Legislature(2009 - 2010)BELTZ 211
03/11/2009 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB101 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 101 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
March 11, 2009
8:02 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Donald Olson
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 101
"An Act relating to questionnaires and surveys administered in
the public schools."
HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 101
SHORT TITLE: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRES AND SURVEYS
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) DAVIS
02/06/09 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/06/09 (S) EDC, HSS
03/11/09 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 211
WITNESS REGISTER
TOM OBERMEYER, aid
Senator Davis
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Read the sponsor statement.
STEVE WARREN
representing himself
Sitka, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 101.
LAURA MULLER, Volunteer
American Cancer Society
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 101.
EDDY JEANS, Director of School Finance
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 101.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:02:44 AM
VICE-CHAIR BETTYE DAVIS called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:02 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Huggins, Stevens and Davis.
SB 101-STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRES AND SURVEYS
8:02:47 AM
VICE-CHAIR DAVIS announced consideration of SB 101.
TOM OBERMEYER, aid to Senator Davis, read the sponsor statement.
SB 101 is an Act relating to questionnaires and surveys
administered in the public schools.
SB 101 will provide for more student participation in
school questionnaires and surveys administered or required
by the Alaska school districts and the Department of
Education and Early Development (DEED), while at the same
time constitutionally protecting the privacy rights of
parents and students and also complying with the federal
Protection Of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) under the
U.S.C. Section 1322, Title 20.
With the exception of the anonymous Youth Risk Behavior
Survey (YRBS) noted in the new subsection (g) of this bill
Title 14.03.110, which has been administered biannually
since 1991 by the United States Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, SB101 provides that the school district may
not administer a survey, anonymous or not, that inquires
into personal or private family matters of a student not a
matter of public record or subject to observation unless
written permission is first obtained from the student's
parent or legal guardian. SB 101 provides in AS
14.03.110(e) that a student may still "refuse to answer
specific questions" or to participate in the survey.
SB 101 changes subsection AS 14.03.110(e) by requiring
that the parents who do not want their children to
participate must "opt out," or "actively dissent" to
participation with written denial of permission submitted
to the teacher or principal. SB 101 effectively changes
parental consent for anonymous surveys from active to
passive, that is, implied consent without written
objection. However, notice is still required and permission
for anonymous surveys can be obtained by the school
districts annually under the unchanged provisions of
Section (b).
Sections (b) and (c) relate to the two week requirement and
annual parental consent.
The two week notice requirement under AS 14.03.110(b),(c)
remain unchanged, but revised subsection (d) under SB 101
requires more information in the notice than current
provisions in recognition of the need for more attention to
constitutional due process in matters of student privacy.
Changes require more information about the nature and
content of the survey, the dates, sponsor, school districts
and opportunity to refuse participation in a questionnaire
or survey.
8:06:22 AM
Changes under SB 101 comport with the original legislative
intent of the school survey statute before it was changed
in 1999. The current statute, which requires active
parental consent for youth to participate in anonymous
school surveys, requires that parents must acknowledge both
permission and denial in writing. SB 101 requires that
parents only deny permission in writing to anonymous
surveys. Surveys which are not anonymous or that delve into
personal or private matters still require parental
[written] consent for permission for students to
participate, with the exception of AS 14.03.110(g)
regarding the Youth at Risk Behavior Survey noted above.
These are the statutory reasons for the change:
It has been found that active parental consent over burdens
the public school system and drastically increases the cost
and labor involved in the student surveys. Moreover,
"active" consent greatly reduces overall participation by
students because many parents simply are non-responsive.
While studies have found the vast majority of parents would
consent to students participating in school surveys, non-
response is more often due to apathy, oversight and student
omission or error rather than parental consent. Many
districts are unable to use the data they collect because
there are not enough participants for statistical
validation. Some surveys, such as the Youth Risk Behavior
Survey, cannot be validated with less than 60 percent
participation, as occurred in Alaska in 2005. Lack of
participation may also reduce federal funding.
School surveys provide reliable and valuable measures of
population-based information on youth, which help policy-
makers, educators, program planners and parents to better
understand health and social issues that affect students'
prospects for program success. Standardized surveys such as
the Youth Risk Behavior Survey track trends over time and
help guide and evaluate important health and prevention
programs. State and federal grant programs which rely on
these surveys include tobacco prevention and control,
obesity prevention, diabetes, heart disease and stroke,
safe and drug-free schools and other substance abuse
prevention, injury prevention, including violence and
suicide prevention, HIV and STD prevention and more.
8:08:40 AM
Finally, he noted that they have position statements from the
Association of Alaska School Boards in support of this bill.
8:09:02 AM
CHAIR DAVIS opened the floor to public testimony.
8:09:20 AM
STEVE WARREN, representing himself, Sitka, AK, testified in
favor of SB 101. He has been involved in substance abuse
treatment in Sitka and has found that the suppositions of the
adults in a community frequently do not coincide with what the
results of the YRBS reveal. Without those results, they are
often aiming their resources at problems that don't exist and
missing the real problems entirely. He feels it is very
important to ask these questions in a non-threatening way so the
state will have a really good idea of where to spend its limited
dollars.
8:10:49 AM
LAURA MULLER, Volunteer, American Cancer Society, Anchorage, AK,
works with youth groups in programming and these anonymous
surveys tell them what kind of job they are doing. They get
funding from donors and the state and need to know that they are
spending those funds as effectively as possible in the best
interests of the kids. The YRBS is a national survey and that is
the information the federal government is looking for when
organizations compete for CDC and other grants. She pointed out
that she could find only three other states that use active
consent for the YRBS. Even the Catholic schools that her
children attended used passive consent; they understood that
involved parents would be paying attention and would opt out if
they chose to do so.
MS. MULLER closed by saying this data is so important that they
have to have it. The survey is given in public schools because
that is where the kids are; they are not silly or
unsophisticated and if the state really wants to see to kids'
needs, they have to get at that information.
8:13:14 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked what three states use passive consent.
MS. MULLER answered Utah, Nevada and North Dakota.
8:13:58 AM
VICE-CHAIR DAVIS closed public testimony. She said the only
changes that have been made to this bill involve consent for the
Youth Risk Behavior Survey and were made because it has been so
difficult to get enough participation.
8:14:47 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS referred to section 3(e) on page 2, where it
says "A student may refuse to answer specific questions on or
participate in a questionnaire or survey administered in a
public school." He said it sounds to him like the student can
either not answer a question, or refuse to take the survey at
the time it is given regardless of parental consent. He asked if
his interpretation is correct.
8:15:36 AM
MR. OBERMEYER said he believes Senator Huggins's interpretation
is correct. The previous language said students may refuse to
participate in a questionnaire or survey; now it says they can
refuse to answer specific questions or refuse to participate.
This allows them to participate in a survey they may have some
doubts about and decline to answer specific questions that make
them uncomfortable. It would imply that they can refuse to
answer questions or participate in any survey, which is
independent of the parental guidelines. Finally, in the same
subsection, the bill requires that a written denial [of
permission] by the students' parent or legal guardian be
submitted to the principal or the teacher.
8:17:00 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked Mr. Obermeyer to clarify whether a student
who decides not to answer questions or participate in a survey
for which the parent has granted consent would have to submit a
denial in writing.
MR. OBERMEYER said it is specific to the parent or guardian; a
student may refuse to answer questions or participate without
any written notice.
8:17:53 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS said he would like to see some data from school
districts on how prevalent the challenge is to get parents to
respond.
VICE-CHAIR DAVIS asked if he is referring specifically to the
YRBS.
SENATOR HUGGINS said he means anything that requires parental
consent, but particularly the Youth Risk Survey. He would like
to see statistics from several school districts as to how many
students actually participate.
VICE-CHAIR DAVIS said that should be easy to get. She called
Eddy Jeans to testify.
8:19:28 AM
EDDY JEANS, Director of School Finance, Department of Education
and Early Development (DEED), Juneau, AK, said he does not have
those statistics with him but can get them to the committee this
afternoon. He also stated that the department is in favor of
moving to passive permission for these surveys.
SENATOR HUGGINS said his interest in the data is so he can
answer questions regarding this bill with factual information.
8:20:24 AM
SENATOR STEVENS asked how we are protecting students' rights to
privacy.
8:20:48 AM
MR. JEANS said he can't give a detailed answer. He does know the
surveys are confidential but he will get more detail on this for
Senator Stevens this afternoon. He added that the department is
supportive of returning to passive permission for the Youth Risk
Behavior Survey.
CHAIR DAVIS closed public testimony and held SB 101 in
committee.
8:21:39 AM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Vice-Chair Davis adjourned the meeting at 8:21 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SB 101 Current Statute.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |
| SB 101 lttr of support.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |
| SB 101 Sponsor Statement.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |
| SB 101 Sectional Analysis.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |
| SB101-EED-ESS-3-06-09.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |
| SB 101 Supporting Documents.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |
| SB 101 Parental Notification and Form.pdf |
SEDC 3/11/2009 8:00:00 AM |
SB 101 |