Representative Keith Brooks

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (2:33:31)

Announcement. You're recognized. House education will meet tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., room 138. Representative Vaught, for what purpose? You're

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (2:11:00)

where BLR did say that the legislation that they got was almost flawless when they received it, and I would like to say that there was a young lady that happens to be my niece that provided most of that language, and so perhaps there's a familial excellence in place there. I don't know. Appreciate a good vote on it. Representative

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (2:10:28)

So I just wanted to say, if you have not had the opportunity to see a robotics competition, I would encourage you to do that. They did a robotics day here at the Capitol back in October. Let some of us drive the robots. We did not destroy them, from what I understand. If we did, though, they would have fixed them. So I'd encourage you to get engaged in your local communities, because it's likely that your local schools probably have something like this, something like this, and it's something great as we consider the future of STEM education. It's something, a pretty outstanding thing, so I appreciate Representative Yves bringing this. It did make one point that I wanted to expand upon

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (2:10:26)

for the bill. Lift your glasses, Representative, so you can read.

Meeting — April 2, 2025 (47:54)

Number 1. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Amendment Number 1 simply is adding Coach Representative McGruder as a co-sponsor and then striking some duplicative language, and I'd appreciate a good

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:12:38)

and answer longer since we're on to a motion. Offline, maybe you can talk with him about that. I'll be happy to discuss it offline, yes.

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:11:10)

ability to communicate and some of the challenges they face certainly resonates very well with me, which is one purpose behind this bill. So with that, I am closed and I'd make a motion to pass.

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:10:59)

or against this bill? Okay, seeing none, would you like to close for your bill? I would like to thank Michael and Tony for sharing their story as a dad who many years ago experienced some of the same challenges relative to a child who may not have the best

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:07:53)

Law enforcement must determine that the child is missing and that their whereabouts are unknown. And the child is believed to be in potential danger as assessed by law enforcement, even if an abduction is not suspected. Collaborate with state agencies, so partner with the Arkansas State Police, who again did write the legislation, Office of Emergency Management, and coordinate with schools and child welfare agencies to improve the response. So, bottom line goal of this, this is to improve our notification system for children who may be in danger but don't meet those strict criteria.

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:07:20)

And so, again, her specific situation with a principal who contacted her was a very concerning situation. So what this does, we've got hundreds of children who go missing annually that don't trigger any type of alert. What this bill does is this creates a new alert system for kids who don't qualify. It's a statewide notification process. The alerts are issued through the existing system, which is law enforcement, media, digital highway signage, similar to kind of what you see with like a silver alert that a lot of times we'll see on the news. The criteria for the alert is the child must be under the age of 18.

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:06:47)

Several states have something similar. Texas, Florida have a very similar setup for them. This did pass out of the Senate 34-0 yesterday. So basically what this does is it establishes a standardized missing child alert system for cases that don't meet the strict criteria for Amber Alerts. So the problem is that the Amber Alert system requires evidence of abduction, and proof that the child is in immediate danger. However, many missing children situations don't fit those very stringent requirements, and so there is no alert in that.

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:06:14)

went missing. However, the student did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert. There's a very stringent criteria for what an Amber Alert is. We're all familiar with those. We get those on our phones. So BLR did research to look at what the alert system was, what statute did, and also what other states did relative to child alerts. I looked at 18 states that had different types of approaches, and they came up with this approach to basically expand the opportunity for an alert for a juvenile in certain situations.

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:05:47)

bill as amended. Thank you, Madam Chair. So Senate Bill 371 as amended. My friend Senator Jamie Scott does an outstanding job of providing me with great notes. And so I'm going to rely very heavily on those this morning. So the language for 371 was drafted by our partners at the state police. Senator Scott had reached out to them last summer where there was a situation from a principal from one of her school districts about an elementary student who had a disability that

Aging, Children & Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs (House) — April 2, 2025 (1:05:10)

Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee. Keith Brooks, Representative of District 78. The amendment that Blake is passing out is simply adding Representative Jay Richardson and Representative Barnes as co-sponsor on this bill. Are there any questions on the amendment? Would you like to close for your amendment? I'm close for amendment.

Education Committee (House) — April 3, 2025 (1:23:27)

VERY MUCH. THANK YOU, COMMITTEE, FOR YOUR WORK TODAY. IT'S BEEN OUTSTANDING. AGAIN, REMINDER, MONDAY MORNING, 11:00 A.M. PLEASE BE SAFE DRIVING HOME. HOUSE EDUCATION IS ADJOURNED.

Education Committee (House) — April 3, 2025 (1:23:10)

REPRESENTATIVE GONZALESWORTHY, YOU RECOGNIZE. NO DISCUSSION. SEEING NO DISCUSSION ON THE MOTION, ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. ALL OPPOSED SAY NO. NO. REPRESENTATIVE GARDER, YOUR BILL HAS FAILED. THANK YOU

Education Committee (House) — April 3, 2025 (1:23:07)

pass. Is there a discussion on that motion?

Education Committee (House) — April 3, 2025 (1:22:30)

anyone signed up to speak for or against this bill. Would anyone like to speak for or against the bill? Seeing none, Representative Garner, would you like to close for your bill? I am closed.

Education Committee (House) — April 3, 2025 (1:19:18)

school funding. Have we seen a decrease in public school funding relative to this, or is there an anticipated

Education Committee (House) — April 3, 2025 (1:15:04)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Andrews, you recognize