Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/07/2003 01:03 PM Senate HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 110-UNDER SCHOOL AGE STUDENTS
CHAIR FRED DYSON announced SB 110 to be up for consideration.
MR. EDDY JEANS, School Finance Manager, Department of Education
and Early Development (DEED), explained this legislation would
clarify in statute the ability of school districts to early-
enroll children who are under school age, if they are ready for
the academics that are being provided. DEED asked for this
legislation because it has come to DEED's attention that a
number of school districts in the state are basically enrolling
all four-year olds in what they call a two-year kindergarten
program. The department does not believe that was the intent of
this legislation and that it was intended strictly to allow the
exceptional child to get in early. The bill says the state's
intent is to provide 13 years of funding for K-12, not 14 years
of funding.
SENATOR GRETCHEN GUESS asked if this legislation would prohibit
a school district from having a two-year kindergarten program if
it wanted to use other sources of funding.
MR. JEANS replied that it would not. It just says a district
would not be able to claim those students for state foundation
funding.
SENATOR BETTYE DAVIS asked how much this would save and how many
school districts are doing it. She asked if the children who are
identified as needing the two years would be able to continue.
MR. JEANS replied the department believes this section of
statute was intended to allow the exceptional child to enter
kindergarten at four-years old and advance to first grade at
five years old as opposed to entering kindergarten at five like
most do. Some schools have instituted a two-year kindergarten
program, but he would argue that is preschool.
SENATOR DAVIS asked how many exceptional students there are.
MR. JEANS replied that DEED's fiscal note identifies all four-
year olds that were claimed under the foundation formula this
year and a savings of $3.9 million from the bill. He stated, "We
believe some of these children are eligible to be early-
enrolled, but the exact number I could not tell you. We believe
it's a very small number."
He noted that right now over 600 four-year olds have been
enrolled in school statewide.
SENATOR DAVIS asked if he had asked the districts to identify
those children.
MR. JEANS replied that the districts do evaluations, but the
standards have been set low enough to allow any four year old to
enter into kindergarten. He explained that the age date in
statute is August 15, so if a child turns 5 on August 17, he can
be evaluated to determine if he is ready to enter kindergarten.
He noted:
We're trying to address an issue that's come to our
attention since we started collecting student level
data and we can identify that in some school
districts, the population of four year olds is almost
identical to the population of five year olds, which
leads us to believe they are enrolling them all.
SENATOR WILKEN asked when this first surfaced as a foundation
formula issue.
MR. JEANS said DEED has been collecting student level data for
four years. He heard rumors of it prior to collecting the data,
but he couldn't verify it. He now has birth dates.
SENATOR WILKEN noted a spreadsheet in their packets that shows
five school districts account for about $2.5 million of the $3.5
million in funding.
CHAIR DYSON said it was recommended that lines 11-13 be deleted.
MR. JEANS replied that is correct. It was a clerical error and
the House had already deleted it from the House bill. He
explained that the last sentence says a child under school age
may be admitted to first grade or higher, if that child meets
the minimum standards. This would prevent that exceptional child
from being able to enter kindergarten. He added that this is not
strictly a foundation program issue. He added, "If we provide
foundation funding for four-year olds, then we have to allow
those kids to be counted for space. So, it also affects our
facility site at the shop."
SENATOR GUESS said she hoped that "under-age school child" is
defined somewhere. She asked if they are just talking about
kindergarten to first grade. She wanted to make sure there are
no unintended consequences at any other grade levels.
MR. JEANS replied that is right. It is not DEED's intent to
prevent children who need to be held back from being held back.
The funding is based on 13 years of schooling.
MR. JOHN DAVIS, Superintendent of the Bering Straits School
District, opposed SB 110. He said it represents an effort to
control state spending, but he is concerned that it would only
save money in the short term. This service is being provided to
children who are among the most vulnerable and educationally
needy. However, the reduction in funding for this program would
not create the $3.5 million represented. He contended that the
bill would cost the district and state additional funds in
remedial services and other special services to help those
students who will need any help they can get in the future, but
that in his district that would not be a large number. The
Bering Straits School District has participated in this program
for the last 13 years and he contends this is not a new issue to
the department.
SUPERINTENDENT DAVIS said that they had heard that this program
is intended for only 13 years, but students who do not qualify
for a diploma through a high school qualifying exam will be
eligible for yet another year of school and possibly two. He
would like to continue this program to see that students have
this effort early and the expectation of passing the exam will
be more likely.
CHAIR DYSON asked how many students he has enrolled in this
category.
SUPERINTENDENT DAVIS replied that he has 100 children per class
in his school district and this category has 90 students.
District-wide there is a student count of 1,800.
MR. BRUCE JOHNSON, Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB),
drew members' attention to the governor's investment plan as he
outlined his budget. One of the categories under the mission for
the Department of Education and Early Development states high
quality early care and education programs improve the well being
of young children. Their contention is that the statute as it
currently exists allows for early intervention into the lives of
four-year olds who often reside in poor, remote, rural areas of
our state. The notion is that the state begins to serve those
kids as a preventative action. A study conducted by the Economic
Policy Institute talks about equity at the starting gate
regarding social background and differences in achievement as
children begin school. This study validates that children enter
school with wide achievement disparities and that children in
the highest socio-economic groups scored 60 percent higher in
mathematics and reading as compared to children in the lowest
categories. These findings have helped support what many
educators have known for years - the achievement gap begins long
before children enter school.
CHAIR DYSON stated that he personally hasn't seen any
correlation between economic standards and school success. He
thought the social and cultural values of a family make the
biggest difference.
SENATOR WILKEN asked if the Legislature didn't do anything about
SB 110, would the Fairbanks North Star Borough be able to count
all four-year olds as kindergarteners.
MR. JEANS replied that is what could happen. This issue is
before the Legislature now to get some clarity on application of
the statute.
SENATOR WILKEN said this looks truly like a policy call that is
driven by the finances.
CHAIR DYSON asked Mr. Jeans if DEED needs legislation to be able
to regulate the qualification standards.
MR. JEANS answered that local school districts set the standards
by department regulation. A number of different instruments can
be used to assess whether or not a child is ready for
kindergarten or first grade and the department did not feel it
could say which particular assessment everyone should use. He
felt that regulation basically had no effect. He said this
legislation would go a long way to cure the problem.
SENATOR GREEN moved to delete language on page 1, line 12
beginning with "a child" through line 13. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR DAVIS asked for clarification. She said people in those
five school districts whom she has talked with say those
children need more time. They are not coming in because they're
exceptional, but because they will need more than kindergarten
in order to move into the first grade and they want to start
working with them as early as they can. That service should be
provided to those that need it, similar to Headstart.
SENATOR GREEN said it would be interesting to compare the two
programs in Finance.
SENATOR DAVIS said that Headstart is not necessarily in the five
districts that are using this program.
TAPE 03-17, SIDE B
SENATOR DAVIS said that some of the districts might have
Headstart, but that some kids from every district need more than
13 years to get through school. Some kids are kept in
kindergarten and some are held back in first grade. She said
this bill hurts the kids who need it the most.
MR. JEANS agreed with many of the things she said, but said DEED
is talking about a policy call of whether or not the State of
Alaska wants to provide preschool funding through the foundation
program. Many districts would enroll four year olds if they
thought they were going to get state funding for them. Many of
the districts on the list generate impact aid funding. If they
operate a preschool program, they will continue to generate
impact aid funding, which the state will not count in the
foundation program. The districts would be able to retain 100
percent of that funding and continue to support their program.
It's a fairness question. If some can do it, all have to be able
to do it.
SENATOR WILKEN moved to pass CSSB 110 (HES) from committee with
individual recommendations and its attached fiscal note. There
were no objections and it was so ordered.
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