SB 8-STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRES AND SURVEYS  9:20:36 AM CHAIR DICK announced that the final order of business would be SENATE BILL NO. 8, "An Act relating to questionnaires and surveys administered in the public schools." 9:20:45 AM THOMAS OBERMEYER, Staff, Senator Bettye Davis, Alaska State Legislature, stated that this bill would return the administration of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to passive parental consent from active parental consent. He read a statement from the Department of Health and Social Services website: The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is part of a national surveillance system developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assist with assessing and addressing the health risk of youth. It is conducted in Alaska every other year by the Department of Education and Early Development and the Department of Health and Social Services in cooperation with public schools. He shared that the survey was given in the spring of 2011 to 1327 students from 40 high schools, scientifically selected to represent all public high schools and public high school students in grades 9 - 12, excluding boarding, alternative, correspondence, correctional, and home study schools in Alaska. In addition, 969 students from 16 alternative high schools in Alaska, defined as serving high risk students, were correspondingly given the same survey, with the results for both surveys posted on the website. He paraphrased from the sponsor statement [original punctuation provided] [Included in members' packets]: The purpose of SB 8 is to increase participations in the national biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) in order to meet the minimum 60% participation level required by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the results to be validated and published along with other states. There have been years when the state has not met minimum participation levels. Failure to obtain survey information adversely affects the ability of educators, planners, policy makers, and parents to understand and address the important health and social issues that affect students' happiness and success in the future. To help achieve this objective SB 8 changes the parental consent requirement for the YRBS from active to passive, that is, from written to implied consent if parents are given notice at least two weeks in advance of the survey by U.S. mail, or home delivery; the opportunity to review the entire survey at the school or the district's web site; and a form with return envelope to deny permission in writing. Parents who do not want their children to participate usually notify the school immediately at registration in the beginning of the school year, or after notice and before the YRBS is given early in the spring semester. It is the attention of the other parents SB 8 is designed to reach. Failure of parents to return written consent forms in the past has been found often to be the result of lack of attention rather than refusal. Since the biennial survey is only given to a representative number of the 53 Alaska School District and only to a representative sampling of high school classes, many parents and students will never be involved with the survey. Students are not forced or required to participate. They may independently decline to participate or to answer specific questions in this completely voluntary and anonymous survey. If they do participate, absolute privacy and anonymity are maintained by strict administrative procedures and the return of individual surveys in private and secure sealed envelopes to CDC. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey helps guide and evaluate important health and prevention programs in both the public and private sectors. Local, state, and federal officials, schools, state and federal agencies, public and private grant programs, and nonprofit health organizations rely on these surveys to educate, allocate resources, and compare trends concerning safe behaviors. These include injury prevention, tobacco prevention and control, obesity prevention, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke prevention, safe and drug free schools, substance abuse prevention, violence and suicide prevention, HIV and STD prevention, and connectedness to teachers, parents and other adults. In short, SB 8 simply makes it easier to obtain information on youth risk behaviors without violating students' or parents' rights to privacy, nor diminishing the ability of parents to supervise their children. At the same time SB 8 increases parental notice with ample opportunity, instructions, and forms to opt out. He pointed out that SB 137, suicide awareness and prevention training for teachers and other school personnel, had been introduced for attention as a result of the YRBS. 9:26:58 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON, directing attention to the sectional summary of the proposed bill from Division of Legal and Research Services, dated January 27, 2011, [Included in members' packets] read from Section 3, "Adds specific questions and process for a student and parent to refuse to participate in a student survey by submitting a written denial of permission." He pointed out that the proposed bill did not state that a student had to provide a written denial of permission, but that, per Section 3(e) of the proposed bill, a student "may refuse to answer specific questions [on] or participate in a questionnaire." He offered his belief that a parent could provide a written denial, but that the student could, on their own authority at the time of the survey, refuse to answer certain questions or participate in the survey. He asked to clarify that the wording in the proposed bill took precedence over the sectional summary. MR. OBERMERER confirmed that Section 3 of the proposed bill was correct. REPRESENTATIVE SEATON suggested that the sectional summary be revised to avoid confusion. 9:29:17 AM CHAIR DICK asked who designed the questionnaire. He expressed concern that the questions could be changed in the future to appear to endorse certain behaviors, rather than inquire or identify as risky behavior. MR. OBERMEYER, in response to Chair Dick, stated that the survey was designed by the CDC and the exact same questions had to be on each survey when given nationwide every two years, in order to validate the results. He pointed out that a person or legislature could contact the CDC with concerns for the questions, and that CDC desired that every state be involved in order to obtain knowledge regarding risky behavior nationwide. He shared his observations that participation in the survey did not induce thoughts about or endorse any specific behavior, as students faced these matters daily. He declared the survey to be an identification bank of information from nationwide schools. He directed attention to the 2011 summary, titled "Healthy Alaska," [Included in members' packets] which indicated that smoking, drug use, and suicide were all prevalent, relevant issues. 9:32:35 AM REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON asked to clarify that these surveys were necessary for other organizations, such as the American Lung Association, to prove that their techniques were effective and to obtain funding. MR. OBERMEYER replied that the survey materials tracked the increase and decline within each behavior specific area. He noted that a "fairly high rate" for smoking continued, even as the overall rate had decreased. REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON, referring to the 2011 summary, declared that smoking had decreased, though not as much in the alternative schools which illustrated that those students were at a greater risk. She pointed out that these surveys offered information and assessments without any cost to the schools. MR. OBERMEYER confirmed that alternative schools had higher percentages for risky behaviors. 9:36:17 AM CHAIR DICK asked how Alaska benefited from these surveys. Offering his belief that many non-profit organizations needed this data in order to obtain funding, he asked which non-profit groups benefited from these surveys. MR. OBERMEYER offered to provide a list of the non-profits which benefited from this survey. He declared this to be an informational issue for schools, in order to deal with high risk behaviors. He pointed out that there was a zero fiscal note for SB 8, and he acknowledged that private funding was raised to get more participation in the survey. He expressed his belief that the CDC process was not driven by nonprofit organizations looking for increased funding. He declared that the only way to deal with high risk student behaviors was "to know what they're doing and this is probably the very best way that we've been able to come up with." 9:38:18 AM REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA observed that proposed SB 8 addressed the issues for comparing Alaska to other states, with a focus on the appropriate spending of public money. She offered her belief that the worldwide philanthropic organizations donated huge amounts of funding to Alaska based on data from surveys such as YRBS. MR. OBERMEYER pointed out that the survey results provided extensive details, allowing Alaska the opportunity to review the risk behaviors in other states. He clarified that the handout was merely a thumbnail sketch for Alaska. 9:40:38 AM REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON declared that the survey was most helpful to Alaska and the legislature for determining where efforts needed to be concentrated. [CHAIR DICK opened public testimony.] 9:42:11 AM EMILY NENON, Alaska Government Relations Director, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, assured the committee that the American Cancer Society encouraged the efforts of the Division of Public Health in the schools. She explained that the YRBS gathered necessary information in order to "measure the effectiveness of all of the programs that we support," and for recognition of the emerging issues. In the last decade, although youth smoking had decreased by 50 percent, it was still an issue to be addressed. She clarified that proposed SB 8 addressed a problem with logistics, as current law tied the hands of the school districts for implementation of the survey in a manner that worked best for each district. She reported that, pre-1999, there was a vague definition to the means for in-school surveys; whereas, in 1999, the law was more protective for parent and student information. She clarified that these protections and details were maintained and expanded in proposed SB 8, but the logistical hurdle of implementation by school districts was made easier. She declared support for proposed SB 8 in order to protect parental engagement, better serve youth, and monitor the state investments. 9:45:35 AM WARD HURLBURT, M.D., Chief Medical Officer/Director, Division of Public Health, Central Office, Department of Health and Social Services, corroborating the testimony of Mr. Obermeyer, declared that the YRBS was important to the schools, school districts, the Department of Health and Social Services, CDC, and the Department of Education and Early Development. He shared that experience indicated that 10 percent of parents would decline, and an additional 20 percent of parents would not return the survey, even after multiple attempts to contact them. He pointed out that the survey required 60 percent participation for statistical significance, and that the governor acknowledged the importance of the survey. He reported that about 25 of the 106 survey questions were submitted by the state. He clarified that questions could be changed over the years, and that some of the questions were put in the context of presumption that youth engaged in behavior that many other young people did not engage in. He explained that the reason for the context of presumption was to elicit honest response. He stated that the governor was committed to strengthening Alaskan families, did not support passive permission, and did not support SB 8, as he felt active consent was necessary to engage parents with their children. 9:48:48 AM REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA reflected that there had not been testimony from the parents, and she opined that parent response was critical to obtain data, as Alaska leads the nation in many aspects of behavioral health risks. MR. OBERMEYER pointed out that parental consent was requested during student registration, and again prior to the questionnaire. 9:51:35 AM REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI asked about the value of the data collected by the survey. DR. HULBURT, in response to Representative Kawasaki, stated that the data was quite valuable as it addressed many issues of youth behavior that could present risks, and that the governor also agreed with the value of the data. REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI asked how the governor wanted to obtain compliance in order to reach the necessary 60 percent of participation. DR. HULBURT agreed that the participation rates were greater with passive consent; however, he opined that the governor wanted to strengthen families in the state and preferred the current method. 9:53:51 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked to clarify that the data was not scientifically defensible if there was not 60 percent participation. He asked if the Division of Public Health used the data regardless. DR. HULBURT explained that, in years when they had not achieved 60 percent participation, the data was informative but not conclusive for statistical significance, and "a handicap to us in obtaining grants for some of the important programs that we believe can benefit Alaska's youth." He reported that, in 2011, participation was almost 63 percent. 9:55:34 AM REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA offered her belief that it was important to know what was happening with the school districts. 9:56:22 AM RYAN KAUFFMAN stated that he was representing himself on his own time, and that he supported youth and the efforts to reduce their risk behaviors and increase their success. He reminded the committee that the survey was completely anonymous and confidential, and that it was an evaluation tool which allowed relevant and consistent services for risk behaviors experienced by Alaskan students. In response to Chair Dick, he pointed out that addressing high risk behaviors at a younger age was a benefit to Alaska as it lowered the risk behaviors in the adult population, thereby reducing fiscal costs and increasing the quality of life for Alaskan residents. He offered his belief that there was a fiscal benefit to passage of proposed SB 8, as the data ensured that the increasing number of prevention programs were effective. He described that his role with the Sitka School District for coordinating the YRBS had required an extraordinary effort to collect the minimum 60 percent by necessitating active parental consent. He declared that it required multiple mailings to parents, sending permission forms home with students, and following up with door to door visits to homes and work places. He pointed out that the current system operated to accommodate the 10 percent of parents who actively opted out of participation. He encouraged support of proposed SB 8. 10:00:33 AM REPRESENTATIVE FEIGE expressed his belief that 60 percent participation seemed high for scientific validation, as a typical sample was often for much lower participation. He asked what standard deviation was scientifically valid and what sample size was necessary. 10:01:28 AM CHAIR DICK said that public testimony would remain open. [SB 8 was held over.]