LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Department of Education is considering a five-year, $29.2 million contract with a company that’s offering a new approach to the majority of statewide academic tests for elementary students.

The education board has chosen the Northwest Evaluation Association to give reading, math and science tests to third- through eighth-graders.

After recurring technical problems with a previously contracted company, state officials decided to seek other proposals that broadened the testing company’s role and changed the questions’ formatting. The change is part of a larger effort to create an accountability system for schools that relies on more than test scores.

State education assessment director Valorie Foy says Northwest’s proposal includes assessments schools can use to gauge student performance in addition to the state tests.

The board will vote on the contract Friday.

TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) — State prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for a prison inmate charged with fatally attacking his cellmate at a troubled state prison.

Patrick Schroeder appeared Wednesday in Johnson County Court on first-degree murder and weapons-use charges in the April 15 death of 22-year-old Terry Berry Jr. Schroeder’s preliminary hearing has been set for June 12.

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office said in a news release Wednesday that it will seek the death penalty in the case.

Investigators say Berry and Schroeder were the only occupants in the cell at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution where Berry was found unresponsive. He later died at a hospital. An autopsy said he had been strangled.

Schroeder is already serving a life for the 2006 killing of 75-year-old Pawnee City farmer Kenneth Albers.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Abortion concerns are dominating a legislative debate over the Nebraska state budget.

Lawmakers who support abortion rights argued Wednesday that senators should strip out a budget provision that could lead to funding cuts for abortion providers. Opponents say the proposal could force clinics throughout the state to cut services or close, leaving thousands of women without access to reproductive health care.

The proposal would allow state officials to reduce or eliminate federal funding for the state’s two Planned Parenthood Clinics that perform abortions. But it also could mean less funding for clinics that specialize in reproductive health but don’t provide abortions.

Lawmakers will have to come up with another $50 million to balance the state budget, based on the latest revenue projections.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Latest on Nebraska lawmakers debating bills (all times local):

2:50 p.m.

People who were sexually assaulted as children would have more time to sue their abusers under a bill passed by the Nebraska Legislature.

Lawmakers voted 46-0 Wednesday to approve a measure that removes a statute of limitations on civil lawsuits for childhood sexual assault. Current law requires victims of childhood sexual assault to sue their abuser by their 33rd birthday, and the change would allow victims to sue at any age.

Victims still would have until their 33rd birthday to sue people or entities that enabled the assault, such as a school with an abusive employee.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, says the measure will help victims who need more time to come to terms with abuse.

The bill now heads to Gov. Pete Ricketts.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers have advanced a bill that could let some appointed state senators serve close to two and a half years before they face an election.

Senators amended the measure Wednesday to say seats filled between Feb. 1 and May 1 of the second year of a term will be up in the November general election.

Lawmakers appointed before Feb. 1 would face a primary and general election, and senators appointed after May 1 would hold their seats until the end of the four-year term.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Murante of Gretna, says the changes will give county election commissioners more time to organize elections.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker says he has enough support to overturn Gov. Pete Ricketts’ veto and pass a law allowing people convicted of felonies to vote two years earlier.

Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha said Wednesday he was confident at least 30 senators will vote to allow felons to cast ballots immediately after finishing their sentences. He says the restriction only exists because the writers of Nebraska’s constitution wanted to keep black men from voting.

Ricketts says the bill would violate the state’s constitution and two years is a reasonable time to wait. Sen. John Murante of Gretna led the opposition to the bill on the floor and says enough senators will vote to sustain the governor’s veto.

Wayne expects a vote Friday or Monday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The family of an inmate killed in a 2015 riot at a prison in southeast Nebraska has sued the state.

The mother of Shon Collins says in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Lancaster County that the state failed to protect him and that the Tecumseh prison was not properly staffed on May 10, 2015, when the riot broke out. Authorities have said the 46-year-old Collins and fellow inmate Donald Peacock were killed by other prisoners, but none has been charged.

The lawsuit does not list a specific figure being sought, but the family had sought $1.2 million in damages when it filed a claim against the state in 2016.

A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Correctional Services Department said Wednesday the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Gov. Pete Ricketts says Nebraska will take “swift action” to get prison inmates’ DNA samples after a report revealed that dozens of inmates have refused to comply with state law requiring felons to submit a DNA sample.

Over 70 inmates in Nebraska have refused to give their DNA over the past 20 years by simply declining. Law enforcement officials, such as Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine and Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, are calling on the Corrections Department to forcefully obtain a refusing prisoner’s DNA sample.

Republican Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha says state officials have been trying to address “larger” issues of overcrowding and understaffing in prisons, but “it seems that Rome is burning right under our nose operationally.”