Legislature(2021 - 2022)BUTROVICH 205
02/05/2021 09:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB19 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 19 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 19-EXTEND SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICE AGENCY
9:03:09 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND announced the consideration of SENATE BILL NO. 19
"An Act extending the special education service agency; and
providing for an effective date."
His stated his intent was to introduce the bill, hear invited
testimony, review the legislative audit report, and understand
the fiscal note. He asked Senator Stevens to introduce the bill.
9:03:35 AM
SENATOR STEVENS, speaking as sponsor of SB 19, said the bill
provides for an extension of SESA, the Special Education Service
Agency, which provides an impressive and valuable public service
to students and families in Alaska. SESA offers expert
assistance to children with rare or complex disabilities. SESA
is based in Anchorage and provides services statewide. The last
extension of SESA was in 2013. As a former school board
president, he knows the value of the services SESA provides to
school districts. In the last year SESA provided services to 45
school districts and more than 3,000 students across the state
and 320 onsite consultations with school districts. The
organization is of tremendous value to Alaska's children and
parents and teachers and school districts. This bill will extend
the sunset date eight years to June 30, 2029. The committee will
hear about the impressive work of SESA from its Executive
Director Patrick Pillai and will hear from the legislative
auditor, Kris Curtis.
9:05:54 AM
TIM LAMKIN, Staff, Senator Gary Stevens, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, said this is an opportunity to
recognize an agency that does a lot with relatively little. It
is not just an agency but a community of people that do a unique
and special set of services for severely disadvantaged youth
who, for example, are deaf and blind, severely autistic, or
managing a spectrum of other severe and unique disabilities.
There is lot of trust and respect for what SESA does. It is a
sensitive subject area that requires a lot of passion, care,
patience, grace, and, frankly, love. The bill is
straightforward. It extends its operations to 2028. The year is
an error. That should be changed to 2029. SESA responded well to
the last audit. The new audit illuminates SESA's success and
efficacy.
MR. LAMKIN said that Section 1 extends the operations to June
30, 2028. That was a typographical error in the drafting
process. It was intended to be 2029. At some point an amendment
should change that. Section 2 provides for a retroactive
effective date in the event that it doesn't pass this session
and once it does pass, would provide for an immediate effective
data.
CHAIR HOLLAND asked for clarification on the date.
MR. LAMKIN said the bill currently reads June 30, 2028. It
should be changed to June 30, 2029, consistent with statute and
standard sunset provisions.
9:08:50 AM
At ease
9:10:25 AM
PATRICK PILLAI, Executive Director, Special Education Service
Agency (SESA), Anchorage, Alaska, said he has been the executive
director of SESA for the past nine years. He joined the agency
th
in 1994 as a deaf education specialist, making this his 27 year
of SESA service.
MR. PILLAI presented the homepage of SESA's website on slide 2.
The website provides online access to program services and
resources, a lending library, online professional development e-
modules, and an easy process for school districts to submit
online referrals for SESA service. The agency's mission
statement reflects the agency's focus on addressing the unique
special education needs of students, parents, and teachers
across Alaska's 54 school districts, via year-round onsite and
distance delivered consultation and training.
9:12:00 AM
At ease
9:12:19 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND noted the committee was having technical
difficulties with the audio.
MR. PILLAI moved on to slide 3. SESA's legacy of special
education support evolved from the intent of Public Law 94-142,
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975, which
was reauthorized in 2004 and amended in 2015 as the Every
Student Succeeds Act. The law mandates a free and appropriate
public education to students with disabilities. SESA activity
assists parents and school district staff and makes tangible,
through specialized educational interventions, the services
mandated by special education law.
9:13:47 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND recognized the arrival of Senator Hughes.
MR. PILLAI said, addressing slide 4, that the statute
establishing SESA specifically addresses technical assistance
and service to students with low incidence disabilities. Low
incidence disabilities is defined in the literature as occurring
in less than 1 percent of the total population. Because of the
rarity of the disability, the special education services are
therefore not normally available in a district. An example is a
situation with one child with deafness in a rural school
district, with no access to a sign language interpreter, and a
special education teacher with no prior experience working with
a deaf child. SESA affords such sites access to a specialist
with an endorsement in deaf education. In addition to
consultation, support, and training, other supplementary
services are available, e.g., assistance with applications for
minigrants, programming and setting up assistive technology,
cross district trainings, etc.
MR. PILLAI explained, speaking to slide 5, that although AS
14.30.630(b) states that SESA shall focus on provision of low
incidence disability services, it does under eligibility of
service in AS14.30.350 indicate that SESA may provide services
to disability categories other than low incidence disabilities.
It is through this qualification that SESA provides services to
students with autism. School district requests for autism
services currently comprise a SESA autism caseload exceeding 100
students. Requests for in-servicing staff on the topic of autism
continues to increase each year. Many requests are for
schoolwide or districtwide trainings when numbers of students
with autism are high. Larger districts have higher numbers.
Anchorage has 700, Fairbanks has 169, Kenai has 110, Juneau has
78, and Kodiak has 38 students with autism. Most rural remote
schools have numbers that range from 0 to 23.
MR. PILLAI said, addressing slide 6, that SESA's logic model
captures the design of process to deliver specialized services
to parents, students, and school districts. The intent is to
address the gap via solutions that promote not only availability
of SESA services, but also increase, through onsite and distance
support, the local capacity of the individual site and the
school district. This approach is critical to meeting the needs
of rural schools and of creating broad participant training to
address staff turnover. Through trainings provided to school
districts via common platforms, collaboration and networking
amongst teachers and paraprofessionals is increased. This leads
to sharing of resources, reduces isolation, and ultimately
promotes retention of teachers, especially in rural remote areas
of the state.
9:17:18 AM
MR. PILLAI described with slide 7 how, as part of the
operational process, SESA created benchmarks to guide specialist
delivery of a high standard of service. The benchmarks provide a
threshold of expectation and guide specialist evaluation for
continuous improvement. A flow of service delivery includes:
Initial contact with district staff to establish
relationship, identify site need, to plan technical
assistance.
Complete activities of file maintenance and compliance
review
Prioritize site need as targeted (some local capacity
but site needs service), intensive (no local capacity
and greatest need for service), general (capacity
present but needs minimal guidance on how to proceed).
Create a technical assistance objective based on
review and site communication.
Provide technical assistance and training as needed.
MR. PILLAI explained that slide 8 demystifies technical
assistance. The continuum of services includes observations,
assessments, educational interventions, modeling of strategies,
in-service trainings, assistive technology, and many more
pertinent activities based on requests from the child's
educational team members. It also includes other services such
as assisting families when they visit Alaska Native Medical
Center for medical services, organizing and facilitating
orientation and mobility training in the larger city of
Anchorage for students to learn to navigate pavements, street
lights, and traffic. Specialists also work with vendors to
troubleshoot assistive technology when teachers call with
complaints of device nonfunctionality.
MR. PILLAI said, addressing slide 9, that using feedback from
SESA's annual public audit and sunset legislative audits, SESA
has designed a management system to include metrics for program
and specialist evaluation. Postservice satisfaction surveys are
emailed to service recipients and are available on each
specialist's I-pad to make service feedback easier to collect.
Feedback is shared and discussed with individual specialists,
and collective information is shared with all specialists for
continuous improvement of individual and agencywide performance.
MR. PILLAI said, continuing on to slide 10, that in addition to
specialist evaluation, the SESA management system is designed to
collect data on various aspects of agency activity. An activity
is designated as any service contact that is 15 minutes or more.
Service contact less than 15 minutes is captured in
communication logs. Metrics include activities that are related
to travel, creation of educational materials, or mission centric
activities and writing of student service reports. Data is
analyzed to understand variables impacting service and variables
impacting the SESA budget.
9:20:36 AM
MR. PILLAI explained that slide 11 is a visual example of the
customized management system SESA has designed to ensure data-
driven decision making. Individual reports provide data on
specialist activity allowing for measurement of productivity,
the number of reports completed within agency timeframe of 10
working days from date of site visit, schools and sites
requesting service, active and historical student caseloads by
district, location and school, etc.
MR. PILLAI said, addressing slide 12, that both legislative
audits and the program component of annual public audits run
tests of compliance with regard to process, procedure and
special education laws and regulations. This section of the
database was created in response for specific data and with
feedback from auditors. Following a recommendation of the SESA
Board to go green, SESA management worked to eliminate paper
files. All of SESA's student record keeping is now electronic.
The compliance element of the SESA database drives quarterly
compliance reviews. This section of the database consistently
earns praise from auditors for its elegant simplicity of
compliance review.
MR. PILLAI described how the graph on slide 13 captures, in red,
the number of students attending Alaska's schools, in any given
year between 2011 and 2020. The solid blue line captures the
steadily increasing numbers of students on SESA's low incidence
disability (LID) caseload. Increasing numbers of students with
LID means greater need for SESA services. High turnover of staff
in many districts often drives the need for repeated trainings
for new staff, especially first year teachers who may be
encountering any given disability for the first time.
MR. PILLAI explained that the graph on slide 14 shows the
history of SESA fund balance from 2013 and projected to 2023.
The cycle captures the low funds, usually seen at the end of a
sunset cycle (2013), the higher funds at the middle of the
cycle, and the trending to lower fund balance at the end of the
cycle as a result of increasing costs. The typical scenario is
slightly different in 2021 due to two premium holidays of health
insurance, two unfilled specialist vacancies, and unspent travel
funds due to COVID-19. In addition, SESA received $175,000 in
discretionary funding from the Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED) to assist SESA to add two new specialists in
2019 and to assist creation of a fund balance beyond sunset,
without knowing when a funding increase may next be feasible.
SESA's last funding increase was in 2014. At this time, SESA is
not requesting an increase of funding.
9:23:57 AM
MR. PILLAI said, moving on to slide 15, that the recently
completed legislative audit concurs that SESA meets the needs of
students with low incidence disabilities, provides professional
development opportunities to teachers and paraprofessionals,
provides special education resources to parents and school
district staff, and concludes with a recommendation for an
eight-year legislative reauthorization.
9:24:26 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND recognized the arrival of Senator Micciche.
MR. PILLAI said that SESA is requesting reauthorization to
continue providing the key services identified by the state of
Alaska as being important to the full academic and social
development of a child with a disability. This includes all the
activities of technical assistance reviewed earlier in the
presentation. SESA's customized database allows it to run
reports of agency productivity. Slide 17 captures activities of
technical assistance, the number of schools and districts
served, the number of trainings (customized and general)
conducted onsite and via distance delivery, and an analysis of
funds saved with SESA's investment in technologies of distance
delivery. Savings are more than indicated on slide 17 since
savings are also realized with site consultation provided via
distance delivery.
SENATOR BEGICH asked for the number of students in Mat-Su to be
repeated. He asked Mr. Pillai about the impact of the pandemic
to SESA services, such as reduction in the travel, and how that
was addressed.
MR. PILLAI replied that he didn't have the numbers on hand but
would try to find them.
MR. LAMKIN answered that the legislative audit report on page 28
indicates that SESA serves three students in the Mat-Su.
Statutorily, when districts hit a threshold of 10 students,
districts must provide those services themselves. In this case
SESA serves three deaf-blind students.
MR. PILLAI replied that is correct and added 271 students in the
Mat-Su have autism.
SENATOR BEGICH asked how SESA is responding to the odd
circumstances of this pandemic.
MR. PILLAI answered that one of the most important things was
that the number of requests for services went down. Teachers are
not working with students who are in rural locations. That upset
the apple cart with the school situation, followed by more
direct requests for services from parents. SESA ended up working
with more parents and tutoring a lot of teachers with the
technology and creating a lot of materials for parents working
in the home situation. Services changed from typical in-service
and observations in classrooms to more immediate solutions for
teachers working with students removed from the classroom.
9:28:48 AM
SENATOR STEVENS said he was very interested in learning the
impact of COVID on students who were not in classroom in front
of teachers. He asked Mr. Pillai if he had given the number of
specialists in his agency and the caseload, and what he sees as
future needs for SESA.
MR. PILLAI answered that SESA serves about 350 students across
the state. The highest numbers occur in multiple disabilities
and autism. The more challenging need for school districts is
for the more intensive disabilities, such as deaf-blindness and
multiple disabilities. A lot of SESA's response depends on what
is going on in the state in that particular year. When many
teachers are retiring, there is a whole new cadre of specialists
who come into the districts. Specialists who graduated last year
did not have full practicums because of COVID. They are in the
first year of teaching with theoretical knowledge but sometimes
missing the practicum. That is when they call SESA for help. On
other hand, some special education teachers with 15 to 20 years
of experience may encounter a deaf-blind child for the first
time or a child with autism at the end of spectrum. At the
beginning of the year, in August and September, superintendents
usually call SESA for in-service training for the entire staff,
such as when there is a high number of students with autism.
Services range from one-on-one technical assistance, small group
technical assistance, to full district technical assistance. In
the immediate future, he thinks SESA will be doing more
trainings for teachers because they are new and have not
encountered the various disabilities in their classrooms.
9:31:47 AM
SENATOR HUGHES shared that many years ago she was a one-on-one
aide for a severely disabled student in Ft. Yukon. It was very
challenging. She appreciates what he is doing for these children
and young adults. Her daughter has severe hearing loss. A number
of years ago she received some services through the school, but
after she was out of high school the family had to figure things
out on their own. They went to Vocational Rehabilitation
services as she was starting college to get help with the some
of the accommodations she needed. She asked if SESA provides any
bridge to assist high school students as they move out of the
public school system.
MR. PILLAI answered that SESA follows the special education
handbook. With that sequence, SESA encourages schools to put in
place transition goals early on and then in high school work
closely with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR).
DVR is more responsible for the transition from school to
college, but advocacy skills are important for students. Once
students have an IEP (Individualized Education Program) they can
work with the disability office in colleges and get some of
those same accommodations.
MR. LAMKIN presented a five-minute video introducing SESA
specialists for autism impairment services, multiple
disabilities, emotional disturbance, vision and orientation and
mobility programs, and deaf and hard of hearing services.
9:40:53 AM
At ease
9:41:30 AM
Chair Holland reconvened the meeting.
KRIS CURTIS, Legislative Auditor, Division of Legislative Audit,
Alaska State Legislator, Juneau, Alaska, said that she completed
a sunset audit of SESA dated April 2020. The purpose of a sunset
audit is to determine whether a board or agency is serving the
public's interest and whether it should be extended. The
background information section of the audit begins on page 5.
SESA was created to help Alaska's school districts provide
special education services to individuals with a low incidence
disability. A low incidence disability occurs in less than one
percent of the national school-aged population and the
disabilities are more severe in nature and require specialized
educational intervention.
MS. CURTIS said that SESA was established as a nonprofit
corporation whose governing authority is the Governor's Council
on Disabilities and Special Education, which is housed within
the Department of Health and Social Services. However, SESA's
primary service for the low incidence disability is budgeted and
funded through Department of Education and Early Development.
This funding is independent of the intensive needs funding
school districts may otherwise receive as part of their annual
education funding. SESA's funding provides additional financial
support to help ensure students affected by low incidence
disabilities are receiving the free and appropriate public
education required by state and federal laws. SESA services are
available to districts whose low incidence special education
needs occur infrequently, making it difficult for the district
to serve the low numbers of students in need of a particular
service. SESA recruits, trains, and retains education
specialists to provide technical assistance and training to
parents, students, and district staff without regard to location
in the state. Page 8 of the audit has a map that shows the
number and location of students served by SESA. In total, SESA
served 355 students as of February 2020.
MS. CURTIS pointed out that Appendix B on page 28 shows the
number of students served by SESA by district and the category
of disability. Report conclusions begin on page 11. Overall, the
audit concludes that SESA is serving the public's interest by
assisting school districts in providing students affected by
low-incidence disabilities an education to meet the children's
unique needs. This is done by providing opportunities to enhance
school district teachers' and paraprofessionals' capabilities
and by providing resources. Legislative Audit recommends the
legislature extend SESA's eight years, which is the maximum
allowed in statute.
MS. CURTIS said that as part of the audit, a survey was sent to
all special education directors for the 51 school districts.
Fifty-nine percent responded. In general, the special education
directors viewed SESA expertise, staff availability, and
services favorably. Survey questions and responses are
summarized in Appendix C of the audit.
MS. CURTIS stated that page 13 of the audit explains SESA's
statutory funding mechanism. SESA's funding for its low
incidence disabilities program is calculated by multiplying
$18.65 times the state's student average daily membership (ADM).
This rate of $18.65 was set in 2013 when the agency was last
extended and has not increased. Given inflation, the funding
will go down as wages go up, etc., if no inflation is built into
the formula.
9:47:16 AM
At ease
9:49:03 AM
Chair Holland reconvened the meeting.
SENATOR MICCICHE pointed out that Ms. Curtis spoke about the
funding mechanism on page 13, yet the Average Daily Attendance
has been dropping since 2017. The attendance, which is the
funding mechanism, is dropping but the caseload is increasing.
He asked how that could collide as a funding issue.
MS. CURTIS answered that it is interesting that the ADM has been
decreasing because during the review it was staying stagnant.
The rate stayed stagnant and the membership stays stagnant, so
the funding stayed stagnant for the period legislative audit was
looking at. If attendance goes down, that will have significant
impact given the calculation formula for this funding. Between
2012 and 2020 SESA's caseload increased by 66 percent yet its
funding level never changed.
SENATOR MICCICHE responded that is something that the
legislature will possibly need to look at, separate from this
sunset bill.
MS. CURTIS said that SESA education specialists serving certain
student categories were experiencing high caseloads. The audit
notes that the agency was having trouble retaining and
recruiting. Their wages and health benefits were below
Anchorage's. The audit notes that SESA increased wages and
improved health benefits. This will help the agency retain and
recruit individuals and reduce vacancies.
MS. CURTIS disclosed that the audit has one recommendation that
SESA's executive director implement written procedures to ensure
the reclassification of a student's referred disability is
adequately supported and communicated to school district
personnel. Auditors reviewed 42 students' files and found five
students' disabilities, as identified in the school district
referral form, were reclassified by a SESA education specialist
with no documentation in the file to explain the
reclassification. Four of these five student files had no
documentation to show SESA staff had communicated the students'
revised disability category to school district personnel. That
is an easy administrative fix.
MS. CURTIS concluded by stating that the responses to the audit
begin on page 35. The commissioners of the Department of
Education and Early Development and the Department of Health and
Social Services and the chair of SESA concurred with the report
conclusions and recommendation.
CHAIR HOLLAND asked Ms. Teshner to walk through the fiscal note.
9:53:07 AM
HEIDI TESHNER, Director, Finance and Support Services,
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), Juneau,
Alaska, said the committee should have one fiscal note for OMB
component number 2735. The governor's FY22 budget request
includes a projected grant amount of $2,404,400 for SESA based
on the statutory calculation. She will repeat what Ms. Curtis
said. Per AS 14.30.650, the funding for SESA is determined by
multiplying $18.65 by the Average Daily Membership in the
preceding fiscal year as determined in AS 14.17.600. For FY22,
the projected grant of $2,404,400 was determined by multiplying
the FY2021 projected ADM, which was $128,923.91, by $18.65.
Because the extension goes out June 30, 2028, according to the
current version of SB 19, the department will adjust each budget
cycle to reflect the accurate amount based on the statutory
formula.
CHAIR HOLLAND called on invited testimony.
9:55:18 AM
JIM SLATER, Parent, Pelican, Alaska, said he lives in Pelican
with his wife and three kids. The youngest, Jim, has been
diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Mr. Slater said he is
also the president of the Pelican School Board. The Pelican City
School District is one of the smaller school districts in the
state with no specialists trained to educate children in the
spectrum or children with other disabilities. Before SESA
entered the picture, they only dealt with coordinators who would
facilitate the development of an IEP and testers who would set
benchmarks, but they had no regular input from specialists who
could establish, monitor, and if necessary, modify actual
curriculum. This left a huge gap in the implementation of the
IEP. SESA provided crucial input into the IEP but also provided
to them as parents, as well as the school's teachers, an ongoing
source of information regarding Jim's progress, suggestions of
how to modify the curriculum, and in several cases, even
supplied material from its lending library. SESA's help was
especially crucial during the pandemic when school shut down and
they went to an at-home model. SESA's John Barrowman, along with
Mr. Slater's wife, taught Jim for a short time every day. After
this daily appointment with John, Jim continued the rest of the
day following SESA's guidance. The results were overwhelming.
Jim progressed several grade levels in math in six months. They
have more recently engaged the SESA reading specialist and are
seeing big advancements there. Their school is back in session
and SESA continues to engage on a weekly basis with Jim and his
teachers. This model of regular remote engagement is effective
and efficient. The state should fund and even expand SESA's
operations. He cannot overemphasis the value SESA provided to
his son's education. Without SESA, Jim would not receive the
education he needs and deserves. This is true for all the
students SESA serves.
9:58:23 AM
BEN GRIESE, Special Education Teacher, Southwest Region School
District, New Stuyahok, Alaska, said that in 2009 he started his
first teaching job as a special education teacher in New
Stuyahok, serving 140 preK-12 students. A number of students
have low incidence disabilities this year. Rural Alaska presents
a unique challenge due to limited access to material and
services. His first week of teaching was overwhelming. He was
unequipped to deal the number of disabilities in his first
teaching position. SESA staff are vetted and experts in their
fields. They are willing to go above and beyond. They provided
him with training, communication devices, paperwork help, and
connected him to other professionals. They provide connections
for families. SESA provided support in and out of school. During
the pandemic distance services and support have helped him meet
the needs of his students. In 2014 he was the Governor's Council
for Exceptional Children Teacher of the Year and in 2018 the
Governor's Council Inclusive Practice award winner. In 2020 he
was the alternate Teacher of the Year. The reason he is able to
be successful as a special education teacher is because of SESA.
He does not think he would still be in Alaska without SESA
support. SESA is necessary and needed. SESA helps lead
disability awareness programs that have helped his community
become even more accepting of students with disabilities. One of
his students was able to use his assistive communication device
to speak at graduation.
10:02:28 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND congratulated him on his accomplishments.
SENATOR MICCICHE asked why the bill has an extension for a year
less.
SENATOR STEVENS answered that was a mistake in drafting and he
will ask for an amendment to change that to 2029.
CHAIR HOLLAND added that was mentioned earlier.
SENATOR MICCICHE observed that looking at the math and the trend
of SESA finances, assuming the ADM remains steady, illustrates
that the legislature will have to think of some way to keep the
funding for SESA consistent. He enjoys the presence of SESA
students in his kids' schools. He is a great supporter of the
program and is amazed at the effectiveness. The legislature will
need to deal with the funding issue if the drop in ADM trend
continues. The impacts could be significant much earlier than
2029. The legislature will need to think about that.
SENATOR BEGICH added that he would need to check with Ms.
Teshner, but if the legislature does an early education bill,
that will add to the ADM to some degree and mitigate the
precipitous decline that Senator Micciche has identified. There
are a number of tools in toolbox that the legislature could use
to address it. There was no request in the audit or from the
executive director for an increase at this time, but he asked
whether a SESA increase can be done outside of the
reauthorization.
MS. CURTIS noted that she does believe that the last extension
bill included an increase to the rate in the statute. There was
an amendment to do that, perhaps out of Senate Finance.
SENATOR BEGICH asked if that can happen without the extension
bill.
MS. CURTIS answered that changing a statute can done through any
mechanism. The background information on page 2 of the report
notes that there are other funding sources. SESA receives
federal grants and other pockets of money, but LID is its main
program.
10:06:49 AM
LUCY HOPE, Special Education Administrator, Mat-Su Valley, said
that she been working in special education in Alaska for 40
years and worked with SESA throughout her career. Many teachers
in the state do not have training with students with low
incidence disabilities. She was the Special Education Director
of Mat-Su School District until about a year-and-a-half ago and
was the contact person for SESA. SESA was always responsive and
professional and on-target with what services it could provide.
In Mat-Su, because it is a large district, that was limited to
working with students with dual sensory impairments, students
who experience both deafness and blindness. SESA always provided
the expertise so the staff could work with those students and
provide a free and appropriate education. She is now working
with Aleutians East Borough School District and SESA has
provided expertise working with students in that district in a
very different environment. She has been impressed and grateful
for the guidance from SESA specialists over the past two years.
They recommend and provide curriculum materials training,
provide strategies and training for staff and for parents, which
is crucial. The distance support has been a precursor to
teachers becoming confident and facile with teaching in a
distance manner. SESA was doing that long before the pandemic.
The past 11 months SESA visits to districts have not been
possible, but SESA has not waivered in providing the meaningful
and necessary guidance.
SENATOR STEVENS said, "I am so impressed every time I hear what
SESA does. And I know all of us are. . . It is a very impressive
agency. I am only sorry that others in the Senate cannot hear
this testimony because it is very moving. Just imagine what
Alaska would be without this agency."
10:11:02 AM
SAM CROW, Parent, Bethel, Alaska, said that SESA has been so
impactful. He is the father of a visually impaired sixth grader.
He has 25 years in teaching and administration in the Lower
Kuskokwim School District. Since his son entered kindergarten,
SESA has been a partner not only in his educational life but out
of-school life as well. SESA and Miss Angel worked carefully
with his son's school. The expertise to deal with his son's
vision impairment came from SESA and Miss Angel. At one point
his son's vision was diagnosed as degenerative, which meant that
he would lose most if not all of his sight. That was a difficult
time. Angel and SESA were right there to help prepare for that
possibility. The committee has heard great testimony on the
educational impact, but SESA and Miss Angel have had a great
social and cultural impact on his son and family. Miss Angel and
SESA sent strategies and discussed those with the school and
coaches so that his son was able to participate in basketball.
Mr. Crow said he is appreciative of the academic support but
that spilled over to the self-realization that his son could do
things and visual impairment did not have to hold him back
completely. He credits all that to Miss Angel and SESA.
10:15:19 AM
LISA VILLANO, President, Alaska Council for Exceptional
Children, Shishmaref, Alaska, said that on behalf of all members
of the council she supports full funding and extending SESA.
Anyone would be hard pressed to find any member of the council
that has not had a completely beneficial relationship with SESA.
She is a special education teacher in Shishmaref. Being a
student with a disability in rural Alaska can be isolating.
There is not a whole lot of access to resources. SESA is such a
light and beacon of hope. She would not be the teacher she is
without the resources, training, and assistance from SESA. There
is a financial impact, but this is a piece of the budget well
worth keeping in place.
SENATOR MICCICHE said that for the other pools of funding, the
FY19 total was $3.5 million. FY19 was the first year SESA went
into deficit. He asked what FY20 looks like.
MS. CURTIS clarified that Senator Micciche was referring to the
schedule of revenue expenditures in Appendix D. She could not
comment on that and suggested that perhaps Mr. Pillai could
speak to the FY20 balances.
SENATOR MICCICHE replied that he did not need it now because it
is not Finance, but he cannot help going into numbers. He asked
why the Appendix B number served is higher than the total served
for the LID programs. He asked is that because of duplicity of
services.
MS. CURTIS replied that Appendix B shows 355 in total. The map
also shows 355.
SENATOR MICCICHE clarified that he saw 400 something in the
chart earlier in the presentation.
MS. CURTIS said that page two talks about other programs that
SESA has in addition to its LID programs. She is guessing that
it referring to other individuals served, possibly by the autism
resource center or other projects.
SENATOR MICCICHE replied that he can reach out to SESA for
additional information.
10:20:46 AM
CHAIR HOLLAND held SB 19 in committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| 01_SB019_SESA_SponsorStatement.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2021 9:00:00 AM SFIN 3/2/2021 9:00:00 AM |
SB 19 |
| 03_SB019_SESA_Sectional_version A.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2021 9:00:00 AM |
SB 19 |
| 06_SB019_SESA_Presentation_Pillai_05Feb2021.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2021 9:00:00 AM |
SB 19 |
| 08_SB019_SESA_Research_LBA-Audit_Full-Report_03April2020.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2021 9:00:00 AM SFIN 3/2/2021 9:00:00 AM |
SB 19 |