Legislature(1993 - 1994)
04/19/1993 09:22 AM Senate STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
April 19, 1993
9:22 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Loren Leman, Chairman
Senator Mike Miller, Vice Chairman
Senator Robin Taylor
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Jim Duncan
Senator Johnny Ellis
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 235(FIN)
"An Act relating to educational programs and services for
children with disabilities and other exceptional children
and to persons with a handicap; and providing for an
effective date."
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
HB 235 - See State Affairs minutes dated 4/14/93.
WITNESS REGISTER
Myra Howe, Director of Special Education
Chris Niemi, Special Education Division
Department of Education
801 W. 10th St., Duite 200
Juneau, AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on HB 235
Marc Grober
Nenana, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke against amendments to HB 235
Bud Martin
Ketchikan School District
Pouch Z
Ketchikan, AK 99901
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on HB 235
Portia Babcock, Staff to Senate State Affairs
Committee
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on amendments
to HB 235
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-29, SIDE A
Number 001
The meeting of the Senate State Affairs Committee was called
to order by Chairman Loren Leman at 9:22 a.m.
SENATOR LEMAN brought CSHB 235(FIN) (SPECIAL EDUCATION &
RELATED SERVICES) before the committee as the only order of
business. He noted Anchorage, Fairbanks, Ketchikan and
Nenana would be participating in the meeting via the
teleconference network. He then invited Myra Howe and
Chris Niemi of the Department of Education to join the
committee at the table.
Number 040
SENATOR LEMAN directed attention to four proposed
amendments.
Amendment No. 1 is a conceptual amendment providing the
right to counsel for indigent parents.
Amendment No. 2 provides that children in nonpublic schools
have the right to the services, but they are not required to
receive those services.
Amendment No. 3 relates to hearing officers and the
methodology for preparing a list and maintaining it and
examinations.
Number 060
MYRA HOWE, Director of Special Education, addressing
subsection (i) in Amendment No. 3, related that currently
the department doesn't have an examination. They hire a
national trainer from Washington, D.C. who does two days of
training. They have maintained a list of 12 hearing
officers, which they do by taking applications, and when
they have completed the training, they are considered to be
qualified to serve as hearing officers.
CHRIS NIEMI added that currently, the hearing officers are
located in Southeast Alaska, Fairbanks and Anchorage. She
outlined the process for training these hearing officers,
saying it does involve considerable cost to the state to
train hearing officers. She added that in the last ten
years, the department has had two training sessions.
SENATOR LEMAN suggested changing the amendment to say that
the department shall qualify hearing officers by completion
of training which shall be open to all residents of the
state, and this qualification for a period not to exceed
five years. He said this would be consistent with the
department's current practice.
MYRA HOWE referred to the second part of Amendment No. 3
which provides that the costs for an appeal will be paid for
by the school district, and she related that the appeal
currently is paid for the Department of Education. SENATOR
LEMAN suggested staying with the current policy.
MS HOWE also pointed out that in the State of Missouri, they
set a certain number of choices for a hearing officer that
the district and the parent can agree on. She suggested
limiting it to three choices. CHRIS NIEMI suggested saying
that the parent and the district would need to agree to one
of the first three of the available hearing officers,
because occasionally someone will not be available.
Number 220
SENATOR LEMAN directed attention to Amendment #4, which
relates to selecting a person to conduct an independent
evaluation. MYRA HOWE clarified the process they have in
place right now. The way the amendment reads, she is
concerned about the costs it is going to incur to the
districts to fly all over getting evaluations if there is
someone closer by who is equally qualified. She suggested
limiting it by changing the language to provide that the
person must be someone mutually agreed to by the district
and the parent.
Number 258
MARC GROBER, testifying from Nenana, spoke against changing
the amendment, saying there should not be any limitation to
any list because he thinks the districts have done a poor
job in maintaining the statutorily mandated lists. He
suggested leaving the amendment in its current form.
Number 325
MARC GROBER stated he has a problem with Amendment No. 1,
saying it doesn't resolve the immediate concern that a
parent needs counsel when the issues first arise, because
having a review on a record that is incomplete or
inappropriate is not going to help anybody. He suggested
that to make it work, to afford the indigent parents counsel
at the hearing level, or instead of having a shadow process
to use the real court system for the initial hearing. VINCE
BERRY, Department of Education, said his fear that it could
possibly create endless involvements on relatively minor
issues. He noted that over the past ten years there have
only been 12 to 14 cases.
Number 353
BUD MARTIN, Ketchikan School District, testifying from
Ketchikan, said he thought the whole purpose of this was to
get parents and the school district together to try and work
out a solution, as opposed to hiring two attorneys going at
each other. MARC GROBER countered that by the time the due
process hearing is requested, that kind of "lets get
together and resolve the problem" scenario has not worked.
He added that if there have been only 12 cases in the last
ten years, there shouldn't be a whole lot of money that is
involved.
Number 398
SENATOR MILLER moved the adoption of the following
conceptual Amendment No. 1:
"Conceptual" Amendment: Make clear in statute that indigent
parents have the right to state appointed counsel during the
court appellate review process if the parents appeal under
AS 14.30.193(g)
Hearing no objection, Amendment No. 1 was adopted.
Number 400
SENATOR MILLER moved the adoption of the following Amendment
No. 2:
Page l, line 12: Add a new Section 2 to read:
AS 14.30.186 is amended to read:
(e) nonpublic school children have the right to
public agency services under AS 14.30.180 - AS 14.30.350. A
parent who elects to educate their exceptional child in a
nonpublic education program in accordance with AS
14.30.010(b) shall not be compelled to receive srvices under
AS 14.30.180 - AS 14.30.350.
Hearing no objection, Amendment No 2 was adopted.
Number 405
SENATOR MILLER moved the adoption of a conceptual Amendment
No. 3.
PORTIA BABCOCK, staff to the Senate State Affairs Committee
outlined a conceptual Amendment No. 3 as follows:
Page 3, line 16: Add new subsections to read:
(h) The department shall maintain a list of qualified
hearing officers. The department shall qualify hearing
officers through a training program, which shall be open to
all residents of the state and shall qualify hearing
officers for a period not to exceed five years. The list
shall be maintained as public record.
(i) The parent involved in the hearing must consent in
writing to the hearing officer selected among the first
three hearing officers considered.
Hearing no objection, the conceptual Amendment No. 3 was
adopted.
Number 422
SENATOR MILLER moved the adoption of the following Amendment
No. 4:
Page 4, line 8: Following "to obtain an independent
evaluation" insert "by a person of the parent's choosing or
by agreement between the parent and school district."
Page 4, line 27: Following "who receives services" insert
"or whose parent requests services"
Page 5, line 16: Following "to teach the child at home"
insert "in accordance with AS 14.30.010(b)"
Hearing no objection, Amendment No. 4 was adopted.
There being no further discussion on HB 235, SENATOR LEMAN
asked for the pleasure of the committee.
Number 425
SENATOR MILLER moved that SCS CSHB 235(STA), as amended, be
passed out of committee with individual recommendations.
Hearing no objection, it was so ordered.
There being no further business to come before the
committee, the meeting was adjourned at 10:04 a.m.
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