SB 289-EXTENDING THE SPECIAL ED SERVICE AGENCY  MS. JACQUELINE TUPOU, staff to Senator Lyda Green, presented SB 289 on behalf of the sponsor and provided the following testimony: The Alaska Legislature established the Special Education Service Agency (SESA) in 1986 to help schools and Infant Learning Programs provide required services for children with disabilities where there was no local expertise, for instance if you lived in a school district with one blind child or one deaf child [indisc.]. Also, rural Alaska is where this program is utilized quite frequently. The availability of these workers in the state, and the people who specialize in the area of disabilities has really gone down. At the same time, the incidence of disabilities has gone up. SESA provides required and important services for people who might otherwise have to go to costly residential programs and leave their communities and families to have these services provided. This bill re-authorizes SESA for nine years, until June 30, 2013. Included in the packet are 25 or 30 letters of recommendation from various school districts, the Association of School Boards, and numerous other agencies in NEA Alaska. SESA is very well received and everyone is championing for its re-authorization. MR. CHRISTOPHER L. ROBINSON, Executive Director, Special Education Service Agency (SESA), testified that he was available to answer questions. SENATOR WILKEN requested of Mr. Robinson that when SB 289 gets to Finance, he'd be interested in knowing how SESA distributes the estimated $2.1 million dollars among the 53 school districts. CHAIR DYSON asked where the kids with [FAS/FAE] show up within specialized programs for kids with disabilities. MR. ROBINSON replied that FAS/FAE (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Effect) kids are identified under the special education category, such as learning disability, emotional disturbance, or multiple disabilities. They would typically be served through what is called, "mild disability" special education services at the school district level. SESA's specific focus is on severe, low-incidence (meaning occurring infrequently) disabilities. Historically, SESA's funding does not target [FAS/FAE] kids. In 1999, SESA won a Health and Social Services grant issued to develop intervention strategies for classroom purposes. He said the funding only staffed one professional position and by design it was inadequate to address the classroom situation. After talking with DHSS and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, that grant was cooperatively transitioned to UAF with the intent that the funding would augment UAF's general teacher education program to better equip teachers to handle instructional differences presented by those kids. Since then, SESA has not had such targeted services. CHAIR DYSON suggested that maybe those kids could be dealt with under [the category of] mental retardation because arguably it is a soft brain injury. MR. ROBINSON replied that FAE is not identified as a disability category under state and federal criteria, and that identification process is the gateway for a SESA services referral. Without a doubt, there are kids identified with multiple disabilities or emotional disturbance whose etiology, in part, would be FAE, "and we know that to be the case." Those kids are being served because of their categorical identification in special education, other than FAE. Mr. Robinson said that other than the 1999 grant (which transitioned to UAF), he doesn't know of another grant that's been issued for education intervention; subsequent FAE grant funding that he's aware of has been preventive in nature. CHAIR DYSON said his consternation was that he hoped Mr. Robinson wasn't implying that the activities were being "directed by the money as opposed to the need." MR. ROBINSON asked, "referring to the activities of the agency?" CHAIR DYSON replied, "Yes sir." MR. ROBINSON said the low-incidence general revenue funding the state received has a historical attachment that doesn't include FAS/FAE kids. It would include FAS/FAE kids who have been identified for the purposes of special education in a special education category, most frequently that of emotional or multiple disabilities. He said, "There may be a distinction without a meaning." CHAIR DYSON said he didn't want to get obsessive, but inquired if the statutes or regulations should be changed so that these kids could be targeted. MR. ROBINSON replied that there are no regulations pertaining to the agency at all. The statute identifies the mandate for the agency to provide the low-incidence disability outreach program and it specifies areas of disability that would be included in that program, "FAE being absent." The larger question might be, "Is FAE in Alaska a low incidence disability?" That would fundamentally change the original and continuing legislative intent for these funds which up to now has been to support school district special education services specific to disabilities that are severe and occur infrequently. CHAIR DYSON asked, "So if we have too many kids with prenatal alcohol poisoning, they wouldn't meet the need of low- incidence?" MR. ROBINSON confirmed that they would not meet the criterion for low incidence, and thereby under the current design, would not meet the criterion for student-specific service. He told members that this was an important distinction within the service menu because the great majority of services that come out of the agency are not student-specific, but are broader services than that. Mr. Robinson said it had been discussed internally that should special revenue funding of some sort develop, specific to FAS/FAE education interventions, SESA would be very interested, not on a child-specific basis, but on a statewide or perhaps regional training basis to help train educators on classroom interventions. He said it was clearly understood that these children have educational and psychological differences and that status quo approaches in special education don't necessarily work. MS. TUPOU informed members that SESA offers workshops, courses, newsletters, and numerous services - including the website - that are available to school districts, whether rural or urban, and regardless of incidence of disabilities in the school districts. She estimated that there were about 6,000 hits per month on the website, and the newsletter distribution was about 25,000. SENATOR GREEN commented that this speaks to SESA's purpose of providing intervention training and taking the message to the home or school. She said FAS/FAE was not in the federal mandate, and that although SESA doesn't specifically serve that [population], she assumes that a child would rarely be only FAS/FAE; he/she would likely have other descriptors, some of which would fall under the category of services that SESA provides. SENATOR WILKEN said he understands that sunset reviews usually trigger legislative [audits]. TAPE 04-5, SIDE B  CHAIR DYSON said, "... And my understanding is that the last audit will be out in about a month, and our legislative audit has done it several times." He reported that Legislative [Budget and] Audit (LBA) recommends extending the sunset date and he had considered delaying action on SB 289 for the month until the next audit would be out, but having LBA's assurance that there would be no objection - unless the committee feels differently - he said he would not hold the bill on that basis. SENATOR WILKEN asked, "So the audit just needs to catch up with the bill." CHAIR DYSON said yes. MR. ROBINSON said, for the record, he wanted to correct previous data heard in committee. The agency's newsletter publication has a mailing list of about 2,000 and regarding the website, FY 03 data reveals a repeat user number of over 6,000. There were more than 196,000 hits on the site for FY 03. 2:28 p.m. MS. JANET JOHNSON, representing herself, testified via teleconference from Cordova, saying that she has a 4.5 year old daughter named Rose whose picture is with the committee from the last time Ms. Johnson testified, in October. She said Rose has a low-incidence disability, degenerative eye disease, and that because of her condition "she walks funny, she falls down a lot and things." She also has problems with sensory integration, which means she gets overly stimulated by the average school day. SESA has successfully been working with her while she went through ILP. Rose transitioned, with SESA's help, into the school system - and the school system in Cordova has not traditionally been very compliant regarding children's special needs - although it is getting better now, with parent volunteers. SESA is the only authoritative voice regarding why changes need to be made - not necessarily big changes involving financial re-structuring - but changes such as how to set up the classroom to meet the needs of someone like her daughter. Right now there is a lot of cooperation in the school system because of work that SESA has done. Ms. Johnson said that even when SESA can't come to town, the agency notifies her if there is something available that she should know about. This is especially important because Rose's condition is degenerative. She said SESA is her only back-up, and if it was not re- authorized, it would leave many communities without anybody to reach out to, and it would be tragic. CHAIR DYSON said he appreciated both her situation and her taking the time to testify today. MS. JOHNSON then added that SESA trainings were available not only for teachers but were also open to community members. She said she could not have done this on her own because, "just me talking about her condition isn't the same as getting training from an authoritative agency." CHAIR DYSON asked if there was any further public testimony or questions. Hearing none, he said he would entertain a motion. SENATOR GREEN moved to report SB 289 out of committee with individual recommendations, multiple letters of support, and the accompanying fiscal note. CHAIR DYSON asked Senator Guess, who was online, if she had any questions or comments. SENATOR GUESS said it sounded good to her. CHAIR DYSON asked if there was any objection. Seeing and hearing, none, it was so ordered. CHAIR DYSON announced that there was no additional business to come before the committee, and adjourned the meeting at 2:34 p.m.