He said, "It’s not a good business model to have firemen and policemen or your first responders, and teachers in my opinion are a necessity, to be able to go on strike for wages and collective bargaining was brought in as part of that solution."

Did other states prohibit teachers from going on strike?

See also: Laws regarding public school employee strikes in other states

As of 2025, 37 states and Washington, D.C., prohibited public school teachers from striking. Nevada enacted its ban on public employee strikes in 1969.

Text of measure

Full text

The ballot measure would add a Section 720 to Chapter 288 to the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS). The following underlined text would be added:

NRS 288.720 Prohibitions on strikes do not apply to certain local government employees, employee organizations, bargaining agents, and bargaining units. 1. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the provisions of NRS 288. 700 through NRS 288. 715 and any other law prohibiting strikes shall not apply to local government employees licensed as teachers pursuant to Chapter 391 of the Nevada Revised Statutes and their employee organizations, bargaining agents, and bargaining units. 2. As used in this section: "teacher" means a person licensed pursuant to chapter 391 of NRS who is classified by the board of trustees of a school district: (a) As a teacher and who spends at least 50 percent of his or her work year providing instruction or discipline to pupils; (b) As instructional support staff, who does not hold a supervisory position and who spends not more than 50 percent of his or her work year providing instruction to pupils. Such instructional support staff includes, without limitation, librarians and persons who provide instructional support; or (c) As school counselors, school nurses and other employees who spend at least 50 percent of their work year providing emotional support, non instructional guidance or medical support to pupils.

Support

A Teacher in Every Classroom is leading the campaign in support of the measure.

Supporters

Officials

• State Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro (D)

Unions

• Clark County Education Association

Arguments

• Marie Neisess, president of the Clark County Education Association: "We’re looking for resolutions. This isn’t a quick fix to say oh, we’re immediately going to call for a strike. We don’t want to do that. We want to be able to change this process. Because, clearly, binding arbitration does not work and having our educators as well as our students and community wait months on end for things to be settled is not acceptable."

Opposition

Opponents

Officials

• Gov. Joe Lombardo (R)

Arguments

• Dr. Jesus Jara, superintendent of the Clark County School District: "CCEA missed an opportunity to equitably compensate our veteran teachers with the lookback we proposed. For the sake of the community, CCEA’s time, energy, and member dues can best be deployed on behalf of our educators, who show up daily for students. The law they seek to overturn exists to prevent community chaos and its adverse impacts on our economies and families. We need more transparency, not chaos, in public sector negotiations. Transparent public sector negotiations would benefit our teachers, students, and taxpayers rather than attempts to sow more discord."
• Gov. Joe Lombardo (R): "It's not a good business model to have firemen and policemen or your first responders, and teachers in my opinion are a necessity, to be able to go on strike for wages and collective bargaining was brought in as part of that solution."

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Nevada ballot measures

The campaign finance information on this page reflects the most recent scheduled reports that Ballotpedia has processed, which covered through December 31, 2024.

A Teacher in Every Classroom is the campaign registered in support of the initiative.

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$2,500,000.00	$0.00	$2,500,000.00	$2,380,350.90	$2,380,350.90
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$2,500,000.00	$0.00	$2,500,000.00	$2,380,350.90	$2,380,350.90

Support

The following table includes contribution and expenditure totals for the committees in support of the measure.

Committees in support of Exempt School Teachers from Public Employee Strike Ban Initiative
Committee	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
A Teacher in Every Classroom	$2,500,000.00	$0.00	$2,500,000.00	$2,380,350.90	$2,380,350.90
Total	$2,500,000.00	$0.00	$2,500,000.00	$2,380,350.90	$2,380,350.90

Methodology

To read Ballotpedia's methodology for covering ballot measure campaign finance information, click here.

Background

Status of public employee striking in Nevada

In 1969, the Local Government Employee-Management Relations Act was passed in Nevada, which made it illegal for local government employees to strike. This included public schools teachers, police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers, and other municipal and county employees. The law provided for government employees to be represented by unions. State law defines a strike as any concerted stoppage of work, slowdown or interruption of operations by public employees, including absences based on false pretenses, such as illness.

Lawsuits

In September 2023, the Clark County School District (CCSD) filed a lawsuit against the Clark County Education Association (CCEA), a union representing 18,000 school staff in 380 schools in Clark County, in the Clark County District Court. The lawsuit said that the "sickouts", or coordinated teacher absences, constituted an illegal strike under the 1969 Local Government Employee-Management Relations Act, which bans work stoppages, slowdowns, or other concerted disruptions by public-sector employees. On September 11, 2023, Judge Crystal Eller granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the district, ruling that the sickouts did in fact constitute a strike and ordering CCEA to cease further disruption.

On October 9, 2023, the CCEA filed a lawsuit against the CCSD and the state of Nevada. The CCEA said that the Local Government Employee-Management Relations Act is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment right of the employees to free speech and right to assembly. CCEA also filed an anti-SLAPP motion, saying that CCSD’s lawsuit was also a violation of protected speech. That motion was later denied by the court. CCEA appealed both the injunction and the anti-SLAPP ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court. On May 3, 2024, the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed CCEA’s appeal, since the underlying dispute had been resolved through contract negotiations in 2024. As of June 2025, CCEA's constitutional challenge to the strike prohibition remained active in the Clark County District Court.

Laws regarding public school employee strikes in other states

As of June 2025, 37 states and Washington, D.C., prohibit public school employees from striking. The map below shows which states permit and which states prohibit public school employees from striking:

Path to the ballot

Process in Nevada

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Nevada

In Nevada, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirect initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the total votes cast in the most recent general election. Moreover, signature gathering must be distributed equally among each of the state's four congressional districts. The initial filing of an initiated state statute cannot be made before January 1 of the year preceding the next regular legislative session. Signature petitions must be filed with county officials by the second Tuesday in November of an even-numbered year—two years prior to the targeted election date. The final submission of signatures to the secretary of state must be made at least 30 days prior to the start of the next regular legislative session.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2026 ballot:

• Signatures: 102,362 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures to county clerks was November 20, 2024.

Signatures are verified by county clerks using a random sampling method if more than 500 signatures were submitted in that county. If enough signatures are submitted and verified, the initiative goes before the legislature. If the legislature approves and the governor signs the measure, there is no election. Otherwise, the initiative goes on the next general election ballot.

Stages of this ballot initiative

• The A Teacher in Every Classroom committee filed the measure with the secretary of state on January 11, 2024.
• According to the campaign, signatures were submitted during the week of November 18, 2024. The campaign hired Advanced Micro Targeting to gather signatures.
• On December 11, 2024, the secretary of state verified that the petition had enough valid signatures. Petitioners were required to gather at least 25,591 valid signatures in each of the four petition districts and 102,362 valid signatures statewide. In total, petitioners submitted 127,812 valid signatures. The signature amount in each district was as follows:

• Petition District No. 1: 30,957
• Petition District No. 2: 35,562
• Petition District No. 3: 31,193
• Petition District No. 4: 30,100

• The initiative was received by the Nevada State Legislature on February 3, 2025, and read for the first time on March 3, 2025. Pursuant to the Nevada Constitution, no further action could be taken on the legislation after March 15, 2025, thus certifying the measure for the ballot.
• On May 29, Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) signed Senate Bill 161, which clarified that protests and pickets don't constitute a strike under state law, but would allow a school to discipline teachers for striking during school hours. As a result of the passage of SB 161, the initiative was withdrawn on June 9, 2025.

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in Nevada

See below to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in Nevada.

How to vote in Nevada

Poll times

All polling places in Nevada are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time. An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote.

Registration

Check your voter registration status here.

To register to vote in Nevada, each applicant must be must a citizen of the United States, a resident of Nevada for at least 30 days before the election, and at least 18 years old by the day of the election.

Seventeen-year-olds can preregister to vote. Anyone who has been declared mentally incompetent by a court may not register to vote.

A voter registration application can be completed in person at the county clerk’s office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, other social service agencies, or college campuses. In-person registration must be completed 28 days before regular elections; registration forms submitted by mail must be postmarked by the same day. Online applications must be submitted by the Thursday before regular elections.

Nevada also allows same-day registration.

Automatic registration

See also: Automatic voter registration

Nevada automatically registers eligible individuals to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Online registration

See also: Online voter registration

Nevada has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website.

Same-day registration

See also: Same-day voter registration

Nevada allows same-day voter registration at polling places during early voting and on election day.

Residency requirements

In order to register to vote in Nevada, applicants must be a resident of the state for at least 30 days prior to the election.

Verification of citizenship

See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States

Nevada does not require proof of citizenship for voter registration. An individual applying to register to vote must attest that they are a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury.

All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. Seven states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming — have laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration, whether in effect or not. One state, Ohio, requires proof of citizenship only when registering to vote at a Bureau of Motor Vehicles facility. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters.

Verifying your registration

The Nevada Secretary of State’s office allows residents to check their voter registration status online by visiting this website.

Voter ID requirements

Nevada does not require voters to present identification while voting, in most cases. A voter in Nevada must sign their name in the election board register at his or her polling place. The signature is compared with the signature on the voter's original application to vote or another form of identification, such as a driver's license, a state identification card, military identification, or another government-issued ID.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires that individuals who register to vote by mail and who have not voted previously in a federal election in their state must provide either their driver's license or a paycheck, bank statement, current utility bill, or government document showing their name and address. Individuals voting by mail must include a copy of one of those documents with their absentee/mail-in ballot.

These requirements do not apply if an individual submitted a copy of their identification, their driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering to vote.

See also

2026 measures

• 2026 ballot measures
• Education on the ballot
• Labor and unions on the ballot

Nevada

• Nevada ballot measures
• Nevada ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Text of Initiative

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