House Education Committee
Video
Transcript
Bills discussed (5)
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HB1411
· 6 mentions in transcript, chapter
Matched: “…o get into our agenda today, and we are going to begin with House Bill 1411. Representative Mayberry, if you were available, sir, if yo…”
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HB1248
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1248”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1476
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1476”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1477
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1477”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1509
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1509”
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Pre-2017 bill |
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committee please make yourself comfortable we have plenty of seats available avail yourself of our coffee members after our presentation if you do have a bill that you want to run just let us know and we'll make sure we get that taken care of today and i believe we do have mark is informing me we do have about four that we're going to run today also an announcement this Thursday at 3 p.m. in room 171, the old joint budget room, we're going to have a meeting
of the joint House and Senate Ed Committees to discuss the coming up adequacy studies that we'll be talking about during the interim. And Mark will send an email out to everybody just confirming that. So tentatively, it's going to be 3 o'clock Thursday, this Thursday, room 171. If we go late during session, we'll adjust the time. But plan Thursday afternoon, 171, for a joint meeting of the House and Senate Ed Committees,
and we'll be discussing adequacy and talking a little bit what we're going to do during the interim. With that being said, I'm very excited today. We have a very special guest, a good friend of mine, and one of the leading, most famous Batesville citizens. There is Mr. Skip Rutherford from the Clinton School of Public Policies here to talk about the Clinton School, the impact that it has had not only in Little Rock but to the state of Arkansas as a whole.
And I think we can all agree that impact has been tremendous. It has been incredible. I also just want to take one point of personal privilege to recognize Mr. Rutherford's father, who is a good friend of mine, Mr. G.G. Rutherford. And I just want him to know how much I respect Mr. Rutherford. He is a man's man. He is a gentleman. We wish he was here today to be here during this presentation because I think he'd enjoy it. But on behalf of District 63, Independence County, I just want to let you know how much we appreciate your father,
and, of course, you as well. So with that being said, Dean Rutherford, you are recognized to present
Skip Rutherford
Unverified
2:29
your program. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee members. My name is Skip Rutherford. I'm dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Mr. Chairman, I'm honored to share with you being from America's best hometown as well. So thank you for having me, and I will pass on to my dad your kind words.
I want to just give you all a little briefing and update on the Clinton School and then ask any or answer any questions that you might have. School accepted its first class in 2005, and we opened with 16 admitted students. Eight years later, we accepted a class of 50 students. It's a two-year program. So we've grown from about 16 students to somewhere in the 90 to 100 range based on our enrollment.
We have three concurrent degree programs in law with the Bowen School at UALR, in public health with the Bozeman School at UAMS, and in business with the Walton College at the University of Arkansas. What we're really proud of about this program is that it's the nation's first master's in public service ever. It is a brand-new degree program, and there's no other program in the country like it.
In saying that, what makes it unique from traditional graduate programs in public administration, public affairs, and public policy is that a significant portion of the academic credit is direct field service work. Our students perform projects all over Arkansas, all over America, and all over the world. And when that happens, what that means, it is a different financial model because we do not rely on major infrastructure.
Our classrooms are schools in the Delta, are orphanages in Africa, are homeless shelters all across the country. So in saying that, let me say that the River Market is our student union. The Central Arkansas Library is our library. When we need auditorium space, we use the Convention Center or the Clinton Library. And we're able to invest more in scholarship and in service rather than buildings or infrastructure.
We spend about four to five percent of our budget on maintenance and physical plan. Saying that, because of the model, we don't have any debt. We don't have any debt service. And so investing in students becomes a very important priority for us. The other thing that we try to do is that we try to give back. Because of the field service model, we've performed over 400 public service projects.
Right now, we'll be doing 85 projects this school year. For example, we are in Newport, working with the city on the potential reuse of the historic Blue Bridge. We are in Arkadelphia, working with Group Living on helping a restaurant that employs adults with disabilities. We are in Helena, working with a group developing a center on community philanthropy, a group
of people learning about philanthropy, believing that regardless of income, all people can give and trying to instill that kind of spirit. So in doing that, we try to give back to the state of Arkansas in terms of our time, in terms of our talent. 85 percent graduation rate, 85 percent career placement rate, and very proud of those numbers.
The other thing that we do as part of trying to give back to Arkansas is that we believe that this program is a brain game. We talk about brain drains in Arkansas of people, of our graduates leaving the state. This program brings a lot of Arkansas graduates back. In the last few years, an Arkansan who went to Harvard, back. An Arkansan who went to Wellesley, back. An Arkansan who went to Davidson, back. An Arkansan who went to North Carolina Chapel Hill, back.
All are living and working in Arkansas. So we think that is a really important aspect of this program. Obviously being a presidential school, we work closely with all the other presidential schools as well. And then finally, and I'll throw it open to questions, one of the things that we really try to do is we try to enhance our program with what we believe and what has been described as the best college speaker series in the country. And in doing that, we bring people from all over the world here.
Our first speaker was Senator Bob Dole in 2004, even before we admitted our first class. We've now had about 740 speakers. What we do with those speakers is that those programs are put online, and every fall we send notices through the Arkansas Department of Education, and I want to thank ADE, and we send notices through the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, and I want to thank ADHE, so that students all over Arkansas can access these lectures and these sessions that
can use for primary research material in their papers or in their classes. And we do have several classes that literally watch the program for credit. So we'll be admitting our ninth class this fall, and we attract students from all over the country and the world, and we believe it's good for Arkansas and good for higher education. Mr. Chairman, that's my overview, and I'll be glad to answer any questions. Well, thank you so much, Dean Rutherford.
I just want to make a couple of comments. The speaker series is absolutely incredible. You can catch it on C-SPAN. You can catch it, you know, I think in Little Rock on the public access. It's incredible, without question, the best speaker series in the country. And to your point about the school and its location, the library in and of itself, we know the impact that that has had and the impact that it will have to central Arkansas.
But having that higher ed component, which has become a marquee program in such a short amount of time, I think is even going to have an equal or bigger impact on central Arkansas. having a program of that level, and just don't take my word for it, I mean, you know, read about it. The Clinton School has become so just fantastic in terms of how it is viewed nationally.
So we are blessed to have the library and the school here in Arkansas, and it's going to be such a value-added component to the economic growth of this state, and it's going to be a very important aspect in that regard. With that, Dean Rutherford has said he'll take some questions. Let's see here. Representative Douglas, do you have a question? Oh, okay.
Speaker 8
10:25
Yes, I absolutely did. I absolutely did. Well, seeing none, Dean Rutherford, thank
you so much for being here today. A wonderful, wonderful program, and thank you for your service to the state of Arkansas. Thank you all. Okay. Okay, members, we are going to get into our agenda today, and we are going to begin with House Bill 1411. Representative Mayberry, if you were available, sir, if you'd be so kind to come to the end
of the table. Representative Mayberry has an amendment to House Bill 1411 that amendment is being published now
if it's not on your tablet Mark or Juanita we'll make sure that you get a copy we're going to wait one moment until everybody has access to the
information Representative Mayberry you are recognized to present your amendment to House Bill 1411.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This amendment, it's my own amendment to my own bill. It's adding a couple of members to this committee that we're hoping to form to study the nursing situation across the state. It adds a member to represent the Arkansas Rural Education Association and also a member to represent the Arkansas Advocates for Children and
Families. I'd appreciate a good vote on the amendment. With that, do we have any
questions from the committee? If not, do we have anyone in the audience who would like to speak for the bill, against the bill?
Excuse me. I'm sorry. Do we have any questions on the amendment? Do we have anybody in the audience who wishes to speak for or against the amendment? If not, what is the pleasure of the committee? Representative Cozart. We have a do pass on the amendment. All in favor?
Speaker 16
12:19
All opposed. Amendment is adopted. Rep. Mayberry, sir, you are recognized to present House Bill 1411
as amended. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, or Mr. Chair. I promoted you. House Bill 1411 is
one that's, you know, as the title says,
is to protect the health and well-being of students in public schools by ensuring adequate and appropriate health care workers on site to attend to students'
needs and for other purposes. Actually, what this bill is is assessing where we are right now in the state of Arkansas and looking at where we ought to be, ideally, in a perfect world, and then looking at the steps that are needed to be able to go from where we are to where we ought to be. We have a situation in the state where we have 272 school districts,
And in those school districts, we have 1,080 schools. About half of those are elementary schools, 572, 224 middle or junior high schools, 284 high schools, 36 alternative schools, and 17 charter schools. In some of the school districts, we have a nurse on every campus. In some school districts, we may have a nurse who covers multiple campuses, And some of these campuses may be 20 or 30 miles apart or 20 or 30 minutes away.
And so we have a big disparity with that. I'm fortunate that my children attend a school district where we do have nurses on each campus. As many of you know, I have a child who has special needs. And I truly wouldn't feel as comfortable if there weren't a nurse on campus where she attends. In some of these schools as well, the facilities range greatly.
In some of the schools, there is no designated nurse's office. In some of the schools where there is a designated nurse's office, there's not a designated area for privacy. in terms of being able to provide medical facilities or, I'm sorry, medication cabinets. Some of these, 92 nurses out of 60 school districts reported that there was no double-lock medication cabinet.
We have a lot of information from some school districts. We don't have as much from others as well. Again, there's 272 school districts. Sixty of those had school health information reported voluntarily, just did it, by the school nurses. In those 60 school districts, we saw that there are over 9,000 children with ADD or ADHD. Over 1,800 have life-threatening allergies. And again, this is just out of a little over 20% of the school districts reporting.
More than 1,800 children have life-threatening allergies. More than 8,000 in those school districts have asthma. There's more than 1,600 cases of known child abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect cases in those school districts. But again, the nurses have a wide range in terms of the licensure and in terms of what their duties are and in terms of what facilities they have to be able to care for these students.
In these 60 school districts, a number of nurses reported they also do bus duty. They do classroom teacher substitution, lunch duty, morning duty. They're the substitute school secretary, attendance clerk, testing monitor, handle just a variety of different things. So what this group is going to do, or what we would propose that they do, is that we bring in a wide range of peoples appointed by the Department of Education, by the Department of Health, so forth,
who would come in and form this Public School Health Services Advisory Committee. And it will comprise nurses, educators, administrators, just a broad range, who will study and assess where we are, where we need to be, and, again, the best ways to get there. This will take place over the course of a year's time, and they will meet quarterly and these meetings also can can be done in some instances via
video conferencing as well with that i would appreciate a good vote thank you very much representative
mayberry do we have any questions from the committee representative talley you're recognized thank you mr chairman
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
17:07
uh represent mayberry i see there's no physical impact there's not a fiscal impact,
but yet you've got 19 members, and they are allowed reimbursement? Well, the fiscal impact,
I believe you'll see, I think they've got an asterisk on there that it would be
minimal, and it is based on the reimbursement of their actual expenses
to travel to a meeting. It's their meeting quarterly for a year. So the Department of Education decided that would be a minimal fiscal impact. And again,
in some instances where there is video technology available,
members may attend the meeting via video. Representative Talia, do you have anything to add? Representative Lemkin.
Speaker 30
17:56
screen, but this is just a study that we talked about.
This is a study. This is not making any changes. This is coming with suggestions of what changes should be made at some point in time, developing suggestions. MS. Excuse me, Mr. Thank you very much. Could I
Speaker 30
18:15
have one more little question? MR. Yes, ma'am. MS. Okay.
Speaker 36
18:19
Are there going to be any teachers included in this committee of
19? MR. I will read for you who will be involved in this. It says that the director of the Department of Health will appoint one member to represent
the Department of Health, one member to represent the State Board of Nursing, a member to represent Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a member to represent the Department of Health, Child and Adolescent Health, one member to represent the Department of Health, Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities. And then the Commissioner of Education shall appoint five members, and those would be a member from the Office of Legal Services, a member from the Division of Fiscal and and Administrative Services, a member from the Division of Learning Services and Division
Special Education Unit, one member from the Division of Learning Services Coordinated School Health Unit, a member from the Division of Learning Services Coordinated School Health Unit School-Based Mental Health, one member to represent the School Nurse Association, a member from the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, a member from the Arkansas School Boards Association, a member of the Arkansas Educators Association, one member who is a public school principal, and two members who are parents of a child
with special health care needs. And then we have added, with today's amendment, again, the Arkansas advocates for
children and families and also rural educators as well. MS. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, Representative Lampkin.
Speaker 29
19:54
Do we have any other questions for Representative Mayberry on his bill? If not, do we have any questions from
the committee, excuse me, from the audience? I think we do have a few
people who have signed up to speak in favor of the bill.
Speaker 42
20:12
Ms. Carol Nichols? You're recognized, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. I am not representing an organization. I'm representing my daughter, Kristen Nichols, who is a type 1 diabetic. She's 16 years old. She was diagnosed when she was 2 years old. And type 1 is not like type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes requires insulin all the time. It's not managed by diet and exercise or taking a pill. She has to take insulin all the time. Now, some type 1 diabetics require two to three injections a day. Kristen's diabetes requires her to wear an insulin pump that gives her insulin 24 hours a day. We started in the school district in kindergarten.
I purposely chose a school district that had a full-time school nurse to take care of her, purposely. I transferred her, the school board transferred her from one school district to another because that school district, who had more students than the one I transferred her from, had a part-time school nurse that was at that school on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, and she was
across town. She was more than 30 minutes away. The school district that I transferred her to was smaller than the one I transferred her from. I transferred her from Warren School District to the Woodlawn School District. Woodlawn School District is a very small school district. might have a little over 500 students K through 12. Warren has probably 500 students in 12th grade alone.
So it amazed me that a big school district did not have a full-time school nurse. I depend on my school nurse to be my eyes and ears when Kristen's at school. i depend on my school nurse to be proactive in seeing what's going on with kristen i my school nurse knows after a while knows kristen she'll say carol she has that look and i know exactly what she's talking about even though her sugar looks pretty good her eyes look funny and she
And you get to know, after a while, that look. With Kristen, she can change from 432 in one hour to 32 in one hour. She's what you call a brittle diabetic. I can't wait 30 minutes for a school nurse to show up across town. I can't even wait 10 minutes.
in 10 minutes a lot can happen she could die I'm depending on my school nurse a lot I'm depending on her to take care of my child we just recently moved to Grant County and I just got a great job with a company my dream job with a company here little rock and i had to move i purposely again look for a school district that had a full time
nurse and she goes to the sheridan school district and they have a full-time school nurse right there in that building because i can't take that chance i'll take any questions miss nichols thank
you very very much for your testimony Thank you. I think Representative Deffenbaugh, you have a question,
Representative Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
24:28
sir? Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is Representative Mayberry. The list you
read off, I didn't hear any teachers.
I didn't. Am I missing something there?
There are different teacher associations and such as that. I don't believe
that there are specifically teachers involved on that list. Okay. I'll give you
Representative Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
24:49
a perspective. And just to give you an idea, in my district, there's one nurse that can reach three schools within minutes, and I'm not discounting what our speakers say or what our guests say at all.
I know, you know, assigning a school nurse or nurses, you know, a lot of times it's just a matter of, you know, if it's convenient for them to get to several schools. But anyway, here's the point. Teachers, I know I was given a list of students that had multiple problems. Our school nurse was really good at giving us lists of problems of particular students. So like she mentioned, you know, the look in the eyes, we had things, you know, we looked at also.
And so what I'm getting at is teachers are tuned in to this too. I mean, I'm just saying my suggestion is that I really think they need some input into this because they know the time, you know, it takes some time to get them out of class to be tested, et cetera, and I think you're missing a real vital part of this committee. That's what I'm getting at. Thank you.
Thank you, Representative Deffenbaugh. Do we have any other questions? If not, Ms. Nichols, thank you very, very much for coming here today.
We appreciate it very much. We also have some other folks who have signed up to speak for the bill. Ms. Paula Smith. Is there anybody against it? I don't think we have
anybody against this bill. So we're going to go ahead and, of course, recognize those who have signed up to speak for
Speaker 51
26:35
it. Ms. Smith, you are recognized to speak for the bill. I'm Paula Smith, state school nurse consultant with the Department of Health and the Department of Education. I'm here just to share information and answer questions. I'm the one that designed the school nurse survey six years ago when I started in this position,
and the school nurses voluntarily submit the information. It is a requirement of a school who is considered a coordinated school health school, and there are 50-plus schools in the state who are CSH schools, and they have to complete that survey. But the nurses voluntarily report the information, information, and so that's how we get the numbers of kids with chronic diseases, with procedures that are performed at school by licensed nurses, things like that.
And so I just wanted to share with you how we gathered that data on a voluntary
Speaker 29
27:32
basis. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Do we have any questions for Ms.
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
27:37
Smith? Representative Talley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Smith, can you tell us, of the 272 school districts, how many of
Speaker 51
27:45
those have nurses now in their districts? By law, because of the Americans with a Disabilities Act and the Individual Disabilities Education Act, any student who has a special health care need requires an individualized health care plan,
and so that plan has to be written and signed off by an RN. And also, Medicaid allows us to bill Medicaid for vision and hearing screenings that are performed by an RN or an LPN as long as she's supervised by an RN. So the long answer to a short question is every school district has one nurse. They are required to have one nurse, and that is the mandate.
There is an unfunded mandate of the ratio of 1 to 750 well children, and then there are other ratios if there are a large number of kids with special health care needs, things like that. But every district is required to have one nurse. Representative Ratliff. What do you
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
28:55
think that number of 750, do you think that's high or do you think that's low? or do you think we ought to have one forever 400?
Speaker 51
29:13
today? That's really a loaded question. That's a question for this advisory committee once we have it for them, sir. That's a really good question. I wish I had the magic answer. I can tell you that Arkansas has more school nurses than some states. They
have less school nurses than some states. And, Representative Ratliff, if I might add to that, I
think that that is one excellent reason for the addition in today's amendment of the Arkansas Rural Education Association because you're going to have some situations where population or number of students doesn't necessarily equate to the need.
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
29:41
Exactly. You know, some of these smaller schools have a lot more children with a
lot more problems. And they're often much larger geographic school districts as well. Yes, it takes longer to
Speaker 29
29:56
get there and do things. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Ratliff. Do we
have any other questions? Seeing none, Ms. Smith, thank you very, very much for your testimony today. Ms. Kathy Haney.
Kathy Haney
Unverified
30:18
for the bill, ma'am. Thank you. My name is Kathy Haney. I am currently working as
a school nurse. I am the director from Arkansas. I sit on the board of the National Association of School Nurses. I've been a school nurse for the last 15 years. Over the period of the last 15 years, our special needs population has greatly increased. Whenever I started school, I did not have any diabetics.
I had one child that had cystic fibrosis that I had to give daily updraft treatments to. Over the course of those years, my special needs population has increased. I have a school, a middle school, who has 900 students. Of those 900 students, 465 of them have asthma. I have 12 EpiPens, which is a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. I also have teachers who have anaphylactic reactions,
and I've had to use those EpiPens the second day of school for a teacher. And I've since had to use for teachers also and for the student population three different times just this year, and we're not even over the school year yet. I have three diabetics. I have students with spina bifida. I have heart transplant students. I have students with cancer. I have 900, like I said. It is very difficult for me as one nurse.
I get there at 8 o'clock in the morning, and I don't usually leave until 4.30 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon because during the day, I take care of all of those students. Before school, before my population comes in, I'm doing paperwork. It is very difficult for one nurse with 900 students with my special needs population to try to get everything done. Now, Ms. Smith alluded to the fact that we have LPNs and RNs. RNs are your professional nurses who have gone to school, who have learned the assessment skills,
who have learned to do all the treatments. The LPNs, there are a number, we have a large number of LPNs in the state that work solely by their self. And according to the Arkansas Nurse Practice Act, an LPN has to have an RN over them to supervise. Mr. Mayberry's bill is very important because at least we will be able to track how many school nurses there are in the state, how many special need populations there is, and to get the numbers so that we can show that there are a realistic need for school nurses.
According to the National School Nurses Association, the well students are 750. That population decreases with your asthmatics, your students who have to have total care. Those ratios go down. 250 to one school nurse is for a special need population that you have to do daily medication, asthma, prevention, teaching, and according to their needs, that ratio goes down. But we need to have licensed RNs in the state.
Yes, we have some very rural school districts that encompasses a lot of miles. You have one nurse there. She goes to five different schools in one week's time. If there's a need for a student on another campus because it is in a rural area and she has to go around and over a mountain and across a river, it may take her 45 minutes to get there. This is also serviced by a volunteer fire department, which is a volunteer rescue. It takes them 30 to 45 minutes to even get toned out to go.
So we need to have licensed nurses in the schools, and I will take any questions. Representative Ratliff. Have you
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
34:18
heard of any of the rural doctors that's coming out of med school that's coming in and going to, like, rural schools? We've got one in our district that goes to two schools, and they spend
Kathy Haney
Unverified
34:30
one day a week. Now, there's a wellness program through the state health department, and if they've got a wellness clinic, that possibly could be that,
but that's not the case in all the school districts. Right, right. And a coordinated school health also, they
have set up something with some of the doctors that goes in and do the coordinated school health. We've got a rural
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
34:50
doctor just graduated, and her and her husband are doing that as a, I guess they felt like they need to come back to the rural area and help. And through the health department, there is
Kathy Haney
Unverified
35:01
the wellness clinics that provide funding, and those are done by grants. It really works well. Thank you.
Okay, does anybody else have any questions? Just a little spoiler alert. This is going to pass, so. But I have an unrelated question. Well,
Speaker 2
35:19
we also thought Arkansas would beat Louisiana Monroe, too, so. I have a. Well, that's on you, brother. If this doesn't pass, that's on you. It ain't on me.
I just have one unrelated question, because I think this is in the bag.
Apparently, you were describing a lot of health problems that might not have been as prominent maybe 20 years ago. Yes, sir. And as, i.e., the diabetes. What do you attribute that to? Our medical technology
Speaker 81
35:59
has increased greatly. Fifteen years ago, you didn't have
Kathy Haney
Unverified
36:03
babies that were born at 22 weeks. They usually did not make it. We have infants that are being born at 21 and 22 weeks
that through medical technology that are being saved. So those babies are coming into the public school systems, and that started about 10 years ago. And that's a greater number of population. With our diabetes, and I didn't even touch on high blood pressure and heart disease that I have, but that is because that's why we track the obesity rate, because students are getting more and more less active. They're sitting in front of their televisions playing their video games. So, and if they have compromising medical histories of their parents,
Speaker 82
36:46
then those are conditions that they usually inherit.
Okay, so there are some environmental aspects to
this. that are causing, I mean, you know, high blood pressure in children is
Kathy Haney
Unverified
37:01
just, I mean. Yes, sir. It's running rampant. But the infants that are born now at Children's Hospital are surviving and, you know, with all sorts of kind of medical anomalies. Take the Arkansas School for the Deaf. Their population is 150-something, maybe 160.
You see, they, all of their students, not only are they deaf, but they have other syndromes and medical conditions. So those kids go to public school, and our dollars are funding them, and they have basically an LPN staff over there. Well, I just
thought that was very interesting that we're seeing these issues, and I think it's beyond children, premature children, I think you're seeing
Speaker 81
37:44
it. Right, it's everything. It's a whole
gamut of everything. Diet, inactivity, and thus the need for more school nurses.
Kathy Haney
Unverified
37:51
Exactly. Because I don't give Adderall and Ritalin and all those medicines like I did in the beginning of my career as a school nurse. I'm giving stuff like Klonopine, Inderall for blood pressure, psychotropic medicines, because I've got students with a lot of behavioral and mental disorders. So, you know, I would encourage you, if any of you want to come to any of your school nurses,
go spend a couple of hours with them. You will see the kind of – it's like running a mini
Speaker 41
38:29
emergency room in there. Ms. Haney, thank you.
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
38:36
Excuse me. Representative Viviano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a question about the licensing requirements and if this group is going to review that. And I bring this up because we had an incident in Searcy where there was a nurse who apparently was not certified at practice for a number of years and, you know, and it's caused some problems.
Kathy Haney
Unverified
38:56
Yes, sir. If you go to work for a school district, they are required. Not all districts have, but since the incident last June in Searcy, all school districts are required to check the licensures of a nurse. We have to have a license. My license is for an RN, LPN's license or LPN license, but they have to be, I have to have so many continuing education units every time I renew my license. And if the superintendent's offices are the ones that should be checking that, a lot of times the schools do
not have a nursing supervisor, and that's the ones that it should fall back on.
But if there's not a nursing supervisor, the superintendent's offices should
be checking that. And, Representative Viviano, to your question as well, that is one of the areas that
this committee will look at in terms of developing guidelines. It says regarding educational level and licensure level of a school nurse. So that would
Kathy Haney
Unverified
39:57
be an area they look at. Also, on the national level, RNs can become nationally certified just like teachers are nationally certified, and that's through the National Association of School Nurses.
And those, to keep your credentials for that, you have to have 75 continuing education hours. So we've encouraged,
Speaker 89
40:14
as the School Nurses Association, we've encouraged all the RNs to do that. We appreciate you very
much, Ms. Haney. If there's no more questions from the audience or anyone who wants to speak for against the bill,
what's the pleasure of the committee? Representative Lowry, do we have a due pass as amended? All in favor? All opposed? Okay, amendment passed. The bill passes as amended. Thank you very much, Representative Mayberry.
Thank you. Thank you, committee. Okay, committee, we are now going to hear House Bill 1509. Representative Carnine, sir, if you would be so kind to head to the end
of the table. And when you are ready, sir, you are recognized to present House Bill 1509. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Representative Les "Skip" Carnine
Unverified
41:13
This should be fairly quick to look at. If you will look at the second page, you will note that the fact that this really the bill changes really one sentence if you get right down to it. But as we know, as you look across our state, and obviously this is true in others too, we have many, many more international students that have joined our communities,
many times through our corporate groups, bringing people here for training and also employment. And this simply was an area in which there was a gap in the legislation. It's covered in other legislation for other grade levels, but for kindergarten and first grade it wasn't. It just says simply that as long as the student has had a kindergarten program equivalent in another country,
so in other words, not just other states, but as another country, that they are acceptable for enrollment. Again, this is true in many, many other states, and as our state, again, has joined the global society, In fact, with Walmart being the largest corporation, back and forth with ExxonMobil. But the point is that this simply cleans up the law for kindergarten and first grade. So any questions? I'll be glad to answer them.
Speaker 96
42:44
Just one sentence, addition. Do we have
Speaker 29
42:47
any questions for Representative Carnine? If not, do
we have anyone who wishes to speak against the bill? Anyone who wishes to speak for the bill? If not, what's the pleasure of the committee? Move
due pass. Representative Carnine has a due pass. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Representative Carnine. Representative Hobbs, are you
ready to present House Bill 1248?
Oh, ma'am, when you are ready, you are recognized to present House Bill 1248. MS.
Thank you, Ms. Chair and committee. This is another fairly simple bill. All it will do is exempt the personal contact information of non-elected school employees from the Freedom of Information Act. MR. Committee, do we
have any questions for Representative Hobbs?
If not, do we have anyone from the audience who wishes to speak against the bill, anyone wishes to speak for the bill. If not, what's the pleasure of the committee?
Representative Cozart, we have a do pass motion. All in favor? All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much, Representative Cozart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. Okay. Representative Clemmer has stepped out of the office, and what we're going to do right now is I'm going to run one of my bills real quick.
Dr. Kimbrell, would you meet
Speaker 63
44:41
table? And Representative Hobbs, would you come
Representative McLean, you are recognized to present House Bill 1477. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dr. Kimbrell is here, and he is going to give a detailed explanation of this bill. It is an embedded curriculum bill. We have similar legislation in our ROTC programs where you can get not only ROTC credit but also physical education credit as part of that course.
And Dr. Kimbrell, if you would go ahead
Speaker 109
45:40
and give an explanation, please, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This bill really came out of some work that we've done in a couple of different areas. We've done some
Speaker 110
45:52
work with some pilots with the Bearden School District and SAU, where we were doing some concurrent credit and where State Board was given some waivers for embedding some courses together. Then we began to work with our STEM works across the state with New Tech high schools, and we were allowing for a year to embed oral communications in the work that New Tech was doing
because in New Tech you are requiring students to do project-based learning, and in that project-based learning students were having to present their projects as teams, And in their presentations, they were presenting those projects typically four or five times a year in a course. They weren't presenting those to students. They were presenting those to community members. For instance, let's say that in a physics and math class that was a combination class,
they were doing a project that may be an engineering-type project. They were bringing engineers in, math people, design people, and they were presenting their project to these adults that were working in the industry. And instead of having to take a semester of oral communications and speech as we had to take, you remember Representative Catlett when you had to have that speech class where you had to give up and give three or four speeches and you were scared to death to do it in front of your friends? Well, your friends were there, but there were also these highly intelligent adults.
Well, instead of having to waste a semester, you were already doing these, and by the time you're graduating in these schools, you were doing anywhere from 150 to 200 of these by the time you finish your high school career. So instead of having to do that, you were taking other opportunities. So we're looking at the opportunity to do this and not having to come every year to the State Board and asking for a waiver of this. So the only way we could do that is to change the law, and we're doing that
Speaker 111
47:45
by allowing the State Board to grant this waiver for more than one year.
And that's what this little simple law would
Chair
Unverified
47:53
do. MS. Are there any questions from the committee? Representative Lowry,
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
47:59
you are recognized. MR. Yes, Dr. Kimbrell. I know
you're probably just using oral communications as an example. There are other courses that you're talking about, right? And I know that oral communications instructors have spent a lot of years working on these requirements, and part of those requirements point out, and I'm just speaking from my own experience teaching oral comm at the university level, oral communication is more than just
getting scared in front of your peers, making speeches, it's also about interpersonal communication, it's about how to use conflict resolution, a lot of other things that are probably, and especially with the advent of adding small group communication and understanding how to work within that dynamic, there's a lot more preparation for their academic career and their professional career embedded in the course than just the public speaking component of it. I never thought
Speaker 110
48:57
Yes, there is, and that's why we addressed it on page two, beginning with lines three. To be able to get this waiver, you also have to show that the curriculum required under oral communications is taught. in those embedded courses so you know those two teachers that are doing this combined teaching in that core those courses you also have to teach all of the content in oral communications also okay so you have to teach the small group dynamics you have to teach all of those other interpersonal skills all those
things have to be taught at the same time it's not just teaching physics and math you also have
Chair
Unverified
49:37
to teach those other content areas all right thank you for clarification
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
49:43
thank you madam chairman this was really interesting for me if I understand if I remember this correctly school districts cannot count athletics as a PE credit is that correct only one time only one time okay I've
not ever really understood the logic behind that because athletic athletics goes into much greater depth and detail as far as trying to teach those kids than most of the P.E. classes that I have seen. Well, you can count it
Speaker 110
50:19
will go through the process, just like Representative Lowry talked about, in which you assure that the content standards that are required to be taught in P.E., because P.E. has a whole set of content curriculum,
If you will take the time to sit down and develop the curriculum, write out the curriculum, and teach the curriculum, you can get P.E. credit for that. And we have school districts that do that. Okay, great. I certainly,
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
50:45
as an ag teacher, would have been interested in this. We had a leadership class that I thought would have been great as a substitute for speech and some others. Thank you very much. That is
Speaker 94
50:54
one that you actually could do that. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Any other questions from the committee?
Anyone wish to speak for the bill from the audience? Anyone wish to speak against the bill? Are you closed for your bill, Representative McClain? Yes, Madam Chair. Okay. What's the will of the committee? Representative Ratliff moves for due pass. All in favor?
Opposed? Representative McClain, you have passed your bill. Thank you.
Madam Chair, with your permission, I would like to run House Bill 1476.
We're recognized to do that. Thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 68
51:44
Dr. Kimbrell is here. He will give a full explanation of the bill, if that is all
Speaker 109
51:55
right with the chairman. Absolutely. Thank you. This bill has to do with the Division of Facilities and Transportation, particularly deals with a piece that we're cleaning up with school buses. And
Speaker 110
52:07
I'll probably ask Dr. Stein if I get this wrong to come and make sure that I'm
not messing this up. But Section 4 on page 2 ensures that we're talking about the definition of a school bus as a motor vehicle designed to carry 10 or more passengers. That's a pretty simple piece of that, and here comes Mark to my rescue. Also it specifically does define that school bus, and it assigns the responsibility of
design of the school bus to the commission for arkansas public school facilities and transportation that is consistent with the changes that were made in 2009 it puts the responsibility for training school bus drivers uh in the rules to the commission for arkansas public school academic facilities and transportation that is consistent with the changes that were made in act 1473 of 2009. But one of the pieces that, it's really our cleanup bill, one of the pieces that we had a lot
of conversation with our school superintendent friends is had to do with what we have been seen done with school districts using tornado shelters and federal grant monies. Y'all know about the partnership program, or some of the new representatives may not. The facilities division has a facilities partnership program in which the state participates in
building school facilities. And depending upon the wealth of the school district, and that's, you know, a whole two-hour discussion one of these days if you want to have it, but depending upon how much money you raise per meal per student, the state helps you build your facilities. And what we began to see is that a lot of schools were getting federal grants to build tornado shelters. And you weren't just building this big block building that you would herd students into
if you got a tornado siren or warning. They were actually incorporating those into other facilities. It may be hallways. It may be PE facilities. it could be gymnasiums. And you were getting this grant money, and then you were getting partnership money, and to be real honest with you, schools were making money off of it. Now, that's okay, except what it did is it reduced the amount of state participation money that could go to other school projects. So what this language does is it cleans that up to say
that, yes, you can get federal grant money to build tornado shelters, you can get the state participation money for partnership, you can combine those to build your facilities and have a joint use for that facility, but you can't make money off of it. That's what it does. And we encourage school districts to get the tornado and federal money. We encourage you to use participation money, but we don't encourage you to make money off of it.
Speaker 134
55:27
That way we keep as many dollars as we can to help fund other
school projects across the state. The best example that Dr. Kimbrell gave me when we spoke about this, if you have one of these incorporated reinforced rooms in a school and the total cost of that is going to be, let's say, $800,000, We're not going to give you, the state's not going to give you more than the cost of that room to build.
So if, and Dr. Kimmerer, please clean me up on
this if I'm going off course, but if the feds give you $500,000 to build this $800,000 reinforced room, we're only going to give you $300,000. We're not going to give you more, we're not going to match the $500,000. we're going to give you the total cost of the project, okay? So if it's $800,000, you've got $500,000 from the feds, then the state will reimburse you up to the total cost of the project,
which would be $300,000. And there were some instances where the grants were being matched and the money was being used for other purposes other than the reinforced schoolrooms. So that's as simple as I
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
56:48
Chairman McLean. Representative Lauer, do you have a question?
Speaker 137
56:53
Yes, I do. Thank you, Chairman. I understand that Section 7 is cleanup and clarification,
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
57:00
but I have a problem with sections sometimes that are not germane to the bulk of the bill. Is there not some other mechanism, some other bill that can be used in terms of clarifying this facilities issue? Because I just don't see the linkage between a bill on public transportation, on buses, and
one on facility funding. Well, that's a good and valid point. I think you'll see other agencies like the Department of Ed that have typically large legislative packages.
they tend to combine issues or cleanup or other types of legislation because if they didn't, the bills would be just voluminous. The cleanup aspect on buses is pretty non-controversial, strictly cleanup, clarification. And if we can put in another section pertaining to the grants, It's an efficiency question from my point of view, and if we didn't, if we took every
single issue that the Department of Education had that needed to be addressed in their legislative package, I mean, they'd be running 500 bills. That's a – I'm being a little hyperbole there, but it's just an efficiency way to address these
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
58:30
issues. MR. Follow-up? You recognize. MR. and I'm not saying that there's any lack of transparency because you've been very forthright in pointing out this section to us. The thing that concerns me is our school districts out there that may just be reviewing the bill title
and not really understanding that the bill is going to impact something that they've been doing. And I don't think that it is an absolute black and white that they're doing something wrong in terms of taking the grant money and using their school facility. I'm assuming that they double reinforce it or whatever for tornado protection, and then the community is able to benefit from it. And to characterize that as making money from it, you know, I think some of those school districts would like an opportunity to be able to come forward
and be able to speak to whether that is what they're
trying to do or not. No, we don't – that's not a negative connotation because, you know, any extra money was being used for, you know, great purposes at those schools. But also that money could have been used for other projects as well in this regard. Also, to your point about reading the title only, I can assure you that if you just look at the folks in this room, no one's reading just a bill by the title.
These folks that come through this committee, they know every line of every bill. and if there's something they're not comfortable with, they're going to get a hold of you, they're going to get a hold of me, and we're going to try to work to fix it. So, yeah, nothing that comes through this committee is unvetted.
Speaker 121
1:00:07
I understand, and point well taken. I just, as far, in other words, for my final follow-up, as
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
1:00:13
far as you know, there are not any school districts that are willing to come forward and speak against this particular section. I'm not aware of any.
Speaker 110
1:00:22
We've met with the superintendents, Mr. Abernathy's group, We've met with a rural education group. We've gone out to the superintendent's group that meets. We've talked with the co-ops. We've sat down and explained why we were trying to do this. We thought it was in the best interest of the state as a policy issue. It's not a negative connotation in any way. We're trying to best use what state dollars that this General Assembly will give us to
partner with schools across the state to build as many facilities as we
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
1:01:03
possibly can. Members, I'm going to play Alex Trebek up here. I want your comments in the form of a question. We're not playing Jeopardy, but we are supposed to be asking questions. Are there any other questions from the committee? Anybody in the audience want to speak for or against the bill? Hearing none, do we have a motion?
Representative Hobbs, moves do pass. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. All those opposed? Thank you very much. Bill passes. Congratulations, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize to the committee for stepping out. I was going to run a bill today, but we're going to converse about it a bit more before we run it. And with that, we have no other bills. Do I hear a motion to adjourn?
All those in favor, signify by saying aye. I've been waiting to do this all session.
Agenda
PRESENTATION REGARDING THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS CLINTON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE
HB1411
HB1509
HB1248
HB1477
HB1476
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative James McLean Chair
Unverified
Skip Rutherford
Unverified
Speaker 8
Representative Andy Mayberry Chair
Unverified
Speaker 16
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
Speaker 29
Speaker 30
Speaker 36
Speaker 42
Representative Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
Speaker 51
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
Speaker 61
Speaker 68
Kathy Haney
Unverified
Speaker 2
Speaker 81
Speaker 82
Speaker 41
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
Speaker 89
Representative Les "Skip" Carnine
Unverified
Speaker 96
Representative Debra M. Hobbs Chair
Unverified
Speaker 52
Speaker 63
Speaker 104
Speaker 109
Speaker 110
Speaker 111
Chair
Unverified
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
Speaker 121
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
Speaker 127
Speaker 94
Speaker 134
Speaker 136
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
Speaker 137