Legislature(2003 - 2004)
02/09/2004 01:39 PM Senate HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 289-EXTENDING THE SPECIAL ED SERVICE AGENCY
MS. JACQUELINE TUPOU, staff to Senator Lyda Green, presented SB 289
on behalf of the sponsor and provided the following testimony:
The Alaska Legislature established the Special Education
Service Agency (SESA) in 1986 to help schools and Infant
Learning Programs provide required services for children
with disabilities where there was no local expertise, for
instance if you lived in a school district with one blind
child or one deaf child [indisc.]. Also, rural Alaska is
where this program is utilized quite frequently.
The availability of these workers in the state, and the
people who specialize in the area of disabilities has
really gone down. At the same time, the incidence of
disabilities has gone up. SESA provides required and
important services for people who might otherwise have to
go to costly residential programs and leave their
communities and families to have these services provided.
This bill re-authorizes SESA for nine years, until June 30,
2013. Included in the packet are 25 or 30 letters of
recommendation from various school districts, the
Association of School Boards, and numerous other agencies
in NEA Alaska. SESA is very well received and everyone is
championing for its re-authorization.
MR. CHRISTOPHER L. ROBINSON, Executive Director, Special
Education Service Agency (SESA), testified that he was available
to answer questions.
SENATOR WILKEN requested of Mr. Robinson that when SB 289 gets
to Finance, he'd be interested in knowing how SESA distributes
the estimated $2.1 million dollars among the 53 school
districts.
CHAIR DYSON asked where the kids with [FAS/FAE] show up within
specialized programs for kids with disabilities.
MR. ROBINSON replied that FAS/FAE (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal
Alcohol Effect) kids are identified under the special education
category, such as learning disability, emotional disturbance, or
multiple disabilities. They would typically be served through
what is called, "mild disability" special education services at
the school district level. SESA's specific focus is on severe,
low-incidence (meaning occurring infrequently) disabilities.
Historically, SESA's funding does not target [FAS/FAE] kids. In
1999, SESA won a Health and Social Services grant issued to
develop intervention strategies for classroom purposes. He said
the funding only staffed one professional position and by design
it was inadequate to address the classroom situation. After
talking with DHSS and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, that
grant was cooperatively transitioned to UAF with the intent that
the funding would augment UAF's general teacher education
program to better equip teachers to handle instructional
differences presented by those kids. Since then, SESA has not
had such targeted services.
CHAIR DYSON suggested that maybe those kids could be dealt with
under [the category of] mental retardation because arguably it
is a soft brain injury.
MR. ROBINSON replied that FAE is not identified as a disability
category under state and federal criteria, and that
identification process is the gateway for a SESA services
referral. Without a doubt, there are kids identified with
multiple disabilities or emotional disturbance whose etiology,
in part, would be FAE, "and we know that to be the case." Those
kids are being served because of their categorical
identification in special education, other than FAE. Mr.
Robinson said that other than the 1999 grant (which transitioned
to UAF), he doesn't know of another grant that's been issued for
education intervention; subsequent FAE grant funding that he's
aware of has been preventive in nature.
CHAIR DYSON said his consternation was that he hoped Mr.
Robinson wasn't implying that the activities were being
"directed by the money as opposed to the need."
MR. ROBINSON asked, "referring to the activities of the agency?"
CHAIR DYSON replied, "Yes sir."
MR. ROBINSON said the low-incidence general revenue funding the
state received has a historical attachment that doesn't include
FAS/FAE kids. It would include FAS/FAE kids who have been
identified for the purposes of special education in a special
education category, most frequently that of emotional or
multiple disabilities. He said, "There may be a distinction
without a meaning."
CHAIR DYSON said he didn't want to get obsessive, but inquired
if the statutes or regulations should be changed so that these
kids could be targeted.
MR. ROBINSON replied that there are no regulations pertaining to
the agency at all. The statute identifies the mandate for the
agency to provide the low-incidence disability outreach program
and it specifies areas of disability that would be included in
that program, "FAE being absent." The larger question might be,
"Is FAE in Alaska a low incidence disability?" That would
fundamentally change the original and continuing legislative
intent for these funds which up to now has been to support
school district special education services specific to
disabilities that are severe and occur infrequently.
CHAIR DYSON asked, "So if we have too many kids with prenatal
alcohol poisoning, they wouldn't meet the need of low-
incidence?"
MR. ROBINSON confirmed that they would not meet the criterion
for low incidence, and thereby under the current design, would
not meet the criterion for student-specific service. He told
members that this was an important distinction within the
service menu because the great majority of services that come
out of the agency are not student-specific, but are broader
services than that. Mr. Robinson said it had been discussed
internally that should special revenue funding of some sort
develop, specific to FAS/FAE education interventions, SESA would
be very interested, not on a child-specific basis, but on a
statewide or perhaps regional training basis to help train
educators on classroom interventions. He said it was clearly
understood that these children have educational and
psychological differences and that status quo approaches in
special education don't necessarily work.
MS. TUPOU informed members that SESA offers workshops, courses,
newsletters, and numerous services - including the website -
that are available to school districts, whether rural or urban,
and regardless of incidence of disabilities in the school
districts. She estimated that there were about 6,000 hits per
month on the website, and the newsletter distribution was about
25,000.
SENATOR GREEN commented that this speaks to SESA's purpose of
providing intervention training and taking the message to the
home or school. She said FAS/FAE was not in the federal
mandate, and that although SESA doesn't specifically serve that
[population], she assumes that a child would rarely be only
FAS/FAE; he/she would likely have other descriptors, some of
which would fall under the category of services that SESA
provides.
SENATOR WILKEN said he understands that sunset reviews usually
trigger legislative [audits].
TAPE 04-5, SIDE B
CHAIR DYSON said, "... And my understanding is that the last
audit will be out in about a month, and our legislative audit
has done it several times." He reported that Legislative
[Budget and] Audit (LBA) recommends extending the sunset date
and he had considered delaying action on SB 289 for the month
until the next audit would be out, but having LBA's assurance
that there would be no objection - unless the committee feels
differently - he said he would not hold the bill on that basis.
SENATOR WILKEN asked, "So the audit just needs to catch up with
the bill."
CHAIR DYSON said yes.
MR. ROBINSON said, for the record, he wanted to correct previous
data heard in committee. The agency's newsletter publication
has a mailing list of about 2,000 and regarding the website, FY
03 data reveals a repeat user number of over 6,000. There were
more than 196,000 hits on the site for FY 03.
2:28 p.m.
MS. JANET JOHNSON, representing herself, testified via
teleconference from Cordova, saying that she has a 4.5 year old
daughter named Rose whose picture is with the committee from the
last time Ms. Johnson testified, in October. She said Rose has
a low-incidence disability, degenerative eye disease, and that
because of her condition "she walks funny, she falls down a lot
and things." She also has problems with sensory integration,
which means she gets overly stimulated by the average school
day. SESA has successfully been working with her while she went
through ILP. Rose transitioned, with SESA's help, into the
school system - and the school system in Cordova has not
traditionally been very compliant regarding children's special
needs - although it is getting better now, with parent
volunteers. SESA is the only authoritative voice regarding why
changes need to be made - not necessarily big changes involving
financial re-structuring - but changes such as how to set up the
classroom to meet the needs of someone like her daughter. Right
now there is a lot of cooperation in the school system because
of work that SESA has done. Ms. Johnson said that even when
SESA can't come to town, the agency notifies her if there is
something available that she should know about. This is
especially important because Rose's condition is degenerative.
She said SESA is her only back-up, and if it was not re-
authorized, it would leave many communities without anybody to
reach out to, and it would be tragic.
CHAIR DYSON said he appreciated both her situation and her
taking the time to testify today.
MS. JOHNSON then added that SESA trainings were available not
only for teachers but were also open to community members. She
said she could not have done this on her own because, "just me
talking about her condition isn't the same as getting training
from an authoritative agency."
CHAIR DYSON asked if there was any further public testimony or
questions. Hearing none, he said he would entertain a motion.
SENATOR GREEN moved to report SB 289 out of committee with
individual recommendations, multiple letters of support, and the
accompanying fiscal note.
CHAIR DYSON asked Senator Guess, who was online, if she had any
questions or comments.
SENATOR GUESS said it sounded good to her.
CHAIR DYSON asked if there was any objection. Seeing and
hearing, none, it was so ordered.
CHAIR DYSON announced that there was no additional business to
come before the committee, and adjourned the meeting at 2:34
p.m.
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