Legislature(2023 - 2024)ADAMS 519
04/24/2024 09:00 AM House FINANCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB111 | |
| HB145 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 111 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 145 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HOUSE BILL NO. 111
"An Act relating to public school students who are
deaf or have a hearing impairment."
9:04:24 AM
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE ALLARD, SPONSOR, explained that deaf
and hard of hearing children wanted to be treated equally
to other children and to have access to the same level of
education. She encouraged members to vote in support of the
bill.
Representative Stapp MOVED to REPORT CSHB 111(EDC) out of
committee with individual recommendations and the
accompanying fiscal note.
Co-Chair Edgmon OBJECTED for discussion.
Representative Josephson relayed that he viewed the bill as
advisory rather than mandatory, but the bill read as
mandatory because it used the term "shall" to require that
deaf and hard of hearing children be provided services. He
was not sure where the resources to support the bill would
come from. He asked how the school districts would pay for
the bill.
Representative Allard responded that the resources and
funding were already being provided. Children who were deaf
received 13 times the standard Base Student Allocation
(BSA) formula funding and children who were hard of hearing
received 1.25 percent times the standard BSA formula
funding. There were a variety of ways for the school
districts to communicate and provide the necessary
resources.
Representative Josephson wondered what would happen if he
asked school districts if the funding was being used and
the districts responded that all of the funding was used up
on other resources for children with hearing difficulties.
Representative Allard responded that a representative from
the Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
was available to offer more details. Federal law obligated
districts to provide resources to children as well because
districts would not receive funding unless the proper
paperwork was submitted. If a hard of hearing child
submitted the paperwork for the funding, the school was
required to provide the funding. The BSA would not be
amplified unless the child applied for the benefits. She
stressed that the funding was already available.
9:07:25 AM
Representative Galvin appreciated Representative Allard for
bringing the bill forward. She understood that 13 times the
BSA amounted to around $80,000 and that students who needed
assistance were required to work with two American Sign
Language (ASL) interpreters to allow the interpreters to
alternate throughout the day. She was concerned about the
cost of two interpreters as well as the cost that would be
incurred if students were enrolled in boarding schools.
Representative Allard relayed that there was no
[substantive] fiscal note because the funding was already
available. She thought the committee was looking for a
problem that was not there. She was unsure as to why an
absence of funding was being discussed when the funding was
already present. She relayed that a representative from
DEED was available to answer questions in more detail.
Representative Galvin wanted to ensure that 13 times the
BSA was a suitable amount and the federal government was
covering the costs.
Representative Allard clarified that the funding was not
only coming from the federal government. Federal law
required that deaf and hard of hearing children were
treated equally.
9:09:32 AM
DEBORAH RIDDLE, DIVISION OPERATIONS MANAGER, DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION (via teleconference), responded that in addition
to the BSA, the department had an agreement with Arc [The
Arc of Anchorage] to help students who had opted to enroll
in a residential school in Anchorage.
Co-Chair Edgmon asked her to repeat the acronym.
Ms. Riddle responded "Arc." She was looking for the meaning
of the acronym [she later corrected herself and explained
that it was not an acronym].
Representative Coulombe understood that deaf and hard of
hearing children received funding that was 13 times the
BSA. She asked if a district would need to use the funding
on deaf and hard of hearing students or if it could spend
the funding elsewhere.
Representative Allard responded that when there was a
request for funding for a child with special needs or
intensive needs, the funding went straight to the child.
Representative Coulombe understood there was no discretion
for the school districts. She asked for clarification that
a district could not spend the money on anything other than
a student's needs.
Representative Allard responded that districts were "not
supposed to."
Representative Ortiz appreciated Representative Allard
bringing forward the bill. Based on the line of questioning
and the answers that had been provided thus far in the
meeting, he understood that the funding was present and
that districts could receive assistance with regulatory
compliance. He asked why the bill was necessary if the
important components were already in place.
Representative Allard responded that there was an incident
where a district pulled an interpreter from a child and the
child could not continue in school without the interpreter.
The intent of the bill was to ensure that the regulations
would be enforced and districts could not discriminate
against deaf or hard of hearing children.
Representative Ortiz asked Representative Allard if she
viewed the content of the bill as compulsory and not
advisory. He asked what would happen to communities in
rural Alaska that wanted to comply but could not because
there were not enough interpreters in the community to
provide the services.
Representative Allard responded in the affirmative and
explained that districts could not discriminate any longer
after the bill was put into statute. Currently, a district
could choose not to comply. If there was a deaf or hard of
hearing child in a rural community who wanted to learn
amongst other students, there was a system in place where
an interpreter could be available via video call and
interpret in real time in the classroom. She added that a
family member or friend could also attend school with the
child and interpret for the child.
9:13:55 AM
Representative Ortiz understood that Representative Allard
had previously stated that the money went directly to the
parents. He asked if she was certain that the funding went
directly from the state to the parents.
Representative Allard responded that she meant to say the
money went directly to the child. The cost of an
interpreter and any other means of communication needed by
the child would be covered by the funding and the district
would be responsible for ensuring that the costs were
covered.
Representative Hannan commented that she taught many
students during her teaching career who were deaf or hard
of hearing and the district tried to serve all of the
students. She presumed that when Representative Allard used
the term "the district" she was referring to the Anchorage
School District (ASD). She noted that Representative Allard
had been assisted by a sign language interpreter who was
new to Juneau during a previous committee hearing.
Interpreters working in schools worked as a pair for the
entire day and were therefore not available to interpret
for events in the evening. She was concerned that the bill
would communicate to deaf and hard of hearing children that
available resources would be transformed, but there would
be no changes or additional funding. She stressed that she
did not think anything would change because the regulations
were already in place and the money was already available.
She asked if Representative Allard pursued details in the
aforementioned case where an interpreter was pulled from a
child. There were many possible reasons as to why the
interpreter was pulled, such as if the interpreter were to
be no longer employed by the district. She wanted to
provide better services and not pass a bill that would not
change anything.
Representative Allard responded that she did not say that
the regulations were not currently mandatory. She explained
that the purpose of the bill was to codify the regulations
in statute. She added that she was not only referencing ASD
when she spoke about "the district" because ASD already
covered the resources for deaf and hard of hearing children
well. She was more concerned about rural communities and
children missing out on education due to lack of resources.
The bill needed to pass because it would provide hope to
the deaf and hard of hearing community. She expressed that
she was offended that the committee did not feel that the
bill was important and it seemed that members wanted to
find reasons why the state could not enforce the bill due
to fiscal issues. She argued that the actions in the bill
were already occurring and there was no fiscal note. She
wondered why members thought it was permissible to
discriminate against children who were deaf and hard of
hearing. She stressed that the bill was important and
needed to become law. She was directly impacted by the bill
and also knew children who were impacted.
9:18:08 AM
Representative Hannan understood that Representative Allard
had stated that by questioning the bill, the committee was
discriminating against the hard of hearing community, which
she thought was impugning motives that were not present.
She explained that the committee had specific
responsibilities which included determining the fiscal
impacts of bills. She thought it was inappropriate to
allege that the committee was discriminating against deaf
and hard of hearing children by fulfilling its obligations.
9:18:59 AM
AT EASE
9:19:16 AM
RECONVENED
Representative Allard responded that she did not mean to
imply that Representative Hannan was bigoted. She meant to
relay that there was no fiscal note and no reason why the
committee should be concerned with the finances. The
funding would only be necessary if a child had intensive
needs or special needs. She wanted to ensure that all
children with special needs received the necessary
resources, including deaf or hard of hearing children.
Co-Chair Johnson returned to Representative Allard's
presentation [titled "HB 111 Deaf and Hard of Hearing"
dated March 4, 2024, (copy on file), presented to the House
Finance Committee on April 16, 2024] and referred to slide
2. She felt like the bill was even more critical than she
previously realized because it appeared that deaf and hard
of hearing students were not presently being provided with
enough resources. She noted that according to the slide,
there were areas in Alaska where there were no deaf or hard
of hearing children, which she knew was not true. She
thought the screening process should be improved and the
state was undercounting students, which meant it was also
underserving students. She appreciated that the bill was
brought forward.
Representative Allard relayed that the bill was an
incentive for families who had children in the deaf or hard
of hearing community and felt like the children were not
properly supported. The bill would codify the regulations
into law and ensure that deaf and hard of hearing children
would learn amongst their peers.
9:22:22 AM
Representative Galvin commented that she was familiar with
underfunded early intervention programs as well as the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which
was a federal law that mandated that the government must
provide funding and resources for all students to learn in
an equal manner. She was concerned that the state was not
sufficiently identifying students in need of additional
resources. She was concerned that $80,000, which was the
result of multiplying the BSA by 13, was not enough to
provide sufficient resources to students in need if the
students were identified. There had been research around
broadband opportunities, but broadband was still not
sufficient in rural areas of the state. She had experienced
video calling with interpreters but the broadband was often
not strong enough to support the software even in urban
areas like Anchorage. She did not think the legislature had
passed a law that ensured that broadband was sufficient to
for a reliable connection with interpreters. She asked what
the needs were, what could be done to better identify the
needs, what were the laws that ensured that the needs were
identified, and whether the state was properly funding the
laws.
Representative Allard responded that she was worried about
children who were deaf and hard of hearing in rural
communities of the state. She thought that parents needed
to be incentivized to bring deaf and hard of hearing
children to school and she hoped that the bill would act as
an incentive. The BSA formula that was already in place was
presently the only method for determining funding amounts.
There were families who sent their children to Anchorage
because there were more resources for deaf or hard of
hearing children in urban areas. She understood that it was
a large issue, but she argued that there would be a
substantive impact if the legislature was able to act in
small ways every year.
Representative Josephson was confused by the fiscal note
[prepared by Department of Education and Early Development
with the control code yAGml]. He understood that the bill
proposed that the program "must provide residential
services." The bill stated that if a district wanted to
provide services, it could do so, but if a district did not
want to provide services, the state would provide the
services. He understood that the state "must" provide the
services, but the fiscal note said that the statewide
program that included residential services could be offered
by school districts with the resources and capacity to do
so. He thought that "finance 101" knowledge was that the
state provided the fiscal notes, not the districts. He
wanted to know what the impact on the school districts
would be.
Representative Allard replied that Representative Josephson
was correct but not every district could provide a suitable
school; therefore, children were brought to the deaf and
hard of hearing school in Anchorage. She thought the term
"must" provided some flexibility and ensured that bringing
children to Anchorage was an acceptable alternative to
there being a school with resources in every district. She
noted that children in the Mat-Su needed to commute to
Anchorage. She suggested bringing Ms. Riddle into the
conversation to provide additional clarity.
Co-Chair Edgmon asked Ms. Riddle to comment.
9:28:19 AM
Ms. Riddle responded that the department provided some
funding to the school for deaf and hard of hearing
children. The department also worked with Arc in Anchorage
to help with the residential portion of the schools. She
clarified that "Arc" was the name of the organization and
was not an acronym. She explained that the reason for there
not being a fiscal note was because the department was
already providing the necessary resources to students who
needed to come to Anchorage. She asked Representative
Josephson if his question had been properly addressed.
Representative Josephson asked if the bill was largely a
set of regulations that would be codified in statute.
Ms. Riddle responded that she believed so but needed to
confirm the information.
Representative Ortiz relayed that he would like to return
to Co-Chair Johnson's comments on the need for the bill as
stated in the PowerPoint presentation. He thought Co-Chair
Johnson made a good point in that the state was likely
under-identifying the population of people who could use
the services. He asked how the bill would specifically
facilitate the identification of individuals with needs at
a higher level.
Representative Allard responded that the bill passing on
its own was not enough. She thought that legislators would
need to promote the program to families and school
districts. The Senate had passed a committee substitute
(CS) to enforce federal law which would be eventually
combined with the bill. There was nothing in the bill that
would necessarily promote the availability of the resources
and another bill would likely be needed in order to do so.
She reiterated that legislators would be responsible for
promoting the program.
9:31:47 AM
Representative Stapp recalled that there was a motion on
the table to report the bill out of committee.
Co-Chair Edgmon clarified that the Arc of Anchorage was a
private nonprofit serving children and adults with mental
health issues or disabilities.
Co-Chair Edgmon WITHDREW the OBJECTION. There being NO
further OBJECTION, it was so ordered.
CSHB 111(EDC) was REPORTED OUT of committee with five "do
pass" recommendations, one "amend" recommendation, and four
"no recommendation" recommendations and with one new fiscal
impact note from the Department of Education and Early
Development.
9:32:41 AM
AT EASE
9:33:43 AM
RECONVENED
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB 145 Public Testimony Rec'd by 042324.pdf |
HFIN 4/24/2024 9:00:00 AM |
HB 145 |
| HB 145 Public Testimony Rec'd by 042424.pdf |
HFIN 4/24/2024 9:00:00 AM |
HB 145 |