Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/07/2003 01:33 PM Senate HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 110-UNDER SCHOOL AGE STUDENTS
CHAIR FRED DYSON announced SB 110 to be up for consideration.
MR. EDDY JEANS, School Finance Manager, Department of Education
and Early Development, explained this legislation would clarify
in statute the ability of school districts to early-enroll
children who are under school age, if they are ready for the
academics that are being provided to them. The reason the
department asked for this legislation is that it has come to
their attention that a number of school districts in the state
are basically blanketly enrolling all four-year olds in what
they call a two-year kindergarten program. The department does
not believe that was the intent of this legislation and that it
was intended strictly to allow the exceptional child to get in
early. The bill says the state's intent is to provide 13 years
of funding for K-12, not 14 years of funding.
SENATOR GRETCHEN GUESS asked if this prohibits a school district
from having a two-year kindergarten if they want to use other
sources of funding.
MR. JEANS replied that it would not. It just says they would not
be able to claim those kids for state foundation funding.
SENATOR BETTYE DAVIS asked how much this would save and how many
school districts were doing it. She asked if the children who
are identified as needing the two years would be able to
continue.
MR. JEANS replied the department believes this section of
statute was intended for the exceptional child coming into
kindergarten at four-years old and advance to first grade at
five years old as opposed to coming into kindergarten at five
like most do. Some schools have instituted a two-year
kindergarten program, but he would argue that it's preschool.
SENATOR DAVIS repeated how many exceptional students are there.
"Do you know the number?"
MR. JEANS replied that their fiscal note identifies all four-
year olds that were claimed under the foundation formula this
year. There is a savings of $3.9 million. "We believe some of
these children are eligible to be early-enrolled, but the exact
number I could not tell you. We believe it's a very small
number."
He noted that right now over 600 four-year olds have been
enrolled in school statewide.
SENATOR DAVIS asked if he had asked the districts to identify
those children.
MR. JEANS replied that the districts do evaluations, but the
standards have been set low enough to allow any four year old to
enter into kindergarten. He explained that the age date in
statute is August 15, so if a child turns 5 on August 17, he can
be evaluated to determine if he is ready to enter kindergarten.
We're trying to address an issue that's come to our
attention since we started collecting student level
data and we can identify that in some school
districts, the population of four year olds is almost
identical to the population of five year olds, which
leads us to believe they are enrolling them all.
SENATOR WILKEN asked when this first surfaced as a foundation
formula issue.
MR. JEANS replied they had been collecting student level data
for four years. He heard rumors of it prior to collecting the
data, but he couldn't verify it. He now has birth dates.
SENATOR WILKEN noted a spreadsheet in their packets that show
five school districts account for about $2.5 million of the $3.5
million in funding.
CHAIR DYSON said it was recommended that lines 11-13 be deleted.
MR. JEANS replied that is correct. It was a clerical error and
the House had already deleted it from their bill. He explained
that the last sentence says a child under school age may be
admitted to first grade or higher, if they meet the minimum
standards. This would prevent that exceptional child from being
able to enter kindergarten. He added that this is not strictly a
foundation program issue. "If we provide foundation funding for
four-year olds, then we have to allow those kids to be counted
for space. So, it also affects our facility site at the shop."
SENATOR GUESS said she hoped that an under-age school child was
defined somewhere. Are they just talking about kindergarten to
first grade? She wanted to make sure there were no unintended
consequences at any other grade levels.
MR. JEANS replied that was right. It is not their intent to
prevent children who need to be held back from being held back.
The funding is based on 13 years of schooling.
MR. JOHN DAVIS, Superintendent of the Bering Straits School
District, opposed SB 110. He said it represents an effort to
control state spending, but he is concerned that it would only
save money in the short term. This service is being provided to
children who are among the most vulnerable and educationally
needy. However, the reduction in funding for this program would
not create the $3.5 million represented. He contended that the
bill would cost the district and state additional funds in
remedial services and other special services to help those
students who will need any help they can get in the future, but
that in his district that would not be a large number. The
Bering Straits School District has participated in this program
for the last 13 years and he contends this is not a new issue to
the department.
SUPERINTENDENT DAVIS said that they had heard that this program
is intended for only 13 years, but students who do not qualify
for a diploma through a high school qualifying exam will be
eligible for yet another year of school and possibly two. He
would like to continue this program to see that students have
this effort early and the expectation of passing the exam will
be more likely.
CHAIR DYSON asked how many students he has enrolled in this
category.
SUPERINTENDENT DAVIS replied that he has 100 children per class
in his school district and this category has 90 students.
District wide there is a student count of 1,800.
MR. BRUCE JOHNSON, Association of Alaska School Boards, drew
their attention to the governor's investment plan as he outlined
his budget. One of the categories under the mission for the
Department of Education and Early Development states high
quality early care and education programs that improve the well
being of young children. Their contention is that the statute as
it currently exists allows for that early intervention into the
lives of four-year olds who often reside in poor, remote, rural
areas of our state. The notion is that the state begins to serve
those kids as a preventative action. A study conducted by the
Economic Policy Institute talks about equity at the starting
gate regarding social background and differences in achievement
as children begin school. This study validates that children
enter school with wide achievement disparities and that children
in the highest socio-economic groups scored 60 percent higher in
mathematics and reading as compared to children in the lowest
categories. These findings have helped support what many
educators have known for years - the achievement gap begins long
before children enter school.
CHAIR DYSON stated that he personally didn't see any correlation
between economic standards and school success. He thought the
social and cultural values of a family make the biggest
difference.
SENATOR WILKEN asked if they didn't do anything about SB 110,
would the Fairbanks North Star Borough be able to count all
four-year olds as kindergarteners.
MR. JEANS replied that is what could happen this issue is before
the Legislature now to get some clarity on application of the
statute.
SENATOR WILKEN said this looks truly like a policy call that is
driven by the finances.
CHAIR DYSON asked Mr. Jeans if he need legislation to be able to
regulate the qualification standards.
MR. JEANS answered that local school districts set the standards
by department regulation. A number of different instruments can
be used to assess whether or not a child is ready for
kindergarten or first grade and the department did not feel it
could say which particular assessment everyone should use. He
felt that regulation basically had no effect. He said this
legislation would go a long way to cure the problem.
SENATOR GREEN moved on page 1, to delete language on line 12
beginning with "a child" through line 13. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR DAVIS said she needed some clarification. She said
people in those five school districts whom she has talked with
say those children need more time. They are not coming in
because they're exceptional, but because they will need more
than kindergarten in order to move into the first grade and they
want to start with them as early as they can. That service
should be provided to those that need it, like with the
Headstart program.
SENATOR GREEN said it would be interesting to compare the two
programs in Finance.
SENATOR DAVIS said that Headstart was not necessarily in the
five districts that are using this program.
TAPE 03-17, SIDE B
SENATOR DAVIS said that some of districts might have Headstart,
but that some kids from every district need more than 13 years
to get through school. Some kids are kept in kindergarten and
some are held back in first grade. She said this bill hurts the
kids who need it the most.
MR. JEANS agreed with many of the things she said, but they are
talking about a policy call of whether or not the State of
Alaska wants to provide preschool funding through the foundation
program. Many districts would enroll four year olds if they
thought they were going to get state funding for them. Many of
the districts on the list generate impact aid funding. If they
operate a preschool program, they will continue to generate
impact aid funding, which the state will not count in the
foundation program. The districts would be able to retain 100
percent of that funding and continue to support their program.
It's a fairness question. If some can do it, all have to be able
to do it.
SENATOR WILKEN moved to pass CSSB 110 (HES) from committee with
individual recommendations and attached fiscal note. There were
no objections and it was so ordered.
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