SB 6-PREKINDERGARTEN SCHOOL PROGRAMS/PLANS    8:07:28 AM CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced the consideration of SB 6. 8:07:34 AM CO-CHAIR MEYER moved to adopt the committee substitute (CS) for SB 6, labeled 27-LS0058\I as the working document. Hearing no objection, version I was before the committee. 8:08:00 AM THOMAS OBERMEYER, Staff to Senator Bettye Davis, co-sponsor of SB 6, introduced himself. LILA HOBBS, Staff to Senator Hollis French, co-sponsor of SB 6, introduced herself. MR. OBERMEYER said version I changes the age of the students enrolled in a public prekindergarten program from "4 and 5 years of age" to "4 years of age". He noted that this version also provides for the inclusion of the prekindergarten students in the student count and changes the inclusion of these students from "part time" to "not more than a half-time". He asked if the committee would like him to read the sponsor statement. SENATOR DAVIS said the sponsor statement has already been read. She asked Mr. Obermeyer to go through the changes that have been made to version I in comparison to the original bill. MR. OBERMEYER said Section 1, subsection (a), on page 1, describes a prekindergarten program for students four years of age. He explained that the bill previously had included both four- and five-year-olds. However, five-year-olds can be enrolled in a regular kindergarten program. On page 2, Section 3, subsection (b), an exception was removed regarding the estimated count [for the first year of the program]. He explained that the Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) cannot fund an estimated count. This change now allows the department to make the regular count in October and will set the dollar amount for those students enrolled already for that school year. Finally, and most importantly for the fiscal note, on page 2, lines 13-16, a student who is enrolled in a prekindergarten program provided by a district shall be counted as not more than half-time. He explained that previously the bill included the wording "part-time"; however, there are a number of different types of "part-time" students. 8:12:29 AM SENATOR FRENCH said the previous fiscal note was based on a cohort of four- and five-year-olds attending prekindergarten half-time, which is what currently occurs with a kindergarten class. He asked if this is correct. MR. OBERMEYER replied that, in his understanding, DEED took the current number of five-year-olds currently in kindergarten and assumed that all four-year-olds would be moving into that age group in the next year and included them in the ADM [Average Daily Membership] on a full-time basis. This greatly inflated the previous fiscal note. He added that he has not heard from the department yet since version I had to be adopted before DEED would speak to the fiscal note. However, in his understanding, this may cut the fiscal note in half. SENATOR FRENCH said he will follow up with the department. He asked for confirmation that the number of hours per day that a child would spend in a prekindergarten program is about half a day. MR. OBERMEYER replied yes. He noted that this is a part-time and an optional program. 8:14:53 AM ELIZABETH NUDELMAN, Director, School Finance, Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), spoke to the fiscal note for CSSB 6, version I. She explained that the department used the kindergarten cohort as the total number of students who would be eligible for the new program and applied a one-half full time equivalent. She said in doing so this makes the fiscal note one-half of the previous fiscal note, which calculated each prekindergarten student as full-time. The new fiscal note is anticipated to be $41.826 million. She noted that the fiscal note also acknowledged the changes in version I regarding the reference of four-year-olds as opposed to four- and five-year-olds. She explained that the change in age does not change the amount in the fiscal note, since the focus is on one cohort. She continued that in changing and removing the funding from an estimate to an actual October count, the department's feedback is that this program funds on "actuals" and she does not know how close an estimate would be. She recommended that this program be funded through an actual count. She added that the fiscal note does not address the facility issue and DEED would not anticipate anything large in the initial year's fiscal note, if at all. 8:17:39 AM SENATOR FRENCH asked for confirmation that the foundation formula pays the same for children whether they are in kindergarten or 12th grade. MS. NUDELMAN replied yes. SENATOR FRENCH asked if DEED has done any research into whether the costs are actually the same for each grade or if that is the way the department divides out the amount of money to be spent. MS. NUDELMAN replied that's the way the department divides out the money it spends. She explained that the department has not specifically studied the differences. SENATOR FRENCH said the reason he raises this question is that while he would like to leave the fiscal note small, he wants to have a quality prekindergarten program, which might cost more. He asked her to look into this over the interim. SENATOR DAVIS said the kindergarten program can be looked at as a good model where the funding formula is working. She reiterated that the previous fiscal note was highly inflated because four- and five-year-olds were both included. She asked for confirmation that the department simply cut the fiscal note in half. MS. NUDELMAN replied yes. SENATOR DAVIS asked for confirmation that the fiscal note is now $41 million. MS. NUDELMAN replied yes. SENATOR DAVIS said she is disappointed that the committee has received no input from DEED with regard to the bill, except about the fiscal note. She said that with such an important topic, it would be expected that there be some response from the department. She stressed that the legislature is responsible for providing education for Alaska's children and needs to come up with a program that will work. She noted that this bill does not force schools to have a prekindergarten program, but there are a lot of schools that do want it. She said that she is going to do everything that she can to get the message out to the public in order to get input on it. She opined that the volunteer programs and the pilot program don't meet the needs of all of the state's students. 8:22:41 AM CO-CHAIR THOMAS said he understands it is difficult for the department to take a position when the governor has not made his position clear. SENATOR DAVIS took issue with that. CO-CHAIR THOMAS said that with regard to moving forward, the committee has had some discussions with the Alaska Early Childhood Coordinating Council and will schedule some meetings in the fall to help put together a more structured plan for next session. CO-CHAIR MEYER added that the committee did write a letter to the council requesting that it give some formal presentations to the committee during the interim on prekindergarten. He said hopefully the council will also look at SB 6. There are a lot of good things going on in the pre-K area, however there doesn't appear to be a central coordinating effort to help the legislature efficiently provide prekindergarten. He said SB 6 goes a long way in doing just this. CO-CHAIR THOMAS concurred. He announced he would hold SB 6 in committee.