HB 85-STUDENT DATA & ASSESSMENTS  9:43:49 AM CHAIR KELLER announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 85, "An Act relating to college and career readiness assessments for secondary students; and relating to restrictions on the collection, storage, and handling of student data." 9:44:03 AM REPRESENTATIVE TALERICO moved to adopt CSHB 85, labeled 29- LS0301\F as the working document. There being no objection Version F was before the committee. 9:44:33 AM REPRESENTATIVE LORA REINBOLD, Alaska State Legislature, advised that Legislative Legal and Research, while working on Version P, Sec 7, page 7, unintentionally included "criminal records and delinquent records," which has been deleted in Version F and people have access to delinquent and criminal records. 9:45:34 AM The committee took an at-ease from 9:45 to 9:48 a.m. 9:48:09 AM REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD repeated the technical change by Legislative Legal and Research Services. 9:48:52 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON moved to adopt Amendment 1, labeled 29- LS0301\F.1, which read: Page 1, line 1: Delete "and career readiness" Page 1, following line 3: Insert new bill sections to read:  "* Section 1. AS 14.03.075(a) is amended to read: (a) A school may not issue a secondary school diploma to a student unless the student takes a [COLLEGE AND] career readiness assessment or receives a waiver from the governing body.  * Sec. 2. AS 14.03.075(c) is amended to read: (c) The department shall provide funding for the fee for a single administration of a [COLLEGE AND] career readiness assessment for each secondary student within two years of the student's expected graduation.  * Sec. 3. AS 14.03.075(e)(1) is amended to read: (1) "[COLLEGE AND] career readiness assessment" means the [SAT, ACT, OR] WorkKeys assessment;" Page 1, line 4: Delete "Section 1" Insert "Sec. 4" Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. Page 6, line 7, through page 7, line 28: Delete all material and insert:  "* Sec. 10. AS 14.07.165 is amended to read: Sec. 14.07.165. Duties. (a) The board shall adopt (1) statewide goals and require each governing body to adopt written goals that are consistent with local needs; (2) regulations regarding the application for and award of grants under AS 14.03.125; (3) regulations implementing provisions of AS 14.11.014(b); (4) regulations requiring approval by the board before a charter school, state boarding school, or a public school may provide domiciliary services; (5) regulations implementing the [COLLEGE AND] career readiness assessment provisions of AS 14.03.075, providing for the needs of a student who is a child with a disability, and setting standards for a waiver under AS 14.03.075; the regulations may address the conditions, criteria, procedure, and scheduling of the assessment; (6) policies and procedures consistent with  relevant state and federal privacy laws that  (A) limit access to individual and redacted  student data to  (i) persons who require access to perform  duties assigned by the department, a school district,  or the administrator of a public school;  (ii) the student who is the subject of the  data and the student's parent, foster parent, or  guardian;  (iii) authorized agencies as provided in  state or federal law or by an interagency agreement;  (B) restrict student data transfer except  as necessary to  (i) fulfill student requests;  (ii) carry out a school transfer or student  location request; or  (iii) compare multistate assessment data;  (C) prohibit collecting and reporting  student data pertaining to  (i) medical and health records without the  written consent of the student's parent, foster  parent, or guardian or of a student who is 18 years of  age or older or is emancipated under AS 09.55.590;  (ii) biometric information;  (iii) political or religious affiliation;  (iv) items in a student's home;  (D) provide for a detailed data security  plan for collecting, maintaining, and sharing student  data that addresses  (i) privacy;  (ii) authentication;  (iii) breaches in security;  (iv) training;  (v) encryption; and  (vi) other data retention and disposition  practices;  (E) prohibit the sharing of student data,  including electronic mail addresses and other  electronically stored information, for a commercial  purpose, including marketing or advertising purposes;  (F) provide for other security measures. (b) In this section, (1) "child with a disability" has the meaning given in AS 14.30.350; (2) "student data" has the meaning given in  AS 14.03.200." Page 7, line 29: Delete "AS 14.03.075(a), 14.03.075(b), 14.03.075(c), 14.03.075(e)(1), and 14.03.078(a) are" Insert "AS 14.03.078(a) is" CHAIR KELLER objected for discussion. REPRESENTATIVE SEATON explained that the WorkKeys exam being administered to the 11th grade students provides a comparison of student performance across the state and within a school, and last year House Bill 278 changed the requirement. He advised that this amendment takes that exemption out of the bill and the state would require WorkKeys of all students across the state, and it removes the SAT or ACT option. He commented that the sponsor drafted the amendment subsequent to Representative Seaton's concerns expressed during the last meeting. 9:50:55 AM REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD advised that House Bill 278 required the WorkKeys, SAT, and ACT, and Version F does not require those. She explained that this amendment requires WorkKeys, and within Version F, students can take WorkKeys but the state is not required to pay for it, and students can also take it at a state job center. She stated the amendment was prepared based upon Representative Seaton's concerns. REPRESENTATIVE SEATON reminded the committee that for several years the state required that WorkKeys be taken in the 11th grade and allowed it to be upgraded during a student's senior year, until House Bill 278 wherein comparisons of districts and schools across the state couldn't be compared. The purpose of WorkKeys, he advised, is to provide a comparison, and an incentive for students to be career ready as their skill level scores were provided on student transcripts and available for employers. Thereby, he pointed out, students were actually work ready and employers across the state were aware of the applicant's necessary work skills. He stated WorkKeys assists 70 percent of Alaska's students to have a document stating the student is career ready when they graduate. 9:54:07 AM CHAIR KELLER asked Representatives Seaton and Reinbold whether they recall the previous bill before the committee this year that discussed WorkKeys, and stated that an individual could refer back to that bill for additional information. Chair Keller withdrew the question. 9:54:34 AM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ advised she does not recall the specific house bill number Chair Keller was referring to, but she was bothered by the testimony on that bill that if the legislature did away with the requirement of the WorkKeys exam, it would not be easily accessible. She pointed out that students would have to go to the local Department of Labor office, which does not exist in every village. She expressed that she was tremendously bothered by that fact as WorkKeys is an exam that can be taken by students in the workforce arena. She stated she wholeheartedly supports this amendment for reasons stated by Representative Seaton, and that the exam would be provided in every school. 9:56:30 AM REPRESENTATIVE COLVER advised he was co-sponsor of another bill removing the WorkKeys, SAT, and ACT requirement and is opposed to Amendment 1. CHAIR KELLER removed his objection. REPRESENTATIVE COLVER objected. 9:56:53 AM A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Drummond, Seaton, and Vazquez voted in favor of Amendment 1. Representatives Colver, Kreiss-Tomkins, Talerico, and Keller voted against it. Therefore, Amendment 1 failed by a vote of 3-4. REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD reviewed the fiscal note, stating that it is a positive for the budget. 9:58:44 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON offered Conceptual Amendment 2, page 6, subsection 18, and delete lines 4-6. REPRESENTATIVE COLVER objected. REPRESENTATIVE SEATON referred to an April 6, 2015 handout with regard to a summary depicting the same situation across other states. He referred to Kentucky in that students are not allowed to opt out of the assessments as Kentucky gives its standardized assessments to be certain it does not have underperforming schools, gaps in students not receiving their appropriate education, and teacher evaluation. He related that when students opt out, the teacher evaluation system doesn't work. He advised that opting out destroys the accountability system. He further advised that parents can opt out of public education completely, but they cannot stay in the public system and choose which provisions to follow and disregard. 10:01:06 AM REPRESENTATIVE COLVER stated that Alaska's current teacher and student evaluation process is a work in progress. He said the AMP is currently being conducted and feedback is not good. He expressed concern for the vehicle being used and said a more meaningful system needs to be developed and until that occurs an opt-out option needs to be available. Parents expect to have certain freedoms in Alaska and the opportunity to make choices. He said he is in opposition to Amendment 2. CHAIR KELLER announced CSHB 85, is held in committee with Conceptual Amendment 2 on the floor for the next meeting. 10:03:32 AM