Legislature(2021 - 2022)DAVIS 106
03/17/2021 08:00 AM House EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB43 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 43 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
March 17, 2021
8:04 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Harriet Drummond, Co-Chair
Representative Andi Story, Co-Chair
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky (via teleconference)
Representative Grier Hopkins
Representative Mike Prax
Representative Mike Cronk
Representative Ronald Gillham
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
HOUSE BILL NO. 43
"An Act extending the termination date of the special education
service agency; and providing for an effective date."
- HEARD & HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: HB 43
SHORT TITLE: EXTEND SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICE AGENCY
SPONSOR(s): REPRESENTATIVE(s) STORY
02/18/21 (H) PREFILE RELEASED 1/8/21
02/18/21 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/18/21 (H) HSS, FIN
02/19/21 (H) EDC REPLACES HSS REFERRAL
02/19/21 (H) BILL REPRINTED
03/17/21 (H) EDC AT 8:00 AM DAVIS 106
WITNESS REGISTER
MARY HAKALA, Staff
Representative Andi Story
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented HB 43 on behalf of Representative
Story, prime sponsor.
KRIS CURTIS
Legislative Budget and Audit
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented and answered questions during the
hearing of HB 43.
PATRICK PILLAI
Executive Director, Special Education Service Agency
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented and answered questions during the
hearing of HB 43.
BEN GRIESE, Special Education Teacher
South West Region School District
City & State
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the hearing of HB 43.
NATALIE VORON, Special Education Teacher
Sitka School District
Sitka, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the hearing of HB 43.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:04:14 AM
CO-CHAIR HARRIET DRUMMOND called the House Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:04 a.m. Representatives
Zulkosky (via teleconference), Cronk, Gillham, Hopkins, Story,
and Drummond were present at the call to order. Representative
Prax arrived as the meeting was in progress.
HB 43-EXTEND SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICE AGENCY
8:05:00 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND announced that the only order of business
would be HOUSE BILL NO. 43, "An Act extending the termination
date of the special education service agency; and providing for
an effective date."
8:05:17 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY, as prime sponsor, introduced HB 43.
8:08:20 AM
MARY HAKALA, Staff to Representative Story, provided an overview
of supporting documents [included in the committee packet],
beginning with sectional analysis of HB 43, Special Education
Service Agency (SESA) - Sunset Extension, which served Special
Education high-needs students wherever they lived in Alaska.
Section 1 extended the sunset [termination] date for SESA to
June 30, 2029; Section 2 provided for an immediate effective
date upon passage of HB 43. Children served by SESA had complex
disorders including deafness and blindness, were developmentally
and physically impaired, severely emotionally disturbed, and
were students with multiple disabilities, she shared. The staff
at SESA worked both directly and remotely with teachers,
paraprofessionals, and parents, she added.
MS. HAKALA shared SESA's funding formula/rate [included in
members' packets], which was $18.65 multiplied by the statewide
foundation average daily membership count, [the student count
from previous fiscal year], which has remained unchanged since
2013. She shared SESA's caseload has grown from 206 students in
2012 to 335 students in 2020, a 63 percent increase, with no
adjustment to the rate.
8:13:02 AM
KRIS CURTIS, Legislative Budget and Audit, directed attention to
page 5 of the SESA audit report, first outlining the creation of
SESA: SESA was created to help Alaska's school districts
provide special education services to individuals with a low
incidence disability (LID), she shared. Occurring in less than
1 percent of the national school-aged population, LIDs are more
severe in nature and required specialized educational
intervention, she added, and continued with further information
about its inception: SESA was established as a nonprofit
corporation whose governing authority was the Governor's Council
on Disabilities and Special Education, organizationally located
within the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS).
However, SESA's primary service, the LID Outreach Program, is
budgeted and funded by Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED), she explained. Funding for SESA provided
additional financial support to help ensure students affected by
LIDs were receiving the free and appropriate public education
required by state and federal law, she shared.
MS. CURTIS explained SESA services were available to districts
whose low incidence special education needs occurred
infrequently, making it difficult for the district to serve low
numbers of students in need of a particular service.
Furthermore, SESA recruited, trained, and retained education
specialists to provide special education technical assistance
and training to parents, students, and district staff without
regard to location in the state. She drew members' attention to
a map on page 8 of her presentation, which showed the location
and number of students served by SESA: 335 students across 48
districts. This information was also located in Appendix C to
the audit report, beginning on page 27 and broken down by LID
category, she added.
8:15:39 AM
MS. CURTIS continued with report conclusions on page 11:
overall, the audit concluded SESA has served the public's
interest by assisting school districts in providing students
affected by LIDs an education to meet the students' unique
needs; by providing opportunities to enhance teachers' and
paraprofessionals' capabilities; and by providing LID and
special education resources. Ms. Curtis shared the
recommendation SESA be extended eight years, the maximum length
of time allowed in statute. According to Ms. Curtis, as part of
the audit, a survey was sent to the 51 school district special
education directors served by SESA. Thirty district directors
responded, a 59 percent response rate, a little lower than was
expected, she pointed out, which may be pandemic-related. In
general, survey respondents viewed SESA services, staff
availability, and expertise favorably, she stated. Survey
questions and responses were included in Appendix C of the
report, she added.
MS. CURTIS repeated the details of the formula Ms. Hakala had
presented in her opening remarks, expounding on them by adding
that although SESA's LID caseload had significantly increased,
the agency did not request an increase in funding to allow for
additional staff due to declining state operating budgets and
challenges with recruiting and retaining specialists. As a
result, education specialists serving certain LID categories
experienced high caseloads, and as of February 2020, the agency
had three educational specialist vacancies. A statutory funding
formula that incorporated inflation would help ensure SESA's LID
funding was not reduced by the passage of time, she imparted.
8:17:30 AM
MS. CURTIS reviewed recommendations and audit response on page
18: the auditors had reviewed 42 students' files and found that
five students' disabilities [12 percent], as identified in the
school district referral form, had been reclassified by a SESA
education specialist without having provided adequate
documentation. Additionally, four of the five student files
lacked documentation to show SESA staff communicated the
students' revised disability category to school district
personnel. School district staff determined a student's
eligibility for special education services, obtained the
necessary parental signature[s], and provided SESA the
supporting documentation that included the student's disability
on the required written referral. In some instances, SESA staff
reclassified a student's disability based on a specialist's
assessment of a student's educational needs, she shared.
MS. CURTIS shared responses to the audit on page 35: generally,
Commissioner Michael Johnson, DEED, the DHSS, and SESA concurred
with report conclusions and recommendations.
8:18:53 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND asked about the funding formula related to the
number of students with LIDs.
MS. CURTIS said the formula was based on the average daily
membership (ADM), or fall [student] count. If the ADM went
down, funding would also go down, she stated. At the time of
the last sunset audit in 2012, the rate hadn't changed in 14
years. The current rate has been in place for eight years, she
stated.
8:20:41 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS asked if the formula could be changed at
any point, not just within HB 43.
MS. CURTIS replied yes.
8:20:57 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY commented it was helpful to survey districts and
asked if it was common practice to get a response to the audit
confirming steps had been followed.
MS. CURTIS replied there was always a formal response from
management included in the back of an audit. She added in most
cases corrective action was also provided.
8:22:12 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND commented serving 53 school districts was a
lot of management and confirmed 60 percent had been received on
the survey.
MS. CURTIS replied that management from an audit perspective
would entail with whom the audit would be done, which was
determined to be the SESA board chair and the two commissioners
that oversaw departments. The goal was to determine SESA was
serving the public and had expertise and quality, and the survey
was an excellent means of obtaining that information.
8:23:47 AM
PATRICK PILLAI, Executive Director, Special Education Service
Agency, provided a PowerPoint presentation, titled "SESA
Introduction." He directed attention to slide 2, SESA's website
[www.sesa.org], which contained its mission statement: "SESA
provides consultation and training to support the unique
educational needs of individuals and the Alaskan communities
that serve them." The legacy of SESA support followed the
Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) of 1975 reauthorized in
2004 and amended in 2015 to the "Every Student Succeeds Act,"
and which demanded a free and public education to students with
disabilities, he imparted; SESA helped parents and school
district staff make tangible, through specialized educational
interventions, the services mandated by special education law.
8:26:01 AM
MR. PILLAI went over statute AS 14.30.630(b)(1), which required
SESA to provide special education services, including access to
specialists and other resources, to LID students. Through the
"qualification" statute AS14.30.350, SESA was able to provide
students who fit outside the LID realm, such as those with
Autism. The "Logic Model" presented on slide 6 captured the
process of delivering specialized services to parents, students,
and districts with the intent of addressing the gap via
solutions that promoted availability of SESA services through
on-site and distance support. The approach created broad
participant training, [indisc.] staff turnover, and promoted
collaboration between teachers and paraprofessionals, he shared.
MR. PILLAI stated SESA's approach reduced isolation and promoted
teacher retention, especially in remote areas. Benchmarks were
created to ensure SESA was holding itself to a high standard, he
said, adding benchmarks provided a threshold of expectation and
guided specialist expectation for continuous improvement. The
flow of service delivery was designed to gather information and
meet site needs, he stated. "Technical Assistance" was
demystified on slide 8, Mr. Pillai going over the continuum of
service including student observations, assessments, educational
interventions, modeling of strategies, in-service trainings, and
many more pertinent activities based on requests from
educational team members. Specialists also worked with vendors
to help deal with device malfunction, he shared.
8:28:18 AM
MR. PILLAI shared on slide 9 that by using feedback on the
annual public audit and sunset legislative audits, SESA had
designed a program and specialist evaluation system using
metrics in which each specialist would be evaluated annually
using a standardized evaluation form, and in which each
specialist, post provision of service, would email an agency-
designed satisfaction survey to service recipients. The
satisfaction survey would be analyzed for indicators including
quality of service, level of preparedness, coordination with
site staff, preferred mode of technical assistance, and use of
evidence-based practices. Evaluations were also used to collect
data on various aspects of agency activity, he shared. These
metrics focused on mission-centric activities such as site
travel, creation of educational materials, training, and in-
services, and writing of student service reports, he stated. On
slide 11 Mr. Pillai shared a visual example of the customized
management system SESA designed to ensure data-driven decision
making. Individual reports provided data on specialist
activity, allowing for measurement of productivity, and were
completed within the agency timeframe of ten working days.
8:30:28 AM
MR. PILLAI shared slide 12, an example of electronic versions of
student records, and slide 13, a line graph of number of
students between 2011 and 2020. The solid blue line showed a
steady increase on SESA's LID caseload, he pointed out, while
slide 14 showed a history of SESA fund balance. The last
funding increase was in 2013, he pointed out.
8:32:05 AM
MR. PILLAI shared slide 15, the legislative audit report from
November 12, 2020, which concurred SESA met the needs of
students with LIDs, provided opportunities to enhance teachers'
and paraprofessionals' capabilities, and provided LID and
special education resources to staff, and concluded with a
recommendation for reauthorization. Reauthorization was
requested by SESA, Mr. Pillai shared, so as to continue to offer
key services to the state which included all the areas of
technical assistance reviewed earlier in the presentation, he
stated. The database allowed SESA to run reports of
productivity, he imparted. Slide 17 captured activities of
technical assistance, the number of schools and districts
served, the number of trainings conducted on-site and via
distance delivery, as well as an analysis of expenses, he
shared.
8:33:47 AM
REPRESENTATIVE GILLHAM asked how many employees SESA had.
MR. PILLAI replied 20 full employees: one administrator [Mr.
Pillai]; one administrator-in-training; 14 technical specialists
who traveled to school districts; one technologist; one
librarian, and two program assistants.
8:34:30 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY asked whether SESA had adequate funding to keep
its resource library, specifically literature pertaining to
Autism, current.
MR. PILLAI replied yes, adding the library was updated
frequently and districts could test materials before adopting
them. He added between the LID program and the Alaska Autism
Resource Center resources were plentiful.
CO-CHAIR STORY asked about distance trainings and how often
staff participated in video conferences with families, even
before COVID-19.
MR. PILLAI replied that the decision to move to video technology
was a product of availability of resources and previous
legislative audits. He added it had come up that investment in
technology represented cost savings to the state, and as such
SESA had invested in technology to supplement onsite visits with
Zoom meetings. During COVID-19, families who had already
established in-person contact fared better than those who had to
begin the process over Zoom, he related.
CO-CHAIR STORY asked if SESA had received COVID-19 funds to help
during the pandemic.
MR. PILLAI replied no, Alaska CARES Act funding began at 50
employees, and SESA did not qualify because it had 20 employees.
8:39:50 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND asked about the 464 distance-delivered
activities; whether each activity involved one student, or if
they were combined based on needs.
MR. PILLAI replied most activities were single-student-based
unless a site requested in-service trainings for entire schools
or multiple teachers.
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND confirmed "hands-on activities" were done via
a specialist working remotely guiding the teacher.
MR. PILLAI affirmed that. He explained for students with
emotional disabilities, a school in crisis mode needed to be
viewed in real time via Nest cameras and other intervention
techniques. When behavior was deescalated, aides were sometimes
not needed, he added.
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND asked if additional equipment needed to be
acquired, since SESA switched to a distance model.
MR. PILLAI replied no massive update had been required as SESA
had already been using technology effectively for several years.
8:45:56 AM
BEN GRIESE, Special Education Teacher, South West Region School
District, advocated for SESA, especially in rural parts of
Alaska such as his village of New Stuyahok with inconsistently
reliable technology and a high rate of teacher turnover. He
provided examples of SESA's impact regarding training teachers
and advocating for students. He related that the four teaching
awards he has received over the last seven years should all be
credited to SESA; that he could not have earned them without the
organization.
8:49:14 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND asked how many people lived in the village of
New Stuyahok and how many students were in the school.
MR. GRIESE replied the village was 550 people, and the school,
Pre-K - 12, was 150 students. He added that he sometimes had to
travel between 8 and 60 miles to deliver special education
needs, and since the village was off the road system this travel
was often completed by boat or snow machine.
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND confirmed that he traveled throughout the
district and did not just stay in the village.
MR. GRIESE replied yes, but primarily he was in New Stuyahok.
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND asked if prior to COVID-19, SESA staff made
on-site visits.
MR. GRIESE replied yes, two to three times a year, in addition
to doing work online, he added.
8:51:17 AM
REPRESENTATIVE PRAX sought to clarify SESA worked directly with
students in addition to working with teachers.
MR. GRIESE explained SESA provided staff training, but that
working with kids and families was necessary to know how to
train teachers, especially in the village. He added this
approach was the best way for students' independence to
progress.
REPRESENTATIVE PRAX clarified SESA came to a district of a
teacher's request.
MR. GRIESE replied yes, and it was up to the teacher to keep the
ball rolling.
8:56:53 AM
NATALIE VORON, Special Education Teacher, Sitka School District,
also spoke to the invaluable service SESA provided, especially
with its specific materials for different levels of Autism. She
related anecdotally SESA's delivery of an integral resource in
just two days, and the multiple ways in which the organization
has been able to help students, families, and teachers alike.
8:59:47 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND asked how SESA was able to deliver in just two
days.
MS. VORON replied through GoldStreak flight service.
9:00:56 AM
The committee took an at-ease from 9:00 a.m. to 9:02 a.m.
9:03:42 AM
CO-CHAIR DRUMMOND announced HB 43 was held over.
9:03:57 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Education Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 9:04 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB0043A.PDF |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
HB 43 |
| HB 43 SESA Sponsor Statement Version A.pdf |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
HB 43 |
| HB 43 SESA Sectional Analysis Version A.pdf |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
HB 43 |
| HB43 SESA Presentation .pdf |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
HB 43 |
| 20120-SESA-FINAL-AUDIT LB&A.pdf |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
|
| HB 43 Letters of Support Received 3.15.21.pdf |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
HB 43 |
| HB0043-EED-SS-3-11-21 Fiscal Note.pdf |
HEDC 3/17/2021 8:00:00 AM |
HB 43 |