ALC-Administrative Rules
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John Clay
Unverified
1:30
The Administrative Rules Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council will come to order. I'd like to remind those that wish to comment on a rule to go ahead and sign in. And be sure to specify the rule on which you wish to comment.
We will be taking up the sign-up sheets momentarily. The first item of business is the, we have one report from the Executive Subcommittee concerning its review and approval of emergency rules. The report is in your packet. Are there any questions? seeing none without objection this report will be filed we're going to move to item c
these are rules filed pursuant to arkansas code 10-3-3-0-9 the first is for the department of education division of elementary and secondary education and i would ask uh you we can do a presentation for each or just go straight to this all right we'll go ahead and ask a representative for the department
to have a seat you can go ahead and identify yourself and present uh the rule
Speaker 6
3:11
good morning courtney solace for chief of staff for the department of education we have three rules for your consideration today the first one is governing public school choice so there were a few different changes to school choice in this last legislative session primarily through acts 913 and 563 which did a couple of things it opened up intra school choice So a student living in a school district can apply to go to any school in their district.
Of course, the district still has the ability to make the decision that there's not capacity. And one of the other things that the updated language did was create a consistency. So there were some inconsistencies in the law. Now it's very clear that capacity is defined as 95% of the available seats or students that they can have in any particular grade or classroom and so students can apply the district can deny only on the basis of lack of capacity we did have a public comment period and
a public comment hearing on these received some comments but none of them required substantive changes and with that i'm
Speaker 9
4:25
happy to take any questions any questions from the committee representative richardson you recognize thank you mr. chair
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
4:46
i had a quick question as i was reading through here and i know one of the key points you were talking about the transfer of
students was any thought put into uh transferring students in regards to athletic participation so we don't govern
Speaker 6
5:00
athletics that's governed by triple a what we did say is that a student's transfer they can't be prohibited from participating in sports because of their choice to transfer however because triple-a is not under us and they make their own rules they have the ability to then dictate who can actually play in triple-a sanctioned games thank you thank you
for you all right seeing seeing
no other questions without objection this rule is reviewed and approved you recognize present the next rule
Speaker 6
5:38
thank you the next rule is governing maternity leave cost sharing again these changes were the result of acts from the 2025 session at 904 and 905 and the primary change here is that previously this was a voluntary program that districts could opt into now it's mandatory that all districts participate and whereas previously it was a cost sharing 50% from the state and 50 percent from the district the state now covers 100 percent of the cost of
the substitute for the teacher or educator on maternity leave and with that i'm happy to answer
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
6:13
any questions chairman deese you're recognized thank you mr chair thank you for this this rule i
think it's a great direction i'm supportive of it just for clarity i had some questions about the the budgetary side of this so with now 100 cost share to the department of education um, inside of the rule. It said there is no financial impact. And, uh, could you add some
clarity to that? Is this saying that there's no impact because all budgets and appropriations are already inside of this statute or, um, any other comments to make me feel better about not having a financial impact? Yes,
Speaker 6
6:51
correct. Um, yes. When the law was passed, we had already included it our budget and in our appropriation so we have sufficient funding to cover everything that has been requested and everything that we foresee going forward and so yeah there's we are not asking for any additional money or any
additional appropriation as the result of the law or the
rules wonderful thank you any other questions
seeing no other questions without objection this
Speaker 5
7:25
rule is reviewed and approved and you recognize present the next rule all right and then finally we have the rules governing student discipline and these changes
Speaker 6
7:32
are again the required by statutes that were changed and newly enacted one of the big ones the bell-to-bell no cell act which prohibits
the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in schools that is incorporated in here It might seem a little bit odd, but it was the most appropriate fit as far as a student could be subject to the discipline policies of the school district for violating the bell-to-bell no-sell prohibition. We also added changes regarding the anti-bullying laws. So Act 805 was passed to amend the definition of bullying and then also to create some efficiencies where if a particular act of bullying violated multiple laws which had investigative requirements that the school district could conduct just one investigation instead of having to conduct multiple investigations to meet the requirements of all of the different laws that were implied.
We did include some references to Act 565, the Student and Teacher Protection Act, but we more thoroughly addressed that through guidance that was released to school districts, since we did not have specific rulemaking authority on that. And again, happy to answer any questions. Any questions?
Seeing Chairman Dease, you recognize. Thank you again.
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
9:01
so on on this rule related to the bell to bell no cell act with um every district every school district still required is still required to turn in their policy to the department for review that is correct and if they if if they want to change anything in a in the next year they can't do so without submitting another policy for review correct so nothing's changed with that no and And
Speaker 5
9:28
so, for instance, we have had every district submit their policy.
We did have quite a few districts that we felt there
Speaker 6
9:35
were some inconsistencies and corrections that needed to be made. So they are having to take that back to their boards for amendment, and then they will have to resubmit that to us. So every time
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
9:46
a school board has an amendment, it still has to go back to the department for final approval? Correct. Great. Thank you. Any
John Clay
Unverified
9:54
other questions? Seeing no further questions without objection. This rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. Thank you
Next we're going to move to the Department of Health State Board of Pharmacy Gentlemen you can have a seat identify yourselves and you may present the rule Thank you, Mr. Chair.
John Clayirtley
Unverified
10:24
My name is John Clay Kirtley. I'm the director of the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy. Matt
Speaker 39
10:32
Gilmore, Department of Health. In front of you today, you have our section of the Code of Arkansas rules.
There are five topics that we are addressing in this. The first one is regarding practice after inactivity for pharmacists, modeling in many ways after the medical board that there could be appearance before the board to have a plan to return to activity after absence. Second of all is getting rid of some language that would limit ratios to either interns or pharmacy technicians. Combine the two of them to be support staff ratios. There's two different sections that actually address that. Getting rid of some outdated language on the national level about examination scores.
This is no longer a scored exam. It's a pass or fail exam for pharmacists. And then going in and deleting some old, outdated language for CE requirements from the last 20 years as the board had made adjustments to what the CE requirements were. Happy to answer any questions you have. Any questions?
John Clay
Unverified
11:28
Seeing none. Without objection, this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. Thank you for being here.
Members, we're going to move to item D. These are agency requests to be excluded from reporting requirements of Act 595 of 2021. In those instances where an agency believes that a rule is not necessary for the operation of a newly enacted law from the most recent regular session, Act 595 allows the agency to submit a written request notifying the subcommittee of its intent to not adopt the required rule and requesting that the rule be excluded from the agency's monthly written updates on rulemaking.
I believe we have someone from the Oil and Gas Commission of the Department of Energy and Environment. If y'all will go ahead and introduce yourselves and then you can, I guess, present an explanation as to the sought-after exclusion. Good morning. Keisha Morrison,
Speaker 43
12:28
Chief Counsel, Energy and Environment. Lauren Ballard, Chief of Staff, Energy and Environment. And,
John Clay
Unverified
12:34
members, I should have mentioned that this request is in your packet if you want to take a look at that. y'all recognize
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
12:43
to present the request. Thank you. Act 149 was identified on the report of the acts
of the 2025 session that specifically require rulemaking and we believe that rulemaking is not required to implement the act and that is because we cannot fully go through with rulemaking unless and until Arkansas is granted primacy over this class 6 program from the EPA. Happy to take
Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the agency's request for exclusion? We have a
John Clay
Unverified
13:26
motion. Is there a second? Second is our second. All right. We have a motion in a second to approve the agency's request for exclusion all in favor say aye Any opposed the motion passes?
All right, members, that brings us to item E. These are agency updates on the status of outstanding rulemaking from the 2023 regular session. There's no action to be taken. If anybody, I'll call these out. If anybody does have a question and wants to bring one of the departments or agencies to the table, we'll do so. The first is Department of Commerce, Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Any questions?
Second is Department of Corrections. Next, Department of Education. I believe
that's all. Any questions of any of these?
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
14:52
at these rules, because I haven't asked any questions yet,
and looking at these rules, what are we doing with the Consolidated Incentives Act? What are
we changing? Okay, we'll bring somebody up from AEDC up to the table. If
you all will have a seat, identify yourselves, and then you can respond to Senator
Speaker 52
15:19
Love's question. Jake Gwinley, Director of Legislative Affairs, Arkansas Department of
Speaker 54
15:24
Commerce. jennifer emerson deputy director aedc good morning
Speaker 52
15:28
senator to give you an update on the status of
the rulemaking as and as an explanation the act 834 of 2023 amended the consolidated incentives act to include solid waste incinerators and the eligible businesses for the incentives we've amended the accelerator grant program to include those businesses which is the particular incentive being amended there when we went to amend the consolidated incentive act rules we started taking a look the rules are out of date as a whole and they're bloated they mostly restate the statute
so when we went in we started considering a total overhaul of the rules or whether they needed to be repealed in their entirety we didn't want to make a snap judgment though and so we started workshopping with businesses to see what they actually wanted to see in any rules what were ambiguities in the statute that needed to be ironed out. By the time we got through that process, it was in the middle of the legislative session. If we had tried to amend the rules at that point, it would have gone to JBC, and since it wasn't an emergency rule, it would have had to wait until
after the session. During the session, however, we passed two acts that also amended the Consolidated Incentives Act. So we would have had a situation where we amend the rule, and then the rule is immediately out of date and we would have had to do the process again so we're currently doing now is we're working on a total overhaul of the rules and we hope to have something before this body before the end of the year that completely
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:03
revamps the entire thing okay so so
we haven't made any changes as of yet as of yet no sir okay and so this change just includes incinerators that's
correct how many how many program how many incinerators are we talking about statewide or could actually be impacted by this program just to be clear we're
Speaker 54
17:24
still operating under the statute as it was changed to include the incinerators okay the the fact
Speaker 65
17:29
that it's not had has not been included in the rule or we haven't amended the rule has not stopped us from operating the program as it is in statute okay
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:39
so all right so we're still operating as it is how many how many additional
incinerators will we will we be including if we once we change this rule
Speaker 65
17:50
no it's not preventing us from including incinerators that are covered under
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:54
the statute okay all right thank you so that's that's the only that is the
Speaker 67
18:01
only change to this rule as of right now 2025 session we've passed some you
Speaker 65
18:07
guys helped us pass some new acts so we have two more changes that will be taking place and to the program for modernization and automation the corporate headquarters relocation
are also part of the consolidated incentive act so we'll have to add those as well so that was to jake's point why we got to the point of adding the incinerator piece and then we were in the middle of session and thankfully have some new programs to implement and so now we need to add those as well.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
18:40
Okay so I guess here's what I'm trying to understand. You just said that currently the incinerators are covered then we passed a law. So what was the change in the law
because you're saying that we're still operating. We're operating as with
Speaker 65
18:58
have not changed the rules so um we're operating and under the statute we're able to offer these programs um we're just going to have to do a complete overhaul of the rule because it is a very large rule that includes a lot of different programs and we want to make sure that they are watertight and not ambiguous or have contradictory language we want to just make sure that we're covering all of our bases there but we are operating under the statute without having
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
19:26
to change that rule okay and what's the fiscal what's
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
19:36
no fiscal impact on the program at all so then how do
Speaker 67
19:41
we offer an incentive if there's if there's no the these programs
Speaker 65
19:46
require a positive cost-benefit analysis from our department and therefore it is a positive return to the state in order to offer
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
19:56
a question thank you mr. chair I appreciate the explanation that
is helpful and I think there's been a lot of grace and understanding not wanting to have a snap judgment and with a rule changing a law changing before the rule was implemented at the same time it's been 15 months since this law this rule was due and so that doesn't feel like a snap judgment we've we've given 15 months and can you give us some assurance that this delay won't cause any issues with the 2025 changes either because we don't want to be another 15 months past the 2025 deadlines as well so what you said into the year what was
Speaker 52
20:33
your timeline by the end of the year ideally we'll be beginning the rule repeal process very soon the Consolidated Incentives Act uses May language rules are optional here and as we talked with businesses and we looked at the rule itself the rule seems to create more problems than it solves it It limits our options in creating deals with businesses, and it's a situation where the harder we're trying to find things down, the more ambiguities pop up. We believe the statute works well enough on its own, and anything else can be resolved with individualized incentive agreements
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
21:04
with the companies themselves. So one more time, the end-of-the-year time frame would be for the 2023 rule and 25. It would be
both. Yes, sir. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing
John Clay
Unverified
21:22
none, thank you for your testimony. Thank you to all the agencies for being here today. Any other business to come before the committee? Seeing none, we're adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Report from the Executive Subcommittee Concerning Emergency Rules
C. Rules Filed Pursuant to Arkansas Code § 10-3-309
D. Agency Request to Be Excluded from Reporting Requirements of Act 595 of 2021
E. Agency Updates on the Status of Outstanding Rulemaking from the 2023 Regular Session Pursuant to Act 595 of 2021
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
John Clay
Unverified
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 9
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
Speaker 5
John Clayirtley
Unverified
Speaker 39
Speaker 43
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 45
Speaker 47
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 52
Speaker 54
Speaker 65
Speaker 67
Speaker 70