SB 40-EDUC.OF DISABLED OR GIFTED CHILDREN    CHAIRWOMAN GREEN announced SB 40 to be up for consideration. DR. BRUCE JOHNSON, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Education and Early Development, said SB 40 was developed with a broad based constituent group on the special education of children with disabilities and individuals representing the exceptionality of giftedness. They believe it is a good bill. He said last year DOEED required school districts to provide services for children identified as gifted, but left the service decisions up to the local district. There is no money at the state level; money is passed through as the 20 percent block grants. Constituents wanted the state to provide oversight, however. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN said that currently the state has no say in qualifications for a gifted program for a certain district. DR. JOHNSON said that is correct. The scope of the project is up to the school district and DOEED receives a plan of service from each of them. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN asked if the state has an appeal process. DR. JOHNSON said the appeals process is an issue and the state rarely gets involved in resolving disputes, but the threat of the state getting involved helped the districts solve the differences. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN asked if the school districts have a mandate to provide an appeal process for all parents and students for decisions that a school district makes that a parent doesn't like. DR. JOHNSON replied that he didn't know if it was in statute, but every school district has a complaint resolution process that's well founded in the board's policies and administrative procedures. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN asked if it was limited to special education students. DR. JOHNSON answered that it is open to any parent or community member that has an issue with the school district. It usually involves trying to resolve the issue at the lowest possible level and moving it forward to the Board of Education and then to the Superior Court. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN asked if there could be a mediation process if the local school district had it in their policy. DR. JOHNSON answered, "Absolutely." CHAIRWOMAN GREEN said she thought that the districts probably had a variety of ways of implementing a complaint procedure. DR. JOHNSON said that was correct. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN said that there has been continued interest in the state having the appearance of oversight. She explained that the proposed committee substitute handles the problem a little differently and her goal was to get it passed this year. She asked Dr. Johnson to explain the dilemma DOEED is in if it doesn't pass. DR. JOHNSON responded that for the last several years, the Department has been under corrective action from the federal government and it had to do with the fact that the Department some years ago was spending federal dollars on the G/T (Gifted/Talented) programs around the state, particularly when it came to monitoring. Three years ago, a monitoring review by the federal government said the state could not do that; that the federal money was to be used for children with disabilities, even though the state had a broader definition of exceptional children with an umbrella that covered children with disabilities and G/T. DR. JOHNSON said they have been respecting that review ever since that time and had regulations prepared a year ago giving clear directions. Now, DOEED is trying to get statutes in line with the federal IDEA '97 statutes and regulations. SB 40 is an attempt to do that. The portion dealing with children with disabilities does that very well. The federal government has no voice in identifying children who are gifted. It's up to the local district. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN said that Congressman Jeffords was trying to get a federal mandate for gifted children and she thought the timing would be better if Alaska tries to get its statute to conform to the federal one. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN recessed the meeting to the call of the chair. CHAIRWOMAN GREEN called the meeting back to order at 4:37 p.m. with all members present. She said that SB 40 was before them. SENATOR WARD moved to adopt the F version committee substitute of SB 40. There were no objections and it was so ordered. SENATOR WARD moved to pass CSSB 40(HES) from committee with the accompanying fiscal note with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.