Education - House and Senate

Good afternoon everybody welcome to the house that education committee we have a big schedule today let me see we first on our agenda do we have anything you have some announcement to make okay what we do need to do is we need to approve the meeting minutes from october the second in the third do I hear motion do I have a second saver i'll pose thank you very much so today we have a few little good items on the agenda one of this we have spent a lot of time talking about school safety and school safety of not one of those things that is one and done it's a continuous conversation so we've invited our doctor may share or may. To be with us this afternoon. And also with her is jury keeper and michernandez doctor hernandez. In germany was with the department of education. And mike doctor hernandez you know if the head of the a whatever. And doctor may is the head of the criminal justice institute in case anybody here didn't know that but she has been very very much involved in the school safety and the school safety commission and input into the learnt act so I will if you will introduce yourselves please you'll be recognized yeah i'm marshall may i'm director of the university of arkansas systems criminal just a sense to an arkansas center for school safety I chaired the twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two school safety commission I am also currently chair decision safe schools committee. This. At doctor macronade as executive director of a AEA and also a member of the twenty two school safety commission. Jerry keifer on the director of the safe schools unit for the department of education. Yes mail. Okay you may begin. Are thank you all and especially thank you our senator english for that for the opportunity to act to be here today our school safety is something that we have. Been working on and extremely long time. And as you said there's not one thing that we're going to be able to do that's going to ensure that our kids are going to be one hundred percent safe and capable of. Fulfilling their they're true academic potential but I will save this we have we should be very very proud of the enormous amount of progress that we have made in this state and if you would please allow me there I think a bunch of people that need to be thanked are for that because this was an effort that included individuals in all different levels are we wouldn't be where we are today if it weren't for the support of both governors as the hutchison and governor sanders without their support we would have never been able to make the progress that we've made are we also would not have made that progress. In making our schools even safer if it weren't for everything that that you all did and all the lies are that were passed and i'm gonna go through those to kind of help us get a better picture of where we are now i'm also tremendously grateful to all those members of the twenty eighteen twenty twenty two ask or safety a commission are they work very very hard and are very very cash in it about everything uh that we wanted to do to help make our schools are safe replace for our staff and and kids are the dese scores safety committee once we identified where we wanted to go it was that committee that was basically the group of individuals that started working with you all the frame what we thought was a key and needed legislation and they're also the ones that work very very closely with the department on establishing rules. But we also have to thank our superintendence because we came up with eighty one. Are different recommendations or what our best practices are and there are many superintendents out there that their mission is to try to fulfil as many of these best practices are as possible. We couldn't do what we need to do are if our teachers are staff and our students didn't do what we asked them to do we asked them to change their behavior and to do a variety of different drills and also in ensure that critical school safety strategies have been implemented. We've asked them to do a lot. And I am a tremendously grateful are to the supranator intended staff and students for all the hard work that they've done. Unfortunately these asks for critical and keeping our our kids safe and our schools safe environment the twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two commissions we emphasized how important it was to look at school safety from a comprehensive perspective and a layer perspective as senator english mentioned there is not one thing we can do that we can go okay boom mike drop were done we do this and our schools are safe we have got to have a comprehensive and layered approach to school safety. And in order to do that you know we've got a focus on things like prevention are mitigation appropriate response and recovery that all of these together with the emphasis being placed more so than anything else are on prevention. And much of the response that we've made in our state has been in response to school shootings are in the lessons learned. From these horrific events. The kind of put things into perspective for you. Are since column bine which was ninety nine and each time I say this phrase always irritates me because as you know we had westside bono when ninety eight. And so westside bonus not included in these numbers but somehow that's the the line that folks have drawn are since column buying in nineteen ninety nine there have been a three hundred and eighty nine are score shootings. In the united states. The highest ever the year with the highest number ever was twenty twenty two. Right now. That number for twenty twenty two and they keep revising it when they are look back at these incidents was forty six. Currently for twenty twenty three. There have been a total of sixty nine score shootings right and that includes both case from twelve and higher ed I feel compelled to also mention higher and in those sixty nine shootings there have been over a hundred people who have been either killed or injured. Of that sixty nine forty five of them have been in case through twelve institutions. So remember last year was the highest ever. And were at forty five right now with only three months with two more months left ago in the calendar year. As we all know you know we have not been immune. Are from school shootings. Stamps within nineteen ninety seven. A west side bono are ninety ninety eight and then much to my horror when I was trying to prepare for the twenty twenty two commission. And trying to look at what's been going on in our stay I was horrified to realize that. Between the twenty eight commission and our commencement and twenty twenty two commission that there had been three school shootings and arkansas are one in prescribe in twenty nineteen another one in concord and twenty nineteen as well I and then watson chapel and twenty twenty one. You know we talked about the amount of progress that we've made over the year so I just want to spend just a couple minutes giving you guys just a quick glampse. Are probably the first comprehensive school safety legislation that was passed was passed back in our twenty thirteen. And it was at four eighty four and it was called the safe schools initiative. Of course you know that was after the uh twenty six hour mentally students and teachers at sandy hook were murdered are and it focused on primarily assessments or safety assessments are and making active shooter drills mandatory for our schools. When we did the twenty eighteen commission one of the most in whitening things that we realized. Was that. Yeah. Our school counselors. Were primarily functioning. As administrators the test administrators and so in twenty nineteen there was legislation that was passed to make sure that our school counselors spent much more time with our students with the idea that them being able to provide some mental health resources or some counseling are for the individuals would be an important source of a potential prevention. And then in twenty twenty one m response to what happened to parkland the major and the margarity douglas margaret stung and douglas high school in parkland florida x five fifty one six twenty six twenty two and six forty eight were passed and these laws mirrored a light of the best practices that were provided in the twenty eighteen commission. We focused on things like comprehensive school safety assessments. School safety school resource officers lock down drills increasing mental health awareness providing additional resources for our schools and long enforcement through the arkansas center for school safety. Also when twenty twenty one activity was passed and I consider this to be school safety legislation as well because at ten eighty four focuses on restraining students and identifies who can restrain students and they establish standards are for safely restraining our students. And then of course in twenty twenty three was a learned that. And proudly that s unlearned stance for safety. Focused on crisis response teams direct communication with law enforcement district safety and security teams behavioral threat assessment teams. The. So we covered a lot of grounds are through the learns act. And then also in twenty twenty three are at seven eighty seven senator english's bill focused on walking next terrier doors. Except during times of transition. And then finally i'd legislation with act eight eleven of twenty twenty three and that was the act that uhm mandated schools to have a lockson with their ads and also for school nurses and school resource officers to carry the lock sound so collectively we've passed some of the most comprehensive school safety legislation in the country and I think you all should be very very proud of that fact. But due to lessons learn. From many of these tragedies in a while we've made tremendous progress there's more we need to do. And I was particularly reminded of this my recent trip. To parkland. The three of us are jury keeper doctor hernandez and I were invited by some of the parkland parents are to go to parkland and to take a tour of that prestige crime scene they were intending to uhm very soon demolish that building they hadn't done anything with it are since the uhm events. Are on february fourteenth times day and twenty eighteen because they needed it for prosecution and i've got to be roll honest with you. You know you can see things are on videos you can read reports but when you have the opportunity to actually be that close to the horror and evil. That existed that day if it does impact you I had mixed feelings about going but you know my phds and forensic king anthropology and i've been a franzic professional for close to forty five years and i've seen a lot of really bad stuff so I thought hey I can I can handle this. One of the primary reasons why I did go though is because the parents. They want to do accomplished they I admire their courage tremendously. They want to do insure. That their children's lives were not lost in vain. And so they invited about two hundred of us to take this tour. And a learn about the failures. And also to become more passionate advocates for school safety. For me. Those goals were accomplished. I was profoundly impacted by this tour. Two days are before the murders at parkland. Parkland florida was voted as one of the safest communities in the country. Like so many other. Communities impacted by school shootings they farmly believed nothing like this could have happened. Are in their community. There were clearly lessons learned from other school shootings that they did not he. So I just want to take up a real quick. Summary and take you through that tour. As much as I keep. Shooting occurred in one building on the campus and it's referred to us building twelve hundred and it's a three story building. There were eleven. Students were staff that died on the first floor. There were nine. That died on the second floor. And then there were sex that were murdered on the six on the third floor. All of this was a accomplished fourteen students and three staff murdered in six minutes. The purpose rater and I will never say his name. The perpetrator ended. Was able to gain entrance through an unlocked exterior door. Once he got inside the first floor he started shooting down the hallway. And killed three students and one staff member. Now what made this a little bit more difficult for me. Is that there was an alert that was put out that there was an intruder on campus. And one of the staff members that was up on the second floor. I heard the intruder alerts so they came down to the first floor. And when they came down of the first floor they saw the perpetrator murderer. Are who was standing there with his duffle bag. And there were no shots fired. Instead of trying to do something he ran up to the second floor and he had. After that the perpetrator. Are shut three students and one teacher in the hall. Normally. When perpetrators do these kind of horrible things they usually go into the classrooms. Well this perpetrator did not he ended up shooting through the window panels of the doors. And most of the students that were killed on the first floor. Were actually in their classroom celebrating. Are. Sank valentine's day. Are you could see their shoes. The crime seem was prested. Are there sour patch kids candy that they were eating. Are and he shut through those window panels. Because it was the most convenient thing for him to do. And a lot of these kids ended up losing their lives are because. The rooms were in a range appropriately. You know when we talk about the rooms being set up and had a respond we talk about find in hard corners. And a way that you can you know put panels on those. Or put a. Curtains on those panels so that individuals can't see in there if you're in a and a lock down drill and then make sure that you can hide in a place where even if they could see through that are they could not. The sro heard shots and it was clearly stated are on recordings that he knew that there were shooting going on in that building back to he stayed outside for forty eight minutes. Smoke and dust from the noise. Caused a lot of uhm. Dust come out of the panels on the ceilings and that caused the far along. To go off. Before going and the second floor and this is this is a partner have to forgive me but there are things that are referred to his evil. But there are different levels of evil it's evil to go into a school and the cheap innocent but it's even more evil to go back to those kids that were in the hallway and shoot on one more time just to make sure they were dead. So after doing that he went to the second floor. Are the second floor heard the shots below them. Are so they didn't evacuate their classrooms because the fire all was going off but they heard the shots and they knew better. Yeah. No one. Was shot or injured on the second floor. And i'll get to that are in another second. In the meantime the kids on the third floor. Yeah. The teachers let them out of the classrooms and they were trying to evacuate because they didn't hear of a gun shots that were going on on the first floor. And so they evacuated their classrooms they were stuck in the hall as the murderer came up the steer well and what are the things. That i'm going to emphasize. Is that we have to heed lessons that were previously long we have to. We know. From our own experience and west side bono. Yeah. That the purpotrators pulled the fire alarm on purpose. And what they wanted to happen was they wanted all. The kids to come outside. And they were sitting on the with their rifles and they were plenting students off shooting them are and staff. As they came out of the building we've known that since nineteen ninety eight. But the parkland heed that did they do anything to change. Their procedures with fire alarms now we could say the same thing about the santa fe shooting in texas. Not that very long ago. They purposefully pulled. The fire alarm. Six died on the third floor the students ended up getting back in but the one that got me the most was wacky. Watching was initially shy and injured and thought he could get into the bathroom. And secure the door. And so he tried to get into the bathroom. But the bathroom was locked. And the reason why it was locked is because they were worried about vapors. Being in the bath kids being in the bathroom vapor. He saw the shooter come back at him. He put his hands over his face and then the shooter shot him. One last time. After shooting and killing and murdering working. Are he went to the teacher allowance. And the teacher lounge was thankfully locked but he was able to shoot through the panel and get in there and get it unlocked. What his gold wise since he pulled the fire alarm he wanted to use that vanage point to shoot folks just like they didn't were side bono as they were coming out of the other the building thankfully they had just upgraded to hurricane glass and it was basically bothered resistant and so he wasn't successful. The. I told you earlier that. There was nobody that died. I'm the second floor. Yeah. Like so many schools. Are there motivational banners. That are hung everywhere to remind our kids of really really important thanks. And on the second floor and chief for an eye and i'm sorry but he sex law enforcement so I call them key for no disrespect. You know we buckled in our knees. And the quote. That was really really big on the second floor. Was never live in the past. And always learn from. That will stick with me. For the rest of my life. Because we've made significant progress but we've got to learn from the school shootings that happen not only in our state but those are in other states. Senator english wanted me to talk about some of the things that we still need to do but what i'd like to do as i'd like to first turn it over to doctor hernanders who also went to the tour so that you can hear his perspective and then messed her key for will go after him. Like your doctor bay so I too had a lot of apprehension about going to this and and after talking to doctor bay and and spending about an hour when not on the phone with one of the parents I wanted to go for the parents because I felt like they were doing this and wanted people to learn from from past mistakes and and go back and improve things in their state and I do want to say you know thank you to the doctor may in the the former commissions and the legislature the work the child done as as seemed to put us in in the right trajectory of trying to make school safer the grant money I think is going a long ways to be able to help schools do some of those additional things that are required or not required or or recommended at this point and some of the requirements as well I can assure you in the brief description that gave of what the the scene was like it was a lot worse than that not be an excellent enforcement that's something i've never seen before and I hope never to see again one of the things that better that's probably concerning to me and I think it should be to you is that any time that things are are your **** people to do things doctor by mentioned the eighty one different things people always look at it is think what do I have to do II think we're very clear on in this state about what we have to do what are the requirements as far as doing school safety. But until I went on this trip I knew what we had to do but I didn't know why we were doing it I mean I know that there were school shootings I knew that there were lots of of issues and ways the layered approach doctor may but i'm crystal clear on while we're doing what we have to do and I think that every administrator legislator I wish they had the opportunity to go through and at least see some of that if they were willing to because it really does hit home of actually wrote an article about it this past minute i've spoke to some some administrators this morning and I said I know I hear from you guys about all the new requirements where's the funding going to come from their system a lot of things out there and and administrators have a full plate but I said you can't you can't take the approach of being complacent or complied you've got to be on top of it and making sure that your folks understand and I know legislators here from administrators from teachers and things like that about why are we having to do this it's scary it's horred but we've got to keep pushing we've got to keep on with this practice scene of school safety because the the biggest thing I could think through as we are going through that I was proud of what all that have been passed and requirements had been passed in arkansas but is we're walking through that building what I thought about is how was this person in the building for over six minutes and here was this point a failure who was that point of failure who was that point of failure about how things maybe could have been prevented initially but definitely how things could have been mitigated during that situation then so that practice seemed having those discussions I think it's very important in our state to continue and it I can assure you work when doctor may they were going to keep pushing that message that we need to have a. Keen focus on school safety here in arkansas. The. Thank you doctor may. Little bit of my background doctor may had hit on unformer law enforcement in twenty twenty two are retired from twenty four years of law enforcement here in mainly based in central arkansas. Finally retired out of the attorney general's office. One of the key roles that I was recruited to go to the attorney general's office was too teach active shooter response for educators and to law enforcement so I am an alert which is the advanced law enforcement rapid response training instructor. So for me this was. A little bit it was a different perspective than what doctor hernandez and doctor my head because I was i've come up under doctor made for twenty twenty years now and I was a crime seeing technician. I have been in a lot of crime scenes have seen a lot of crime scenes. So for me not to sound called but it was another crime scene so from that point of view it was very interesting but from the school safety point of view as humbling as it was it was also a product moment for me for the state of arkansas because I realize how for the head of the curve we are in a lot of areas but it also made me realize how far behind we are also. Doctor may had. Made the comment about the motivational quotes that were on each floor they wrong at each end of the hallway um. And I have talked a light since we've been back about that quote that never live in the past but always live from it what are the odds of that quote being in a school where a mass killing occurred on the floor. That there were not any casualties or injuries. And there were any because of the response they did have in the way the classrooms were set up they were able to lock their doors and they were able to hide and take cover in the hard corners. The shooter did shoot through two windows on the second floor. But when he shut through and he didn't see anybody he stopped shooting. In two thousand and fifteen the final report for the sandy hook. School shooting came out. One of their findings was there his never been a locked classroom door breached. In all of our active shooter school shootings. Locked doors save lives. I travel around the state. Um helping the districts meet the recommendations from about the twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two commissions their recommendations. And the culture of school safety. Is that or I would like it to be in the state. I have a lot of conversations these districts that because of my background I think things in a security and safety point of view that's how I see the world. Um. Educators are necessarily wired like that or not all of them are so this is a cultural change that we have to make. But we still I still get push back about locking doors. Clap classroom doors that i'm talking about but it doesn't matter what door it is there then I still get pushed back. Um. I was recently contacted was last week by a director of security for one of our school districts. And he was asking what. How to resolve that problem he periodically puts out emails to all staff. Regarding safety and security protocols procedures best practices his frustration now is he included locking your classroom doors and he is getting responses from teachers that say where is it mandated why do I have to do that if it's not mandated. Debt and that's the culture that the schools are in right now. Doctor me and doctor hernandez referred to learning from the past. Like I said. In twenty fifteen. The final report came out from sandy cook. But in twenty eighteen when the parkland school shooting happened. They didn't have an active shooter policy or plan in place. So that seven years after the shooting but only three years after the final report came out. They hadn't practiced or conducted a lock down during and over a year. So there's a lot of lessons to be learned and there's more to come um. The. Max shacker is a part of alex chacter who was one of the children that was killed at parkland. Yeah. I was reading an article. This was more of a bad and interview with max. And he said this is it's scary but it's true he said the next school shooters already out there. And so is the gun. It's hour job. My opinion as leaders in our state and honor. Relative arm. Positions. To be that the tips of those spears in school safety. Um. I take my job very seriously and i'm proud to be in the position. The. And to be able to help these schools um. Go in the right direction and we are going in the right direction but there's a lot more that we need to do. Thank you. Are speaking of that said way. Yeah. There is still some things that we need to do. You know if you think about some of the the more recent. A school shootings that have gotten a lot of national attention. There's been for whatever reason there's been a delay in law enforcement action. Those of you who know me I know that I have devoted how good last forty years. Are of my life. Are to doing everything I can. Are to help law enforcement one of their biggest advocates but in these particular instances these delays were critical you know even after the the shooter accident the building at parkland. It was forty minutes. Before law enforcement came in are to. And in the process are seven students died they bled out. Are because of that way. We talk about alert training. Ah and I think it's very very critically important that all of our law enforcement betraying the same way. You know but at the same time I can't sit here and talk about how an advocate I am. Without telling you that think about what we asked them to do. You know we we want them to put themselves in harm's way. And they need to be able to do that but yet at the same time we need to do something about their pay i'm sorry. Uhm. Classroom doors. I am not gonna be able to. Rest. Until. Schools make it or you are make it mandatory the classroom doors need to be locked when the kids are inside. Incident after incident after incident. Has clearly shown that locked classroom doors save kids lives. The. In overall day. I it was class from twelve try to get into first. Those classroom doors were couldn't get in there so we went to one eleven. I am the classroom door not only was that door not locked and this gets back to what key first talking about in terms of this culture of compliance and how critically important that ideas that that door lock had been broken for a long time and many people knew it administrators knew it the teacher know where but it was never given a high priority so it was through one eleven that the perpetrator was able to go in and killed the students that they did and then he was able to access one twelve through one eleven so classroom doors are critically important we have to make sure that our teachers close and walk their doors because it's in our students best interest. We also even though we talk about the you know the covering signed the door panels we need to make sure they do that they need to make sure that they go through their lock down drills and that because lock down drill save lives. When our kids know what it is to do and watch troubling from me is that our kids even have to think about doing this. And i'd rather not have spent the amount of time and effort I have on these on these issues but unfortunately we have to because they're not stopping their only getting worse. And that they've gotta be able to assess the performance are in these kind of drills are and make adjustments and staff off some need to go through crash training key for mentioned that are he's a christ instructor every every school their staff should have to go through craze. And then school safety is not just my responsibility or your responsibility it's everybody's responsibility and that we've got to ensure that there is that culture of compliance in place and one of the best ways in which we can do that is by making sure that there's a school safety coordinator on each and every one of our campuses but all of this has to do with more response and mitigation we need to focus a tremendous amount of effort on prevention I am providing more mental health resources are for our student and making sure that there's communication between local law enforcement and the schools because many of these kids said and up becoming school shooters have had contact with law enforcement. They have negative factors going on at home the national thread assessment center are talks about how important that is our cji we just launched a new program a couple of weeks ago go call the protecting arkansas youth check program so we call it paycheck program where students who are traumatized outside of school that law enforcement communicates are with the score the idea is to provide early identification for these kids and help them get the kind of mental health services that they need but we also have to make sure and we've made great through the learns act we've made great strides and insuring that all of our all of our schools are have read assessment. Are strategies and that there are being implemented these are not designed to be a discipline. Are related. They are more designed as it is an early intervention. And we also have to more effectively utilized our school resource officers. I think they are one of the most important things that we can do. Are to help identify and unfortunately from the data that i'm seeing is that we're going more away from school resource officers to commission school security officers that are there in the event of an active shooter and i'm grateful that they're willing to be able to do that and that they will be there but sro's are the ones that are going to interact with our kids and they're going to develop that trust with them and to be able to talk of them about a wide variety of different. Issues and then finally and I promise I think we also need to focus on a counter. I think it's one thing for us to talk about our schools and asking so much of our superintendence but I think we also need to take that next step. I and be able to make sure that they're doing what we need them to do there are many states that have expanded programs within the department and units within the department were individuals go around a schools and provide have the resources to be able to provide uhm. Examples of things that there can be improved and much must be improved. As the director of the arkansas center for a school safety very grateful for the funding that you all have provided us but if we're going to be able to provide more resources for our our schools we also have to have additional funding are to be able to provide that was for not only the department but for for the center. Ah I think you guys for allowing us to have this time before you. Thank you so very much this has been very informative not I don't hear a sound in here there if we have any questions. Outside ideas here we certainly appreciate you being here and and giving us an updated school saved the intersection important thing that is not something that we talk about every day until there's a tragedy. And then all the sudden we. It's the main conversation so I really appreciate what you all are doing i've been involved with the school safety committee and I know how hard everybody's working on but it's it's always the unknown we have to prepare for the unknown and we do need to make sure that our schools are safe and that we're doing everything we possibly can to insure the safety of all the students and are stayer thank you so very much for being here appreciate a way meant we got one question. Representative long. Thank you madame chairman I was wondering if you just talked about the um school resource officer in a couple of different locations. Failing to do their job basically staying outside and I think that was maybe what occurred done in texas in the third student was a lot of officers were staying outside and I was wondering has been in research done on schools they provide a ballistic shield to the school resource officer if they're getting any better protection. That way that maybe they would go more confidential in doing the job. I felt very uncomfortable talking about that because how stronger than advocate I am for long forcement sometimes I think that. You know their isolated incidents that are curve and then sometimes when it comes to law enforcement with general eyes and we say well along enforcement is like that. These are these individuals I do now for a fact that are law enforcement is committed in the srows that we have. Are committed to doing everything they can to prevent something like that. Are from happening. Uhm. Having ballistic shields and having other equipment. Yeah. Was one of the recommendations and our twenty twenty two commission and if i'm not mistaken were they able to apply. For that equipment for the fifty million dollars. I think there were some that that dead. Yes for the on priority three of the great application prices they were able to request that a funding for those that equipment is to include ballistic shields and everybody that had qualified before it was approved for those items. Was that adequate it'll do they thank you sir. And thank each and every one of you for everything that you've done more question. I'm represented by you madam chair that may good to see you again you are preciate a job you do I we've been to please you're working with you throughout the years both when I was in law enforcement and now as a member of the general same way i've got just a couple of questions or warning particular you you mention while ago the thread assessment program that is being implemented in our schools and also the accountability that goes to that I was used curious whose responsible for making sure those threads says my programs are actually be an implemented throughout her schools and is it a department of education is it charities is it to commissioner law enforcement standard training who who would hold those schools responsible and who would have authority over making sure that those programs were in fact in place we are in the process and i'm gonna turn it over to mr keifer in a second but after the learns act there were working groups that reformed and one of those working groups was of course on school safety mr keeper and he's going to have to pay me a lot cause i've called you that numerous times is a chair of that particular committee and my idea my my understanding is that through that working group we are supposed to frame rules. I'm on how that gets done yes so part of the discussion with the work group is just that all of the requirements from the learns act who is responsible for that what is the enforcement what's the reporting right now that's what the the work group is mainly working on is what does the reporting of those requirements look like um and right now I do but it seems to be the consensus with the work group is that that will fall under the department of education that they would report that to us. Okay thank you madame chairman it's all I have. A senator chesterfield thank you madame chair and good afternoon and thank you all for all you do. At one time when we were dealing with this issue and it is an ongoing issue as you have so eloquently pointed out we had a panic button. We are a universal panic button. Doctor nanda's do you remember. And that panic button at the school the fire department and the police and all we had to do was we've been headed for those of us here in the chamber are yet to do was push a button and schools won't lack down and I observed it in interest smith. I observed it in blavour and I observed springs could you tell me what happened because I never could figure it out. You don't want it you don't answer from my understanding doctor may want I add to this is I think that was a requirement that was in place with it when they're responding available and since then that funding is gone away but there is a list out there of different types of alert systems that districts can go out and purchase in several of them have in so there is anything from the thing that goes around your neck to the phone at different things but I think a big part of what the loans I cares in there and in part of the I call it the six things district should be doing one of those is having that direct communication line with law enforcement no stops at things so that's coming out of learns. I'll be able to afford it because the the argument I heard politically I never did quite understand being a politician I guess i'm not supposed to ask you why it is and I know that they are variety of it and we didn't want to establish a monopoly breathing one company. But it seemed that the schools that could afford it captured. And the poor schools will very well may needed the most couldn't keep it out i'm not here to pick and choose because we have huge issues in large schools as well as small schools but how many could you tell me at some point in time how many of these school systems. Instead of just relying on on student resource officers who cannot be everywhere in a building also have some communication system that allows them to let that school down communicate immediately with both fire and police would you get that information to us or someone from the bureau madame cheer I would appreciate it very much because I think that's such a huge car in this wheel there were talking about when we talk about safety thank you thank you so much. Okay. Not seeing any more questions we really appreciate your appearance here today very thought provoking. We do appreciate it thank you. The. Okay next on our gender is dr tony what tiny williams if who's the assistant commissioner the office of early childhood division of elementary and secondary education the department of education that's a long title. But one of the things I think where we're all looking at this literacy and for many years with. Really talked about literacy as being kindergarten through and now with the learns act we do have the legislative they law that basically says we have to find a way to make sure all of our students know how to read by the time there they leave the third grade. The ideas not to retain them the idea is to make sure that we give them the tools to be able to read which can affect the trajectory of our state if you just think about. Putting that that up to instead of thirty five percent instead of we had fifty percent of all of our students read how would that change the composition of our state in the things that i'm giving people an opportunity to have a better future for their lives so I will invited tiny to come and speak first to maybe because what they do is they're working on the zero to kindergarten and we need that's an important part of our our discussion that we have to begin to increase if we're talking about literacy so thank you welcome if you'd identify yourself you'll be recognized. Thank you senator english and thank you committee members at tiny williams on the assistant commissioner for the office of early childhood at the department of air I do want to clarify I am not a doctor I don't want any of my car legs but thank you for that acknowledgement at it but it is not necessary I really just wanted to talk a little bit about some of the work that's happening in the office of early childhood and I always lead with this signature english is right everything that we're doing in k twelve really is inherently reliable on what happens in those first five years of life so I just want to emphasize this for a moment when you look at the spring development slide if you look at the first five years which is about the middle of that graph all the big peaks for language and learning century and higher cognitive function happened before children ever go to public school. So what we do in those first five years and let me just say including parents because many children parents are a child's first teacher and there are some children who are going to be in herments are supporting that family making sure they understand that is as important as making sure they early childhood centers that children go to um are aware of that cannot emphasize this information and now. I want to spend a second on literacy and reading because as senator englishman mentioned some match of the learns act as supportive of that but because so much of the brain development happens in those early years. You know there is a lot of research but one short book per day to a young child can increase their vocabulary by three hundred thousand words think about how powerful that and five books per day can increase it up to one point three million words that's every day. Just a few minutes every day by the time they start school so there's some really great research about that literacy in the word attainment or acknowledgment it also helps children develop listening skills as well as a language and other supporting higher thinking skills and overall cognitive development you know a couple years ago really before the pin dimick we did a whole ten minutes matter and it really was this push out to the state for a parent's grandparents teachers everyone who was in the laugh of the young child to take ten minutes and read to a child so we're still supporting that as we move into the you know under the department of bad that's really important in those first of five years. I included the slide not because of the town frame because you'll see this is about sixteen and seventeen years ago but I wanted you to be aware of that this is always been important and in your state funded pre k that was passed by this legislature or former legislature it is required that we launch a tudely track children in the arkansas better chance program but about sixteen or seventeen years ago I was working with researchers and we were actually tracking three cowards both those that were in arkansas better chance children who were in head start at the time and children who were in our federal trial current assistance some people call that vouchers or trial care assistance what I really want you to focus on is the difference between what's happened in the arkansas better chance and head start versus what's happening to children on the federal chocolate assistance there's a pretty significant difference in how those children are doing so for two thousand six for example in literacy there's a you know children and abc were at fifty two point five seven children and head start with fifty two point two three and our children on childcare subsidy where forty four point six nine so some significant differences and this really drow verse in the state to work on improving early current education for all children including those on the voucher and so we created our quality writing and improvement system called better beginnings you may have heard of that the level of the star levels but it's all about improving for all children I also want to point out on the slad that all three of these programs are based on income this is the funding that is available to children to provide direct services but it's all income based they're differing criteria for arkansas better chance it's two hundred percent of federal poverty for a headstart its one hundred percent up to one hundred and thirty percent a federal poverty and for our federal children assistance because we administered arkansas better chance for a very long time we alarm the. To go all the way to federal poverty at two hundred percent so we start lower than that but then list can go all the way up to two hundred percent we wanted that alarm met many years ago. Have that be a little bit more efficient this is actually current data. And I didn't include but we're getting ready to announce and have information about our first graduating class or a co work from two thousand nine that a graduate and I think you'll be really impressed to see how children who have received abc referring compared to their counterparts who didn't get pre k but this is really around the aspira literacy assessment that was being given from third grade to a couple of abc children versus those who had no abc or no pre k no no all the way to their eleventh grade year and high school and you can say there's I mean even if they go on to hospital a tire it continues to be a pretty big you know the five percent difference between those children have no pre k versus those who do. I want to spend a few minutes talking to you about there are lots of words that you used an early childhood child here I don't hear baby sitting thank goodness anymore that's really informal on it it's probably reserved for parents when you're going out or just for a really brief moment but early childhood education and child here are really pretty synonymous if you think about that brain development when children are in care during the day when their parents are at work they're going to be learning. Ninety percent of their brian is developing so we really feel referred to it it's early childhood education the office is the office of early childhood now but I think it really kind of holds that app their synonymous I think we learn this during the pandement. I mean it's so connected to a economic development in this day if parents can't work because they don't have child care it has a direct impact to the economy of arkansas so I just that's another sort of andrew line that in and pay attention to it. I just want to acknowledge my colleagues in the arkansas better chance and back in the office because our state has a very strong foundation in place arkansas been acknowledged for many years for its both its investment in state funded pre k as well as the quality standards so there is a national institute for early education research and these were rate eight out of town for our quality standards definitely some work to do there i'd like to see us get to that ten out of time we're rates ranked six in the nation for serving three a lot of states only sorry for your el so this is really a positive for arkansas and I will tell you someone who's worked in the field directly and programming when you conservative child for more than two years whose atrious you get a better outcome overall we're ranked twenty second for four year olds we have a lot of states that are moving into that space and have funded over the last few years so I ranking is not not as hard as it used to be but it's still really and then we're right twelve for overall reported spending and I think that's a real kudos to our state and to my colleagues in the arkansas better chance program I also want to point out if you all are not aware and II think i've mentioned this last year towardly unaware of this but while it hab who takes lots of data along many different things including health and education ranked arkansas for two years in a row last year and this year as number one in the nation for early childhood education that is not just for pre k that is for our overall work and are quality rating and improvement system better beginnings for the work that we've done on their child here side federal chop here the rate that we paid the fact that we have an awaiting list it's a maltitude of mamatrics that go into that but I just can't point out enough that this really positions as I think to be ready for all of the things in the loans act and to go to that next level for going children. The. Um i'm not getting out through everything there's a lot going on in husband since april may as you can imagine moving two hundred people and into new organization and banding and all the other things but we have we are effectively in the office of early childhood under the department of adwe have physically not moved yet we're working on the space but their website at the department had has the office of early childhood we are at the staff and all of our funding has transitioned over and to the department of education we have an early learning work group that's been meeting over the past capital amounts to revert review our pin regarding readiness definition arkansas had one for about twelve years but it might be time to make sure that it's the right definition and that that definition allowance with the early learning standards in the state and with k twelve or tinner garden standards that were working on that uhm a piece in the legislation called local leads and i'm gonna spend a little bit more time on that and which is about really unifying the early child would work at the local level which is really really exciting and then working on a uniform accountability system the state currently uses a tool call the environment writing scale and the other tool which we're going to be piloting in the coming year is called class. And it's really linked to child outcome so we're really excited about that in the assessment year will be twenty four twenty five school year and there will be it will progress will be held harmless like that will not count against them but all that's in the law you can read it there I want to spend a second on local leads cause I think this house so much promise you know currently arkansas we work from the state level and we work with local programs and many local programs are partnering in doing things but this is an opportunity to create support at the local level and for local communities to write a plan for what they want to focus on there are people who want to invest in early children and this would be a great opportunity for them to make those investments in these local communities local businesses there's a peace and the law about working with local business again going back to that economic development if we don't partner with local business who may want maybe they have some space available or maybe they want to make an investment but there's some good partnerships that we can drawn and are can saw some hospitals and others that have done this work but also helped stay in that up at the local level and the local programs who are awarded this and this will be statewide um as we move forward but they will conduct a needs assessment and it's really all about seeing where and how children are being served today. An what gaps we have in that system and how we can improve that how that local community working collaboratively across all of the early childhood programs and with other entities can improve that. The. We announced two weeks ago we had thirty four entities who applied so imagine we passed a law back in the spree we have already stood app are in are starting this process with twelve entities I will tell you in all of my ears and state government I don't know that i've ever seen a smooth as swiftly as this and i'm really excited you know to announce these twelve entities please now if your community is not representative represented out on this matter will be we will be funding in the spring and other coward two but we will get to statewide coverage eventually we want to do this with quality not quantity we want to make sure we get these twelve set app and doing what this is not doing the same old thing that we've been doing it really is about creating something different and supporting these entities and that way so again we are keeping those applications for the thirty four open that were not founded twelve refunded so it would be about twenty three or so that are open because there were still some good applications. And we will work on fending in the spring coward round to and then keep going as we get statewide coverage they can do a county. They can do several counties as you can see on the map several couple of entities route for more than one area and I believe you have these slides so happy to take questions on that I want to talk just for a second about a couple of quick wans because I know there's some of you in the string that i've worked with one is for many years we have ran two background checks on employees who worked in public schools. It is one the most frustrating things that i've ever had to work through and several of you have called me and we've tried to make changes and it's just not we've just not been able to do it and we are now since october one running one check for individuals who work in public school sites so i'm so excited about that it was just a real quick win it saves many and time we are also a lanning currently in our licensing regs maltreatment checks are run every two years for early child to at the department that it's every five years so when we bring the rules over for repromotation to change the titles and names we will also be putting that five year to a land that in the system so that's just some immediate alarm and that I think we can that we're getting to and have already been able to implement and then we're also working on a common application and data system my colleagues in arty at the department about it can outside enough about them but working on an application for example today I have children in abc programs that are attending through the school year schooling earns but thus parents still need a place for their children to go and so we fund them on our child your development side many of them are eligible for our federal chalk your money but they have to resubmit an application very frustrating both for families and it's always been frustrating for me so we're working on that one single application to get to and my team is actually working to make that happen bus free but the the data system will be helpfully up and running next october or so about a year from now the less than a year from now uhm. Senator english it asked me to talk about one of the saying and are I feel i'm taking my time with my colleague so I want to be very monthly of my calling ross but I wanted to talk about some work that we're doing that was started with american rescue planet funding that you all approved of our plan and that is around teacher and work for worse professional development and we went out with the plan to increase our expenditures are funding to a teach scholarship program that gives people in early childhood a degree a scholarship for a degree or credential we started a several years ago in two thousand twenty right at the beginning of the pandemic it was terrible timing but we started with thirty nine individuals on a scholarship in april or in this spring semester we have four hundred and twenty five people going to college to get a degree in early childhood education or I credential and so i'm really proud of that work in addition to that and as we transition to work with ras we are working with a group of students and high school we have sixteen students working with ua fort smith who were taking classes in high school to get their child development credential which is a national credential it's about non college hours that they'll finish with and and will have a second co work going this coming fall so we've got two cohorts in that and I think we'll be seeing that expand across the state to other universities and systems as we work through any you know kind of improving that process but I think that's just really exciting to get the work we're started as early as high school um and i'm going to stop their senator english and I can talk about this for a long time and there is a lot of exciting things happening but I want to be respectful of my calling so I am i'm i'm particularly pleased I like the the the leaves because I think what it does is because it is going to be at the community level and it really gets everybody to looking in thinking about precaution. Child care in their community and and where those gaps are in sometimes it is a there isn't the funding for those parents who are more middle class. And and so if we can get business in industry to be involved in and start thinking about on a bigger schedule how do we get all these little people and and make sure that the quality is there for the daycare centers and make sure that there was children that I don't know of a parent who does it who takes their child to a daycare that was done what them to be someplace within a loan something every day and i'm excited about the the teacher thing because I think if this right in as we think about in ross is coming up we think about work force in how we build a system and because this is a critical part of the work force and we all know if if moms and large can't go to work if they can't find really good. Care for their kids. And we don't have children moving it towards illiteracy so thank you very much with god a couple questions here. Senator chesh bill thank you very much in good evening whatever risk in to be evening in its always good to see you this williams you know i'm a huge fan. A barely shows of education. And I do know that we put money in learns for transportation. Can that money that has been put there be used to transport student instead in from those early childhood centers. Yeah i'm going to be really honest I read that when the law dropped and I was really excited about it because on now there are some barriers for children getting to facilities I have not circle back with my colleagues as we've had many many things to focus on but i'll be happy to do that with my education when I read it that was my impression that a local scood school could partner with an early childhood program I haven't really heard a lot about it i'm sure it's because everybody's meeting to develop rules and and processes around that but i'd definitely will take that back and I can send it to your committee person when I know in meeting with the governor was one of the concerns that I raised because we have children who can not get to early childhood because parents don't have transportation and transportation it seems to me as the great equalizer as we're looking at trying to advance the knowledge of children at an early age but if you can't get there you can't take advantage of the program so I would appreciate very much if you would get back with me about what that money can be used for so that there was already chatted centers there are privately wrong will know whether or not they will be able to utilize some of their transportation money for that purpose thank you so much thank you manage here. Let me see. Representative painter thank you madame chair right here appreciate everything you're talking about I just kind of have a question on your time line for the state on page ten what is the timeline is that three years you talk about a timeline but never gave a specific time you're talking about the local leads yes okay so yes I think the way the lies written we would have start wide coverage by the twenty six twenty seven school year sir that's really what that's about we certainly plan you know that for that local leads work to continue beyond that but for statewide coverage at twenty six twenty seven school year as a requirement okay great thank you manager standard hammer thank you maybe a good afternoon do you is it going to be achieved through the leads portion of the learns act or is it already out there that you could show the areas of our state where. We're kids in the early child heard are are behind as far as their reading levels do you have that specific of information. So I think I would you know I think that's work we do with the department better assessing children is there coming in senator hammer and we we certainly say that with third grade breeding right I mean you can see that I think it's also tracking launch attorney as we continued a tartner on the assessment as they're coming into kindergarten and first grade and second grade if there are gaps I mean I feel pretty confident about prepaid children but I think there are children who are not accessing pre k who may be at risk low income but I also think their children that are maybe middle cam middle income that are not able to access high quality early childhood that equally may be a part of that drag just a little bit on the test scores or literacy scores but those are things we're working towards okay so in the in all the day to gathering that we're getting do you anticipate that at some point will be able to identify through the assessment when they're coming in and that would be the earliest point of assessment that you would be able to glean that information as far as the difference between who's in early childhood maybe a parent's decision to keep mile maybe there in a situation where they're not getting that support at home that's going to be the first wonder where we can do that that run that is correct though okay and that is could be are responsibility. Through the public education system or other avenues to catch them up so for those that have been in from three and four year old that that catch up time is anticipated to take what a year to bad time they're at the end of the first year first I mean it can depend on the trial but you know every child learns a little bit differently in their time frame for learning is a little bit different developmentally but but yes theoretically if the interventions are in place and one of the things we're working on is a big focus on literacy and training the teachers and early childhood to do what's happening in the k twelve side with literacy so that we're linda appropriately for young children but we're using a tall call letters but it's all about improving the literacy teaching skills of those in the early chaltered not just pre kay and head start but also private chalk your providers all the people they're teaching or in classrooms with young children that they would have that same skill set available to them. Okay or thank you. So I think hopefully worth it what we will do with all of this is those to which you're saying as it's pretty hard when you have a a group of people and then you want to look at everybody young so i'm i'm hoping that one of the things that happened with the leads and with the letters it's that everybody becomes a knowledgeable about not about literacy and what they need to be doing so we're all talk not saying she abusing. Are represented flowers. Thank you madam chair. Where I am i'm right here. It's so good to see you and thank you for this report I just was looking on the next to the last page and it illustrates. The reach of cohort one. How was what what was what were the determinations as to which school districts in which counties would be encompassed in this first comport. And of course i'm asking because I don't see phone call jobs and can I and I know there was an application that is open for that area that you know I would anticipate spring potentially for them to be funded it really was about not the quality of the applications cause we had some other really good applications but it was about getting started in something incredibly new and making sure that we could work with those communities and stand that app and a there's some work you know in several areas that we need to do working back across with that applicant to assist them but i'm not aware that there was anything inherently poor in their application but just working with them about the work that they're planning to do in terms of bringing people together we had readers from across the office of early childhood who read these but and it was really tough the decision was relate but it was we originally thought we're just gonna start with ten and that's the other thing funding like making sure that we have adequate because we're using existing funding we don't have new funding to do this it's with some existing funding and so those were some of the decision criteria and just looking at cross the mayout remember this is in the law that it has to be state wide by twenty six twenty seven so everyone's going to be a part of it but it was just getting started and getting things stood up in a way that that we could relay show accountability and quality outcomes across the state in not be worried about the quantity so up i've been I feel bad for those communities because I know you know people's feelings get hurt when they write and put an effort but it's where we're going to get there but we need to do this right we don't want to you know. Do it poorly so at their get there but we do have about twenty three applications twenty two applications that are steal that remain open well and both others but we wall see this map filling the end and we certainly can send it back as we continue to fility and to have statewide coverage just quick follow up thank you. Um so just going back to the application it. I just wanted to get some clarity on what what were they determinations because it sounds like. If you just kind of read him and look to see where you can get state white coverage and i'm looking here. And then i'm thinking about the need rate I don't know if there was any weight given to those areas that had a greater need or whether there was any prioritization as it related to literacy rates or schools where the proficiency dictated that there were students who could use you know this this resource in this program more than others that where there is already proficiency and so as I look at this and see a very very heavy focus on northwest arkansas and really the the western part of the state and very little when the eastern part of the state where there has been a great deal obviously of of need directed based upon grades of the schools and school district space department the test scores and proficiency data that we see all the time in this committee it just gives me a little bit of concern and heartburn at we would. Steak you know sort of our are focus in areas that may already have a great deal of resources and proficiency among the children yeah that's a great question so a part of it was about the entities and their relationship building that's in place and how things are working we did not put anyway on we did not use some of the criteria that's used for arkansas better chance for example that really ranks it or writes it on how the school is doing or how literacy and scores are it none of that was used because this is so new it is really about an entity working to bring all the early childhood and just last week I had a call from a provider who said my competitor and I keep saying to early childhood people we got to take that language out of. Out of our language we can't use the words competitive not compare we're not competing these children need all of us to be on board to do the work but it's really about the entities ability to bring all of the early childhood people to gather and again they're we're great applications but we we really had a decision in terms of many as to how many we could start with and landed on twelve other overall site was really difficult and are now there were folks who read all the applications and I think there were several other really good ones that we probably will find in cover too but we need to get some things going and I think these entities demonstrated that in their application. Representative richardson thank you madame chair so just wanted to point a clarification here just a point of clarification you said that we have very little weight list for these problems is that correct we have no weight list for our federal child care block grant air for arkansas better chance they're probably are some areas that have a waiting list but for the federal charker block grant we have no waiting list at the state level right now. That's just curious question because II know that there's a lot of people are a lot of families that don't really qualify for the federal peace right so they're missing out of those opportunities and i'm just curious how we're going to feel those gaps yeah I think without going into lots of detail I think the local leads there could be investments and the law has all of that language in it that if folks want to expand access for higher income children that could do that our current fending sources the federal has very strict federal requirements maybe congress will change that head start has federal requirements the arkansas better chance is a state law that could be adjusted it currently has up to two hundred percent of federal poverty but that's something that is state this mean our state decision but all the other funding source are generally driven by federal and but I do think the local leads where it could in fact start this whole like we have a gap not with our low income children but with hiring it maybe a parent's a couple of dollars over the income and we'd like to raise the income and our community and have funding for that so and II know there are some investors they were people out there filling throughout the organizations really poised and ready but they're waiting for where to put that you know and I really think these are the places rather than running it through state government I think that makes way more sense to do it with these local leads but I do think that certainly we are looking at funding all the time to see if there are ways to expand access and certainly are hearing that interest in funding children above the current income so if there was an opportunity we would certainly want to make you guys aware and potentially routers estate for any funding opportunities related to that we saw a lot of that during the pandemic when we were able to serve children with pandeamaker covered release money that were above our normal criteria we served about seventeen thousand families. Representative thank you madame share and thank you so much for the information it's great just a quick question relative to the federal funding coming unique children do we have in the state that access that. There are about fourteen thousand children and that are currently accessing accessing that representative thank you. They have any other questions here. There's light of good information here we are moving in right direction we want to expand and get more to kids literate thing all to get everybody so there. Quite able to go into kindergarten so do I don't see any more so thank you very much appreciate your your information and we will have you back again thank you very much more questions please go to our weight of sat take there's a lot of information there and on the learns awesome banks appreciate everything you're doing. And now we have. Ros white doctor kim warden. We're going to talk about a career and technical education our career pathways and we've heard a lot about that in the in the learns act. And I think that you all are working together more closely now and providing that we have to have those pathways and we have to align things and I think that's something that we're working on very diligently so good identify yourself should be recognized kenward commissioner division our education. Price quite the director for the division of creating technical education well they considered your english and committee and this afternoon we're gonna do two things one give a little bit of background on our structure within career and technical education we have some really good skeletons and bones to it and but we obviously know there's some pieces that we're going to move forward with the work of learns and then really focus on what that part is so I know today we've talked about some of the letters and learns we're going to focus on the are the reading aside i'm an insuring that we're developing that readiness for our students whether they are college bound or their career bound or they don't know where they're bound and but ensuring that they have the skill set and for the next steps. So this is a slide we've been using with our work groups and as we've been working through the piece of the legislation i'm really looking at what learns is asking for and then what we need to be focused on and one of the biggest pieces here is that roughly six and ten jobs in our state require advance credentials and this initially means agree but it means something beyond that high school diploma and so how are we insuring that our students have that cause we know currently less than half of our state workers actually meet that requirement the other part there's one to make sure that every archains and has that pathway to prosperity and so that's a big piece that we really are using as were revisiting what we're doing and then looking at the work we are doing as we move forward to really ensure that we are giving those opportunities to our students in the k twelve sector but also that post secondary sector. So this is a really big focus on the k twelve piece so we use the language pathways so our career and technical education pathways and really looking at what does a successful pathway have and so we look at this with our schools and this is a big part of our conversation what do your pathways look like for reference in standards for a credit per k twelve school they're required to offer three pathways and that is a part of their requirement for creditation and that is all public schools so within that there is the course work which will talk a little about here in a second there is credential in students so offered in them the opportunity for industry recognize credentials and then work based learning and we'll talk a little bit more about what that looks like in our state. So the first item are our pathways and so this I know you cannot see that document but I believe you have a hard copy of it as well to clarify what those are so we have sixty three unique pathways that we offer in the state and now there's not a district in the state that offers all sixty three most offers somewhere between three and six of those but there are sixty three and those sixty three are aligned to the national career cluster framework which if you've ever done any work and work for state ever work force development obviously we start talking about sip codes and sat codes and they are line to our national career cluster framework so all of our pathways are lined to those in some way or some fashion which give us two hundred and fifty six unique courses that fall under our perview and for districts to offer in the k twelve setting for a student so there's a lot of opportunity there and what that is what it looks like which also means there's a lot of decision left to the local district on what programs they should offer what pathways they should offer our goal in our push and driving conversation is that those are programs or pathways that are aligned to their local work force what is your local work for sneed what is that look like and it is not our position at the state to tell you what you should be doing it is for you using your labor market data to make those decisions when I have that opportunity to speak with high school principles you know I remind them on a regular basis you know you are one of the biggest pieces of economic development and work force development in your community because you are creating your future work force and so I think that's a really important peace to know and understand as we look at what our pathways are. So we have our courses which is kind of the first part of this three peace model in so within that from the federal gardens that we receive and for the federal funding we receive but also i'm to ensure we have robust pathways and we look at a series of three courses what we would refer to as a level one course a level two course or a level three course i'm also known as the foundational course in so forth and sell on and those obviously seek once and for a reason they have that specificity to it and that's really important with us and the sequencing of that we get a lot of questions from schools around and what wide is there a sequence do we need to follow the sequence and I remind them it's no different than in an english or a math or science course you the sequencing serves a purpose because we're ensuring they have the foundation or skills to move forward we also have on this document here will retalk about an early career awareness so what are courses in those middle grades or grades five six seven eight and federally we are allowed to use our federal dollars down to the fifth grade and so what are we doing in those grades five six seven and eight to begin that exploration and awareness phase with students about career opportunities and pathways that exist so we're putting a really strong focus on the awareness of those courses so that are districts are offering those in that middle level opportunity because and the firm believer we can't start the conversation too early with our students about what is there what is available what's available within your community and then we put supporting courses and the supporting courses are really there to show what other courses within a student's twenty two graduation requirements help support and the path with their end science skills mass skills english language arts skills and so on. So then we have our industry recognize credentials and so this is a part of our federal requirement and as a state this is one of the things we report for our federal funding but also is an important peace to give our students the opportunity to earn credentials and while they're in their programs if it's appropriate so within our credentials currently we do have a tiered structure where there's a tier one tier two tier three showing that summer a little bit more recognized or statewide recognize down the sun that might be a local employer has really shown this is a really important credential for us we would like for students to earn it but we don't see acceptance maybe across the state we do have a new group that we have formed doctor warden i'm kind of under the direction with hire it as well to move forward a statewide credential value list because obviously in the higher ed world credentials are important in our world they are we seem in some other entities so for us to have a statewide except a list with engagement from our business and interest sector is really important until that some work that we have begun and to have one cohesive list and then a course another piece in our work is and that we want more and more these opportunities for our students to earn a credential value while in their ca twelve setting and then it articulates over to post secondary credit we have a few pockets for that works right now but is not seen across the board in the sixty three pathways that we discussed earlier and so that is some the work that we're really working on and moving forward and we know that some of the opportunities learns is given us to move that into a greater opportunity and then work based learning or what people maybe know is internship or preapprinted ship but this is our opportunities for our cities to engage in a work base learning opportunity on high school and we currently have three ways we structure that and internship what can be any form of work and they do are in high school credit and they can be paid or unpaid and what we referred to his career practice which is what is unli. And to a pathway or a program in which they're in and in the pre apprenticeship which again is a line but also obviously in bobby and am some dol department of labor and agreements as well we do have non credit work based on you know being try to encourage more and more opportunities for our students to job shadow guest speakers engagement with business and industry we know all of our students in the k twelve sector having their schedule the opportunity for work by searching and then also we know someone that always have the opportunity i'm due to maybe the rule nature but the more they can engage and with employees and business and industries extremely important and sell where you continue to encourage that i'm too give that piece so those are the three large pieces that we work with our schools to make sure that when they have programs that's what they should be working towards those programs should have the core sequence should have industry recognized potentials available for students and have worked by starting available for students and that is what continues to move it forward and hopefully a successful manner. So has returned to the other part of where we're going so the governor standards had an executive order within her first few weeks of office to do an annual audit of the career technical education pathways and so from that we have our first auto that was completed and and this was due to the governor's office in july and so this is the first audit I believe you have a hard copy of it as well and it's a pretty robust review of kay twelve c to e pathways and so this graphic here shows you a little bit of what the focus was because current technical education extends well into our post secondary world and I think we all know that the audit for this first year is very focused on the k twelve sector and so this this graphic shows you that really what is that focus looking at there is early grades and what are we doing in early grades around career wearness career exploration and then also within that high school piece and this audit included a large survey that was sent to every high school principle every cte director or coordinator we had in the state and then every school superintendent and so you can see feedback from them and regards to the survey and then there were six findings and that were found from the idea that we're given with recommendations to move forward on things that need improvement or change and so with those six we've spent quite a bit of time looking at that i'm some of the six were then obviously pieces of the learns legislation so it makes it pretty easy for us to find focus areas so and we have two that we are focused on right now of the six not all those necessary recommendations for the department and some obviously come into some other areas as well and so we're gonna talk about the two and then what our next steps are so the first finding recommendation discusses really postecondary credit that students in ca twelve have the opportunity to take these career and technical education courses but we see very low numbers. Students actually earning post secondary credit while in those noise that the majority of these programs are going to require some form of advance credential for the student. I'm so i'm not going to read you this full slide you can see some of the recommendations from the committee that we're given as these would be good steps they are so gave other states as examples I guess one piece I did forget to mention is the audit that have to be done by an outside party so our two outside parties were through the office of education policy at the u of a and then insightful education solutions which i'm where it has done tremendous work in our state reviewing really career technical education pathways and so they are the one who completed the audit and sell from this first finding a recommendation really talking about the low rates of early per secondary credit become to next steps so the first one is what doctor word and sitting right here aside me there was some real alarming within the department of ad obviously we are one unit when team together but really putting that focus of more focused collaborative work as we move forward so doctor word and I have like to spend a lot of time together since he started in really had some. Barry deep and meaningful conversations around where we're at and where we need to go and so that's a really big peace and I keep mentioning the federal dollars we have the carl perkins state grant and the state plan would receive you know that is a k twenty plan that we submit and if you read our previous plan that was submitted in twenty eighteen that plan is very much written to the k twelve world and doesn't really mention much of what's beyond high school graduation yet we report a large piece of it on what is happened in a post secondary and so we know as we get to update that plan in the next fiscal year that we will have some major pieces written and there to show greater alarming but then really foreseen that relationship between our k twelve schools in their post secondary partners as I mentioned earlier we have some pockets where they do phenomenal work partnering in k twelve and per secondary but we also see some very large areas where it's non existent and they are doing the same programming on that post secondary campus and on that k twelve campus and sometimes we see the post secondary doing it at a better high rate and sometimes the k twelve is doing that at a better and higher rate and so we've got to have a force the marriage of that and into more of our accountability system to ensure that when you're offering robust programs to our students and at the bottom it talks a lot about we start looking at work force data and we talk about our sip codes in our sock codes and really the alignment of that and they all exist in all of our different entities but really ensuring they are line well and we are using them and understanding them to the benefit of what our work for status shows within the cater the post secondary world the common numbering system I know doctor warden is very passionate about it but really that was sister law and the k twelve world to make it a more seamless transition opportunity for that post secondary credit and then even a common transfer assistant with four cd courses and we see it with our core academics and but we don't have anything currently in place that looks at. Cte courses and we know there are some foundational pieces that could be put in there for a common trains for a system to public universities and colleges in our state so the second recommendation is really talking about kind of alarming of our programs in regards to what a lot of people refer to his h three or that high scale highway tie demand and you know that first becomes somewhat of a hard conversation sometimes in really what is how skill what is high wage how what is how to man who's determining what that is and but we definitely saw in our enrollment reports that we were able to give to the idea and that we have a significant enrollment in what we call legacy programs and so what were typically go to a legacy program is going to be agriculture business and family consumer sciences they am a former business teacher for ten years and obviously great programs do a lot of great things but not all of their pieces are always along to the work force needs maybe ever region and so really revisiting and re aligning maybe what some of those courses might be becomes a big conversation and sometimes somewhat even uncomfortable when but what we look at in our next steps is the first establishing estate wide definition i'm if I look at my colleagues across the state who work in work force development and we quickly realized and this and spring win governor sanders created the new chief work for softs or in the work force cabinet and pulled that group together working we all have very vastly different definitions of what highway task ill and high demand are and they're all similar but they're different and that has been a big charge of ours is to get a common state white along definition of what high scale high wage and how demand means in the state of arkansas and then a course as placing priority on that in our secondary and post secondary schools and when we talk about placing priority that means when they're deciding from those sixty three pathways what they want to implement that they're looking at that high wage has. Skill high demand and then of course the reviewing and realigning of courses you know that is hard to our course their own a three year cycle provision in our cycle revision there are required to have business industry partners in the standard revisions but sometimes as they're as good as the business and industry partners you get that are willing and able to engage in that conversation and so sometimes it's going to be a hard look at what we are doing and determining what's next best steps for our state i'm using obviously data from our friends that the department of commerce. I'm to really make informed decisions to about programs that meet and the biggest work force needs in our state and in the last part which you all were a big piece in in lawrence is what is not as the career to palm a piece of learns and so that is where we are right now and if I could say that I was knee deep and create a plumber I would say that we are we are almost that point ready to start publicly i'm sharing that information from our work group and so our goals in december that we will have i'm information out really on what that's going to look like I think within the legislation of wireless it's very clearly defined what the expectations of our students are going to be but how does that fit into our full k twelve system and the part that has become very important in very evident in the work we've been doing is this cannot be a route that is a less than or it's for that kid or for those kids. Our goals at all of our students are career ready in k twelve all of them yes them are going to go a very an extenuous post secondary route sim we're going to go in post secondary out of post secondary and some are going to go straight to work but this could apply my is appropriate for every student in a k twelve setting. Came in an opportunity for every sooner in the k twelve setting what this is going to be is going to be a white we referred to as a designation or a plus option there are the twenty two core that are required to graduate from high school instead of arkansas they are going to have that twenty two core and then have some plus options that are very focused on the pathway in which they are looking to go towards and that is a big piece and it touches many areas of the k twelve world you know I think what a lot of this first start of the work without all this will be pretty quick and easy um but we've quickly realized it touches so many pieces of white and. The desi office has from accountability that is a big peace and how is it fit into our school accountability model and recognizing the value of that and our accountability model but ensuring that it is an avenue for all students but then also ensuring that students are given those opportunities there and have ways to adapt to those and so that a plumber will be a very big piece and this work and we know that it's going to help tremendously with the alignment as well because when we attach some value to that it helps our schools. Focus more of their attention to it but it also helps our students and parents and see that peace where right now and our current system they're definitely is not as many and opportunities focused towards house it's going to benefit my child post graduation and I think they'll be able to see that quickly and so from the audit these are two large areas that we are focused on and moving forward i'm obviously that alignment with loans helps the work movie than quicker and we hope to be able to see a more and more opportunities come forward and so i'm with that that is the mine less slide so I will take questions from anybody who has a loud doctor or do you have something to add. Yes ma'am thank you I would say that. We have world class career technical education opportunities in arkansas they're just aren't everywhere and so I think with some standardization and real alignment I really like the organization you know change we've made by loaning to with these of our education. That's going to help us work both sides of the coin so that we look for opportunities to work together. I'd just think we need to do a better job of standardizing these things we have a lot of options out there for schools to choose pathways many times also chosen on maybe what is the least expensive for easiest to facilitate rather what's best for for students and as they go into a daughter so i'm excel about the things they're in front of us we have some challenges absolutely but we also are they can make a few fundamental tweaks to our systems at rosses as outlined some of those already to make some good scratch for improvement move forward so we've sold about the word. Good reason question representative walker. Thank you madame chairman thank you guys for your presentation it is good to say that a state purchase career technical education experience with our catherine twelve schools we all know that it's becoming more important for in every year but I may have missed it so I apologize if I have but I was really helping that you guys would also talk a little bit about the grants if you provide to help are cater twelve schools kick start the programs. And it's perfectly fan if you guys need to get a system give us this information done are you guys probably more prepared for it but is there any chance that you could walk us through. The great process on how their scored and the the difference between the old and the new scoring road break that was implemented I think just a couple years ago I just kind of like to know the reasoning light was updated to. I can share about that so we have our state start of grants is what we refer to the mass and so they open each august and close november one so we just closed him last week and those are open to any district that has the programming which are we sell our public in charter have them unless they've waived that so what that is as we have about two million dollars and state appropriation for state started that we're able to award each year I through a grant process so their grand application includes a following and this is what we scored off of based on a rubber can we can share that rubric with you are and if you would like to see it the first part is highway try to mean so we provide them labor market information from them the state entity where we gather that and they discuss have to through an air to form explain to us how that program meets the labor market needs of their community we allow it to be a regional peace so we allow sixty miles from the high school campus in which they're trying to implement that so they can pull data for a sixty mile range and then from that we go to student interest in course enrollment so what is your anticipated three year implementation plan and so we look at any of these programs have three courses the level want a level to the level three so we ask what is your three year process and starting in the program so we can see what that looks like in kind of white there i'm anticipated enrollment is based off of student interest surveys answered interest data they've got from interest or aptitude assessments and then we do letters of support from business and industry and so they are allowed to have as many letters as they want and we obviously have a score reference in that rubric on how many letters will do but it has to show business in industry supporting the program and saying they have a need for this this pathway it would help fill the niche they have and then we look for post secondary alignment so they have to have a letter of support from a post secondary partner within their geographic region you know most of them typically default to their to your college but we see a little bit of varying based on sometimes what the programs are because sometimes there to your partners might not. Have that program and then there is an economic development need map that we use as well that was here prior to my coming i'm not sure it's purpose but I mean I know it's purpose but it's in there as well to determine and levels of need in the community that comes into play and so those were the scoring metrics that are used to review those and award them you know I can tell you for this year since they were just doing last week I was looking at this morning received ninety seven applicablications and their funding is based off of what the cost it is to start the program equipment why so the grant covers eighty five percent of the cost in the district if they receive it as required to put in fifteen percent of the cost and sell those costs come from those equipment less than what the equipment is that on those list in the cost that we have said is that threshold and to receive you know ninety seven applications we typically can probably find somewhere between twenty five to forty of course some programs are quite more expensive than others some have much lower cost and I think our lowest cost program to start is about eighty seven hundred dollars in one of these grants to our most expensive about ninety seven thousand dollars and that ninety seven thousand is that the eighty five percent we would provide and but we can definitely make sure that we get a copy of that application in rubber so you can see how the scoring stand for you that would be great. Did you have something before I have a follow up okay go ahead. The. I was just gonna add that it's not a perfect science I would like us to see even though we have letter support from harry and i'd like to see that strength and so that. When we can it's not the only factor but I would like to see it shortened students time to degree in cost of the green boss and conference credit options letter of value in that so that would help drops on the conversation you know the age three list highways hoskill how which are demand that's also not an exact signs one of the things that you heard about that would taught you present before we did was about early childhood early challenger is a noble profession however it doesn't pay very well and so sometimes our hour you know financial interest are you know are the only saying that is is important to us but it's you know so we have to have a little bit of room to wiggle was some of those roberts but I think I think it's a pretty well rounded process at this point. I'm out yeah i'd appreciate that and also if you can. Just helped save time also can't give an explanation on while we went from the old scoring road brick to the new scoring road passport can I have a follow up question certainly my last one and the reason I brought up the grant and the no robert process is because at least in my area where I represent nothing that smile schools and there's a misconcept and it's going that the new road break negatively impact some of our smaller schools when they apply because I think one of the field that are on the road break you you have to almost apply the first time get the nad and then apply again to get a higher score I don't really I don't let's read and i'd like to say it and understand kind of the process a little bit more if possible and I know you guys won't have this information today so please if you can get it to a slighter if that's okay with you guys are the information i'd also like is the number of districts awarded that school size of one thousand or less one thousand and one to ten thousand and over ten thousand I would like to kind of know. People that apply for the first time how many of these different categorical schools get founded the same thing for funding year twenty two thirty twenty thirty and since the new road break was implemented if that possible yes I mean we could get put that information together and send it to. Staff we can have the perfect thank you I appreciate it and thank you marathon. Representative makes I think I knocked you offer are you still on. Well thank you thank you john my question is pretty quick and I think you may have already answered it so a school districts are pretty much free to apply for any cte program that they want do you offer any guidance on a these are care that perferred ones in all the medical field I was kind of looking through your package of information there and saw medical field is not in the top twenty but obviously there's a great need there so do you encourage schools and looking for cte to focus on these high demand because you'd said that's part of our or is it just schools applying we graded accordingly. So i'll give you two answers I could say if you look at what the history has been it has been here the pathways choose wisely I think some work that we've done in the past year have definitely started to have a more focused towards how does your pathway align to what the needs are of your region which kind of goes back to representative walker's question about the change in the application scoring the only change we made in the application scoring was an alarm to labor market data prior to that there was no data at all about what is your labor market showing like what is the work for state and what are the needs within sixty miles of this high school and which we always kind of came to the belief of a release model leaf is. Then if we're preparing students for xync that you don't have anywhere in your area they're going to leave and never come back to you and so what good did that do you and that's where I go back to that high school principle and in that you know I set that former role like i'll focus on yeah I had some amazing students who did amazing things but also really hyper focus on the kids who I knew we're going to stay in the city I was in because they were a future parents my future work force and what our community would look like and so we've made a shift but that shift is really only about in its infancy stage of you know a year and then we've done even more with learns and to really do the focus towards as h three the other part I am with h three that is you know everybody crossed the us is going to say this from the education realm. And my medical programs we want to do them all of our schools when I do them we can't find instructors because they can't afford the instructor where they can't keep the instructor or they have a great instructor and then they really engage with the employer and then the employer still is the instructor away and so it's that endless battle that we'll see with h three but you know I obviously pieces in learns and I receive the pay has helped and some and then of course some are we say if we can get a men and they can see the impact they make on that student a lot of them will truly see that there's an opportunity to there or so we're helpful thank you thank you matter. I'll add you know rass is spot on about the attraction calendar I think that's when I was talking to the harrier committee last month. It's probably our number one risk factor in higher it's attracting a retaining talent it's it's hard to do an enrosage correct the other thing is. There are some really good legacy programs around our state that do not lead to one culminating credential or our our legacy I programs are proud example of great programs you learn a little bit about this a little bit about that little bit of a agmechanics and a lot of times it really is dependent upon the factly member and what their expertise is and what they help with whether the emphasis of program but it doesn't. Or i'm not sure that anything that I know of personally. Shorten a student's time degree and cost of degree however the exposure scales in the real rounded things that they do they they're a value so just because they don't produce that how wage had a man job directly or that that or that credential directly it's not to say they're bad it's just it's just to say that we have to decide what we can afford uh entry to laboratoric economies of scale in our alignment between k to an area to move the needle I hope that makes sense. Representative richardson thank you madame chair so I appreciate you be in your director why and doctor warden and my question kind of the revolves around number this year's but your findings associated with the e alignment with higher aired. So senator english and I coasponsored a piece of legislation to sort of focusing on some cte stuff at that at the high school level and to give opportunities for the the education environment to develop pathways by which students could take cte classes and if they chose to move from there onto a other platform the traditional route they could use those earned credits as substitution for other credit areas providing their students so really I guess my question revolves and probably mostly the u doctor warden really is an are our higher education I know that our program that we've done is going to require a lot of work on the backside and they've already started hopefully that process and this is that you got a line all these different specific classes look at the specific skills that are taught and then able to apply those to existing credential classes in the traditional program that's a lot of work so i'm really i'm wondering with everything else that we were trying to put on the backs of our higher if we really are equipped in are we in a position for that I guess that the drug occasion that's required to implement this kind of program and if so how long are we looking at is it's a five year thing is as I two year thing what it win can we expect this alignment to occur. The. So we've already started similar work so I think that a few things I think that some common course goes across the state would be a good thing we we are tracking some work that's already going on in one of the system schools that are created a standard scheme for numbering in naming courses so that they're all you know but it's a standard scheme. So once we kinda get our hands around that maybe we can apply that to all the public institutions in the state and more over maybe push that down indicate well so that are case well numbering system in our hired number system aligned so it's more intuitive than if you take a class in high school of which which pathway or which degree path it's going to line with whether it's you know english or college algebra or even a decline we have a a hundred odd courses in our arkansas course transfer system that are for lack of a better word general education in nature so we have a lot of work to do to standard ask some curriculum course codes in the workforce development areas because we have not gone into that work to try to standardize those courses so that if a student takes a class here that it counts there now that they'll give me wrong I haven't met a provost or dean yet that was the getting a student's way of applying credit but they still have to go to the process of getting the transcript review rather than it being a done deal so I mean there are most programs what more students on their campus so they give all the credit that we're to do without you know fudge in the numbers but I think we can standardize that and I think that'll help us and I think we can expand and offer some more work for solid courses course standardization and getting that work done makes us look more like a stuck like a state with because that. Moving in to hire ad aligned a few things and what i'm trying to be sure that that I do every day is all as we're doing the word make sure there are that folks around the state see that we're modeling I department of education not two divisions of education with elementary secondary were one department of education and as we said those expectations of the stay level maybe we can see some of that while we're not trying to get way of local control necessarily we can see our our systems hired in cape twelve. Try to do more of what we're milling at the state level of being one department so. That to your your question that now I hope I got there there's a lot of work to be done and we are dreading through it in in trying to make make it make it better. We have complicated systems but if you get to the roof causes a few fundamental tweaks alignment that we can do i'm not big on on fancy schemes I think there's a few basic things that we can do. To get a lot better down the road. So so so you don't really have a timeline at this point so how we can get out can I charm in a one parties yet because i'm not sure if it's exactly what you're talking about what we do have at two forty two that I know that came out of the session and that also in the cater twelve sector has requires cte to look at how we can award credit for core academic within ct courses which I think might be the one you're referring to it okay good so we do have that so the requirement within that law required you know I support committee that obviously is made up of our education service co operatives and they check a representative so we have that in motion i'm because they have a list do december fifteenth to the department of the courses that they see that you know this math course is equivalent to this course of the student is taking and and then that comes to the department the department will review it and then january fifteenth will release that final list of what was approved and from the work we've done the president I think most of what we will see come in on december fifteenth become approved and that will all be really in that ca twelve helping those students you have to get those twenty two core and that sometimes get in the way of them being able to take ACT e pathway because especially you know a freshman or soft more who didn't take school real serious than all the same realizes I have to have that to graduate they're backed up with credit recovery this will help them if they are able to kind of take that fourth math and do it more towards the pathway or their fourth english towards the cte pathway and we see the work being done there were too in within at two forty two and then of course we also see it i'm and some pieces and learns and that will come out of that and so we should have a list by january fifteenth for this first year of the courses we know that will be interchangeable between courses and those core courses as we refer to him yet my apologies on that I went straight to the hire ad concurrent credit and in college transcript fees but we are doing some better work on there another timeline we hope to have the credentials of out of value. Define the second immigrant we've got a tent of time line that's we're still taking to roll out but the credentials of value also are not just about degrees it's about uh nondegree credentials and in that others there's literally over a million of these in the in the clearing house which is called the credential engine is the one who's leaving the work in the nation of it so there's literally over a million of those we've got to figure out which of those are a value to us in arkansas there's a few states have done that so we're going to take a look at what they're doing we're talking are constituents and brigade operational define knows because we have different groups in the state whether it's office of printership or work force investment we all or work for development board but they're all the finals will differently so we've got to get herself together to be a little more unified on that front I think. Well I think so much for that director in doctor is always good see you guys thank you. I see any more questions. So thank you very much this has been very informative every time every day there's new things happening and you're just moving in the right direction so i'm i'm very pleased. So thank you very much for being here I appreciate it we have no further business this meeting is adjourned.