Legislature(2025 - 2026)DAVIS 106
04/07/2025 08:00 AM House EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s): "serrc Alaska's Educational Resource Center History and Support to School Districts". | |
| Presentation(s): "special Education in Rural Alaska". | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | HB 90 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
April 7, 2025
8:03 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Rebecca Himschoot, Co-Chair
Representative Andi Story, Co-Chair
Representative Maxine Dibert
Representative Ted Eischeid
Representative Jubilee Underwood
Representative Rebecca Schwanke
Representative Bill Elam
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): "SERRC ALASKA'S EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER
HISTORY AND SUPPORT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS".
- HEARD
PRESENTATION(S): "SPECIAL EDUCATION IN RURAL ALASKA".
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
OLIVIA YANCEY, Executive Director
Special Education Service Agency
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave a presentation titled "SERRC Alaska's
Educational Resource Center History and Support to School
Districts".
DONALD ENOC, Education Administrator 2
Division of Innovation & Education Excellence
Department of Education & Early Development
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered committee questions on the
presentation titled "SERRC Alaska's Education Resource Center
History and Support to School Districts".
CYNDY FRY, Director
Special Education Services
Petersburg School District
Petersburg, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave a presentation titled "Special
Education in Rural Alaska".
DENISE KELLY, Director
Student Support Services
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Kenai, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave a presentation titled "Special
Education in Rural Alaska".
REPRESENTATIVE TED EISHEID
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: As prime sponsor, gave remarks on HB 90.
MIKE COONS
representing self
Wasilla, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of HB 90.
TIM SULLIVAN, Executive Director
Financial Reality Foundation
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of HB 90.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:03:18 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY called the House Education Standing Committee
meeting to order at 8:03 a.m. Representatives Eischeid,
Himschoot, Dibert, Underwood, and Schwanke were present at the
call to order. Representative Elam arrived as the meeting was
in progress.
^PRESENTATION(S): "SERRC Alaska's Educational Resource Center
History and Support to School Districts".
PRESENTATION(S): "SERRC Alaska's Educational Resource Center
History and Support to School Districts".
8:04:19 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY announced that the first order of business would
be a presentation titled "SERRC Alaska's Educational Resource
Center History and Support to School Districts".
8:05:48 AM
OLIVIA YANCEY, Executive Director, Special Education Service
Agency, gave a presentation titled "SERRC Alaska's Educational
Resource Center History and Support to School Districts". She
began the presentation on slide 13, which described the
Southeast Alaska Regional Resource Center (SERRC)'s visual
impairment and deaf & hard of hearing programs. She continued to
slide 14, which highlighted three points of feedback that SERRC
received on its Low Incidence Disability (LID) visual impairment
program.
8:09:39 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY asked about the scope of SERRC's LID visual
impairment program.
MS. YANCY answered that there are currently 28 active LID visual
impairment students being served by SERRC.
8:10:19 AM
MS. YANCY resumed the presentation on slide 15, which
highlighted three points of feedback that SERRC received on its
LID deaf & hard of hearing program.
8:11:45 AM
CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT asked how the best method of communication is
chosen for a child who is deaf or hard of hearing.
MS. YANCY said that a child oftentimes already has their method
of communication pre-selected by their parents before they
attend school. She explained how SERRC works with parents to
choose and develop a method of communication with a child in
cases which that child has not yet been taught a way to
communicate.
8:13:42 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SCHWANKE asked how many students within the
Anchorage School District are served by the SERRC's deaf & hard
of hearing program.
8:15:04 AM
DONALD ENOC, Education Administrator 2, Division of Innovation &
Education Excellence, Department of Education & Early
Development, answered committee questions on the presentation
titled "SERRC Alaska's Education Resource Center History and
Support to School Districts". He said that the School for the
Deaf's population is often in fluctuation and said that
approximately 5 students are from the Anchorage School District
(ASD).
8:15:54 AM
CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT encouraged Representative Schwanke to reach
out to ASD with regard to its LID student support staff.
8:16:36 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY shared her understanding that there was proposed
legislation in the Alaska State Senate that outlined common
language and parental choice in LID student education.
MR. ENOCH confirmed Co-Chair Story's understanding of proposed
legislation concerning LID education in the Alaska State Senate.
8:17:50 AM
REPRESENTATIVE DIBERT asked if the state helps to pay for the
equipment used to provide instruction to LID deaf and hard of
hearing students.
MS. YANCY answered that a local school district is often
responsible for the funding of an LID deaf and hard of hearing
student's learning equipment.
8:19:49 AM
MS. YANCY resumed the presentation on slide 18, which
highlighted the Alaska Autism Resource Center (AARC)'s work and
moved to slide 19, which displayed a map of the locations that
in-person services were offered by the AARC.
8:21:23 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY asked if SERRC has seen an increase in autism-
related services being provided in recent time.
MS. YANCY said that she would follow-up with more information
later.
8:22:42 AM
MS. YANCY resumed the presentation on slide 20, which described
the Alaska Deafblind project and its goals and moved to slide
22, which listed observations of the needs of the Alaska
deafblind project. She continued to slide 23, which described
the Alaska Center for Accessible Materials (AKCAM) and moved to
slide 24, which listed observations of the needs of the AKCAM.
She continued to slide 26, which displayed a graph that
highlighted responses from an LID satisfaction survey and moved
to slide 27, which displayed a graph that highlighted responses
from an AARC & AKCAM training feedback survey.
8:33:58 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY asked how long the waitlist for in-person
services from AKCAM was and asked if AKCAM made sure to limit
its caseload to 40 students.
MS. YANCY replied that the current waitlist for in-person LID
autism services from AKCAM had two students on it and said that
there were several students on the multiple disabilities
waitlist. She said that 40 is the maximum amount of students on
an AKCAM in-person service waitlist.
8:37:01 AM
MS. YANCY resumed the presentation on slide 28, which
highlighted a few anecdotal remarks about the AARC & AKCAM since
August 2024 and moved to slide 29, which celebrated the success
of the Special Education Service Agency (SESA) and a teacher
from a rural school that participated with SESA curriculum.
8:40:09 AM
CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT asked Ms. Yancy how frequently special
education paraeducators are filling the role of the certified
teacher.
MS. YANCY explained that AKCAM is "making the best of what we
have when we are onsite" and said that it "would like" to work
with an onsite special education teacher once it is onsite and
providing in-person services.
8:43:39 AM
MS. YANCY resumed the presentation on slides 30-32, which
displayed a series of images that highlighted the in-person
services offered by the Alaska Deafblind project, the AARC, and
the AKCAM. She continued to slide 33, which emphasized the
importance of community in allowing SESA to perform its work and
moved to slide 34, which described the Anne Freitag Library and
its resources. She continued to slide 35, which further detailed
the Anne Freitag Library's available resources and moved to
slide 36, which displayed a pie chart that outlined the Anne
Freitag Library's top 5 patron types. She continued to slide 37,
which highlighted a few partners of the Anne Freitag Library and
moved to slide 38, which detailed the speaking events that SESA
hosts at the Anne Freitag Library. She continued through slides
39-40, which highlighted a series of upcoming events through
SESA and concluded the presentation on slide 41.
8:55:13 AM
CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT asked how SESA is funded.
MS. YANCY explained that SESA is funded through a number of
sources, like the LID fund, the Alaska Autism Research Center,
and the Alaska Deafblind Project. She explained that the LID
fund comes from a specific funding formula the is based on the
previous years daily membership multiplied by $23.10.
8:57:10 AM
REPRESENTATIVE EISCHEID asked Ms. Yancy to further detail the
information displayed on slide 19.
MS. YANCY explained that the information on slide 19 referred to
qualifying factors for a site visit by AKCAM.
^PRESENTATION(S): "Special Education in Rural Alaska".
PRESENTATION(S): "Special Education in Rural Alaska".
8:59:50 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY announced that the next order of business would
be a presentation titled "Special Education in Rural Alaska".
9:00:22 AM
CYNDY FRY, Director, Special Education Services, Petersburg
School District, gave a presentation titled "Special Education
in Rural Alaska". She began on slide 2, which gave a broad
overview of special education services that are currently being
offered in rural Alaska and continued to slide 3, which focused
on special education services and associated statistics in
Petersburg, including teacher's requirements and specific
numbers of students with disabilities. She moved to slide 4,
which emphasized the multiple roles that rural educators and
administrators working in special education often must serve and
continued to slide 5, which emphasized the vast number of
paraprofessional openings across the state.
9:17:13 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY asked how school districts are meeting the legal
requirements of Individual Education Plans (IEP) and special
educators.
MS. FRY answered that the Petersburg School District (PSD) has
been fortunate enough to have met its special education needs
and said that she is aware of other school districts in the
state that are running a risk of legal action due to inadequate
special education services.
9:18:57 AM
MS. FRY resumed the presentation on slide 6, which highlighted
methods in which the PSD is addressing the challenges of special
education in Alaska and moved to slide 7, which emphasized the
challenges of special education teacher retention. She
continued to slide 8, which highlighted various entities that
provide essential support to rural special education programs in
Alaska and concluded the presentation on slide 9.
9:29:01 AM
CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT asked Ms. Fry if there is an occupational
therapist on staff in the PSD.
MS. FRY said that the PSD does not have an occupational
therapist on staff and instead opts to fly the necessary staff
in to Petersburg.
9:31:58 AM
DENISE KELLY, Director, Student Support Services, Kenai
Peninsula Borough School District, gave a presentation titled
"Special Education in Rural Alaska". She said that most of the
schools in her school district are accessible by road, though
some are roadless communities that have extraordinary needs and
explained how the Kenai Peninsula Brough School District (KPBSD)
has had to contract both retired and third-party teachers from
out of state in order to meet its special education needs. She
emphasized that the shortage of special education teachers has
"made it increasingly difficult" to provide consistent high-
quality education to students with special needs and highlighted
that there are currently 18 vacancies within special education
positions in the KPBSD. She explained how the contracting of
third-party teachers places a financial strain on the KPBSD and
emphasized the more individualized attention that certain
special education students need that a transient teacher might
not be able to address during their short time at the KPBSD.
#^hb90
9:39:23 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY announced that the final order of business would
be HOUSE BILL NO. 90, "An Act establishing a financial literacy
education program for public schools; and providing for an
effective date."
9:39:50 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TED EISHEID, Alaska State Legislature, as prime
sponsor, gave remarks on HB 90. He shared his appreciation for
the dialogue for the proposed legislation and said that he
"heard a lot of support" from his constituents who were aware of
HB 90.
9:40:35 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY opened public testimony on HB 90.
9:41:15 AM
MIKE COONS, representing self, testified in support of HB 90. He
shared his suggestion that HB 90 be amended to include both 5th
and 12th graders in its proposed curriculum and said that
financial education is valuable for Alaska's students. He cited
a book by Dave Ramsey as his reason for supporting HB 90 and
urged the committee's support of the proposed legislation.
9:43:40 AM
TIM SULLIVAN, Executive Director, Financial Reality Foundation,
testified in support of HB 90. He explained that the Financial
Reality Foundation hosts a series of financial education classes
for high school students around Alaska and said that a financial
education curriculum would be more sufficient in achieving the
goals of a more financially educated public.
9:45:18 AM
The committee took an at-ease from 9:45 a.m. to 9:46 a.m.
9:46:40 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY, after ascertaining that there was no one else
who wished to testify, closed public testimony on HB 90.
9:47:11 AM
CO-CHAIR STORY announced that HB 90 would be held over.
9:48:07 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Education Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 9:48 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Special Education Rural Alaska.Fry.pdf |
HEDC 4/7/2025 8:00:00 AM |
|
| 4.2.25 Special Ed Serv Agency Presentation HEDC.pdf.pdf |
HEDC 4/7/2025 8:00:00 AM |
|
| 4.2.25 SESA Resource Anne Freitag Library Booklist.pdf |
HEDC 4/7/2025 8:00:00 AM |
|
| DEED Resp. to Q's at HEDC 4.7.25 Meeting.pdf |
HEDC 4/7/2025 8:00:00 AM |