Legislature(1999 - 2000)
02/09/2000 01:35 PM Senate HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 85-TEACHERS'LICENSES, DISCIPLINE & ETHICS
MS. SANNA GREEN, Deputy Director, Professional Teaching Practices
Commission (PTPC), said the purpose of the bill is essentially to
consolidate statutes in a single place and add some new provisions.
In order to make things consistent, the word "certification" has
been changed to "license."
The rest of the bill gives the PTPC the authority to do some of the
things it has been doing in practice. She said one of the new
sections is a compilation of the grounds for denial of
applications.
The PTPC would like reciprocal discipline in Alaska for an educator
who has been disciplined in another jurisdiction. To do that now,
the PTPC has to go through the whole hearing process. Notification
is available through the national clearinghouse, but the PTPC has
to go through a hearing process. This change would speed things
up.
The PTPC would like to expand the waiting period from one to five
years for reinstatement, because one year is not sufficient. It
wants to add that misrepresentation of a material fact on an
employment application is grounds for discipline. Right now the
PTPC can discipline if a fact is misrepresented on an application
for certification, but they want to include misrepresentation on an
application to a school district.
The PTPC would like the authority to put conditions on teaching
licenses.
The PTPC wants the authority to impose a civil fine against a
person who is regulated by state law but does not hold a license.
The main people covered by that provision would be teachers in
higher education who are under their jurisdiction by statute but
have no license. There are hardly any disciplinary sanctions the
PTPC can impose on that group. The PTPC would like the ability to
impose a civil fine of up to $5,000 (although that amount is
limited in the proposed legislation).
The bill also contains a provision that a person's license is
suspended or revoked from employment as a member of the teaching
profession even if the position does not require a license. There
is a case where it revoked the certificate of a superintendent and
then the school district wished to rehire him back in the same
position as a noncertificated employee.
It would also like to strengthen the provisions of confidentiality
of minors.
The PTPC would like a provision to provide immunity from liability
for persons who participate in good faith in their proceedings.
They have this now, but it is a little restrictive.
They would like to mandate that a person who accepts a job that
requires a certificate and doesn't have one could be charged with
a class B misdemeanor if they don't petition to get one. This has
happened, because the person can just say they have applied for the
certificate when they are hired for 90 days (while presumably the
Department is going through the process of getting them licensed).
Number 1605
SENATOR WILKEN asked if the PTPC supports the legislation
unanimously.
MS. GREEN replied that it does.
SENATOR WILKEN added that the Department of Education is in full
support also.
CHAIRMAN MILLER said he thought this was a worthy piece of
legislation, but it bothers him when state agencies do something
and then ask for the authority to do it later; this is the reverse
of the way things should be done.
SENATOR KELLY moved to pass HB 85 from committee with individual
recommendations and the attached zero fiscal note. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
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