Education Committee - Senate
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Bills discussed (27)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1806
· 6 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…nal. This is not mandatory for the Department of Education, House Bill 1806 will allow DESE to provide an online portal for parents to…”
|
TO PROVIDE CURRICULUM TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS OF KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE TWELVE STUDENTS; AND TO ALLOW … | Vaught | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1312
Act 909
· 4 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “HB1312 Brooks TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUB…”
|
TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003. | Brooks | Notification that HB1312 is now Act 909 |
|
HB1719
Act 905
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “OK, all right. Um, let me see. Representative. You have House Bill 1719. 00, now it's on. Good morning.”
|
TO AMEND THE DAYS INCLUDED IN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF MATERNITY LEAVE DAYS APPROVED BY … | Vaught | Notification that HB1719 is now Act 905 |
|
HB1933
Act 912
· 4 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “HB1933 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOAR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS; AND TO CREATE A … | McCollum | Notification that HB1933 is now Act 912 |
|
HB1966
Act 914
· 3 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1966 Barnett TO AUTHORIZE AN INCORPORATED TOWN OR A CITY OF THE…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE AN INCORPORATED TOWN OR A CITY OF THE SECOND CLASS TO PETITION THE … | Barnett | Notification that HB1966 is now Act 914 |
|
HB1242
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…O PAY FOR INCURRED COSTS FOR APPROVED PAID MATERNITY LEAVE. HB1242 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES A…”
|
TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES ARE COMPENSATED. | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1874
Act 795
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1874 B. McKenzie AN ACT TO AMEND THE USE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOP…”
|
AN ACT TO AMEND THE USE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDING THAT EXCEEDS THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT … | B. McKenzie | Notification that HB1874 is now Act 795 |
|
HB1986
Act 794
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1986 Nazarenko CONCERNING EXCUSED ABSENCES FOR CHILDREN OF FALLE…”
|
CONCERNING EXCUSED ABSENCES FOR CHILDREN OF FALLEN SERVICE MEMBERS AND CHILDREN OF FALLEN FIRST RESPONDERS. | Nazarenko | Notification that HB1986 is now Act 794 |
|
HB1017
Act 904
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ENTARY SCHOOL OR SATELLITE SCHOOL UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS. HB1017 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PAID MATERNITY LEAVE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PAID MATERNITY LEAVE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEES; AND TO REQUIRE … | A. Collins | Notification that HB1017 is now Act 904 |
|
HB1180
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RT CARD TO INCLUDE A STUDENT'S CURRENT READING GRADE LEVEL. HB1180 Bentley TO CREATE THE BABY OLIVIA ACT. SB216 J. Dotson TO A…”
|
TO CREATE THE BABY OLIVIA ACT. | Bentley | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1283
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AND DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Page 2 of 3 HB1283 J. Mayberry TO REQUIRE THE DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECON…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION TO INCLUDE DIGITAL MEDIA STANDARDS IN … | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1370
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORD. HB1370 J. Mayberry CONCERNING MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS; AND TO…”
|
CONCERNING MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS; AND TO REQUIRE A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO INCLUDE … | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1483
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…avis Sen. Jim Dotson REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1483 Gramlich TO ALLOW A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO USE STATE FUN…”
|
TO ALLOW A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO USE STATE FUNDS TO PAY FOR AN ADULT … | Gramlich | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1495
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NTAINS A FOUR-DAY SCHOOL WEEK; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1495 Hawk CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOO…”
|
CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORD. | Hawk | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1684
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…L CALENDAR FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS. HB1684 McAlindon TO CREATE THE PARENTS AND TEACHERS HELPING STUDEN…”
|
TO CREATE THE PARENTS AND TEACHERS HELPING STUDENTS SUCCEED (PATHS) ACT. | McAlindon | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1903
Act 911
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EAVE DAYS APPROVED BY A SCHOOL THAT OFFERS MATERNITY LEAVE. HB1903 Walker TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE TO PROVIDE…”
|
TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE TO PROVIDE SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH FLEXIBILITY REGARDING ALTERNATIVE … | Walker | Notification that HB1903 is now Act 911 |
|
HB1919
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. HB1919 McAlindon TO CREATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ACCESS AND TRANSPAREN…”
|
TO CREATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ACCESS AND TRANSPARENCY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE PUBLIC ACCESS TO … | McAlindon | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1945
Act 913
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TH FLEXIBILITY REGARDING ALTERNATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS. HB1945 McCollum TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CH…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE … | McCollum | Notification that HB1945 is now Act 913 |
|
HB66
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “recognized Senator Murdoch district 9 go ahead House Bill 66 16 1966 excuse me it just”
|
Pre-2017 bill | ||
|
SB205
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…C SCHOOL TO ADOPT A POLICY FOR ONE OR MORE STUDENT MENTORS. SB205 A. Clark TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CH…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL … | A. Clark | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB215
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LOYMENT TAX ACT TO WAIVE THE "REASONABLE ASSURANCE" CLAUSE. SB215 J. Bryant TO AMEND THE PERMISSIBLE USES FOR REAL ESTATE DON…”
|
TO AMEND THE PERMISSIBLE USES FOR REAL ESTATE DONATED BY A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT; AND … | J. Bryant | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB266
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NING POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS. SB266 J. Dotson TO AUTHORIZE A PUBLIC SCHOOL TO ADOPT A POLICY FO…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE A PUBLIC SCHOOL TO ADOPT A POLICY FOR ONE OR MORE STUDENT MENTORS. | J. Dotson | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB436
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E DEVELOPMENT BOARD RELATED TO SECONDARY TECHNICAL CENTERS. SB436 A. Clark TO AMEND THE ABILITY OF A STUDENT WHO TRANSFERS UN…”
|
TO AMEND THE ABILITY OF A STUDENT WHO TRANSFERS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT … | A. Clark | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB482
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CH OR AN ATHLETICS PERSONNEL MEMBER WHO RECRUITS A STUDENT. SB482 K. Hammer TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL…”
|
TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW RELATING TO … | K. Hammer | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB528
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ICE ACT; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT OF 2015. SB528 Gilmore TO ADDRESS THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF S…”
|
TO ADDRESS THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND THE CAREER … | Gilmore | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB607
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…STRICTS; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT OF 2015. SB607 Crowell TO ESTABLISH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL D…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT THAT INITIATES AND MAINTAINS A FOUR-DAY … | Crowell | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SCR3
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…BOARD OF DIRECTORS. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SCR3 J. Scott TO URGE THE ARKANSAS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO P…”
|
TO URGE THE ARKANSAS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT TAX … | J. Scott | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
Machine transcript
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- October 2, 2026
Senator Jane English
Unverified
0:13
way here we don't have a whole lot of time, so, um, uh, Representative
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
0:23
Brooks, would you like to come and present yours, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you committee Keith Brooks, State Representative District 78, uh, this morning I'm bringing to you House Bill 1312. This is the house version of adequacy, so that it matches what the Senate passed out a couple of weeks ago. The only change is that on the last page
we strike through the language relative to $16.5 million for PLCs, uh, and that goes back to the whole discussion about PLCs that we had several months ago with the sole source contract. You'll have another bill coming up 1874 by Representative McKenzie that gives the department the authority to utilize those same exact funds for implementation of LES, which has a number of different meanings to it, but so all we're doing in this House bill is different from the Senate adequacy and striking that language out, and with that, I'm happy to take any questions. He questions from the committee.
Speaker 11
1:18
Anybody in the audience is, oh, Senator Sullivan. Very cough affected. I don't remember our previous discussion. There's no, I mean in terms of removing
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
1:28
that PLC. Well, on this bill in terms of there's no difference in in that cost of that adequacy bill and what you already passed out exact same same
Speaker 15
1:36
bill that's what we didn't add anything or anything,
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:39
OK. OK Anybody in the nobody in the audience speak more against the bill. What is the will of the committee?
The past 2 The 2nd, all they were all pose. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Is that the only one you had?
OK, all right. Um, let me see. Representative. You have House Bill 1719. 00, now it's on. Good morning.
Yeah. 1966. That's you're running 1966.
Speaker 24
2:38
0, you are. OK, I got it. OK. All right, go ahead. I was like, wait, I don't
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
2:46
have 66 here. OK, uh, I'm doing 1719, right? District 87. I know I have to do that for the record. So when we did the 12 weeks paid leave, we
kind of left a little loophole where, um, if you had a baby during Christmas, they counted that as two of your weeks, so I'm gonna use my daughter as the example because this is what happened. She had a baby right before Christmas, and those two weeks of Christmas are not contract days and they're not paid days. But they use that as two of her weeks of her 4 weeks that she could do actually at her school for paid leave. That's how many weeks they do is 4. So she didn't get paid for the two
weeks of the maternity leave that they counted against her plus she had to pay back into insurance for those 2 weeks. So what we're doing is we're just saying if it falls within day one to the last day of the contract, you have a baby and there's any kind of spring break, fall break. whatever that might be, Christmas break, those days would be now considered paid days where they aren't already by contract. Um, so that doesn't include
summer because we're saying from day one to day 178 or 190, whatever the contract days are, um, that would be when this could take place. And that's what the bill does. Doesn't add weeks, doesn't add days. It just makes sure
that they get paid for their paid. Maternity leave. Are the questions from the committee. Motion No one in the audience to speak for against the bill.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
4:33
Have a motion on the floor right here a second. All in favor, all pose. Thank you
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
4:46
very much. Thank you so much. Can I do the next one that's. Yes, ma'am. It's a short, simple bill that is optional. This is not mandatory for the Department of Education, House Bill 1806 will allow DESE to provide an online portal for parents to review the textbooks in use and their children's classroom, a parent
or a guardian would be able to use an online portal to search by district, grade, and classroom to find the view, find and view the textbooks in their children's classrooms. I read that twice, sorry. They could view. summaries of the entire content as desired HB 1806 will allow for the online portal to give parents and guardians access to view library materials at their students' library. Library materials would be made available to review as well with
an opt-out option available for parents to opt out for their student to select certain books. Um, there was Some questions around copyright, the content and the textbooks would be available through an extension of user rights of the school related to the copyright, um. Ease of implementation, the books are pulled by the ISBN number to allow ease and implementing the portal for all
schools, a simple list of the books they use, they are using would allow vendors, not one vendor but vendors to identify by ISBN number, the textbook content that should be made also available, um, this is a May, it's not a show because we didn't find money right now to fund it. Uh, so we changed the word to if there is, if there is money available, then we can maybe be
fund this. So with that, I'll try to answer questions. I may have to look to
Senator Jane English
Unverified
6:42
someone to come to the table and help me if that's fine. Are there questions from
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
6:49
the committee? Senator Sullivan. So if it's May, Why do we need
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
6:54
a law to do that. So we would like to get this implemented as soon as we can find the money to do it because we do believe that it would help um parents see and be able to view what their children's
textbooks are presenting or library books are presenting. We've done a lot of, you know, with library and textbooks and trying to shore up some things that people are allowing to be seen within their libraries, and I believe that this would go hand in hand with that, sir. And there's got to
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
7:24
be a cost to doing this. Do we know the cost the fiscal impact? The 1.5.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
7:40
The fiscal impact would be if it was a shell 1.5. OK, yeah, she said there's companies that can do it for
less just depending on the vendors. Did I get the number right, Senator
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
8:01
Davis. Thank you because I don't have it with me anymore. Senator Davis Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the fiscal impact says 1 to 2.5 million, but I'm wondering, it says shall 3 times
throughout this bill, so I was just sort of it says an online portals required. And then it says, um, Dessie shall establish and maintain and then the portal required by subdivision of this section shall provide and so I'm just wondering if it's. Um Can I have Somebody from the department. There you go.
Speaker 47
8:53
Greg Rogers, Department of Education. Um, so when we first did it, it
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
8:57
did have the shells in there, but then when it was amended that if funding is available, so unless funding is designated and found for these, there's two different sections that I think that. The implementation clause is to start it, uh, in 2026. There's amended to say if funding is available, and then there's another section in there too that said if funding is available, so with those two clauses there unless funding is
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
9:24
designated for this, we wouldn't begin to implement it until that time. Go ahead. Thank you, ma'am. OK, so can you help me understand how school districts are going. This feels like a really heavy lift for districts to put in every single book, like I just think of librarians
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
9:47
and So that I think that would it would depend on which vendor was selected and how it would be used, which is one of the
reasons why we said if funding is available because that's why when you saw the, the range there from 1 to $2.5 million would be whichever vendor was selected, how they go about doing those books so they have someone from the vendor that comes in and works with the library. Is it on the librarian itself. A lot of those questions would have to be answered whichever contractor they were used, which is why you see that range in the physical impact, and another reason why it was, but if I is available because then we have to be established which contractor was and how it would be processed.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
10:31
Um, and then would a parent, so it says if a parent can opt out. I mean, currently we get forms from the school district that allow us to sign to like opt out of personal classroom libraries with the teacher, um, or whatever, but So is there like a form then that you just like if I, if I'm online and I see I'm searching through, you know, 1000 book titles, and I say I don't want my kid to have access to this book or this book or this book, then is the librarian keeping up with a folder or something, like every time my child tries to
check a book out and maybe it's the book that I
Speaker 49
11:06
said they couldn't check out and then That I don't, I don't know because once again it would depend on
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
11:12
the vendor and how they do that, I wouldn't know that. OK, the chair, may I please have Austin come to the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
11:24
table because I think that's stuff he can answer.
Speaker 56
11:27
You'll identify yourself, you'll be recognized. Austin Grinder, Mul Nixon Associates. I can tell you how
Speaker 57
11:32
one vendor does it. I I imagine most of them are, are pretty similar, um, it's by ISBN number, and so they already have a library system that allows them to check out certain books, um, and whenever a parent says I don't want this book to be checked out, then that would integrate with their current library system and they would flag it when they try to check something out. Are there other questions?
Senator Jane English
Unverified
12:10
Is there anybody in the audience to speak for against the bill.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
12:30
What is the will of the committee? Are you closed for your bill? Senator Murdoch? Sorry about that. Quick question, I think it's been answered, but it won't be a cost to the district. It's not a mandated an unfunded mandate. It will be funded and then the
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
12:40
district could implemented after it's being funded. Yes, sir, if we find the money, yes sir, it would. Yeah. Yes, thank
Speaker 73
12:59
you. Davis, do you have another question? What's the will of the committee? By her 2nd.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
13:11
Don't hear a second. Yes, committee, OK, let me see who is, oh, Senator Murdoch,
did you have this one bill you're gonna run house Bill 1966.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
13:42
If you identify yourself, you'll be recognized. Senator Murdoch, District 9. Go ahead. How's 16, 1966, excuse me. It
just gives authority to a city of the second class to petition the state board, uh, for a establishment of a local public elementary school or satellite school. So if the receiving district and the the town agree in a town that's been consolidated say within the last
20 years, then you can have if, if everybody agrees, you can have a Uh, you can petition the state board, so it's just an allowance to petition the state board.
In many communities you've had consolidation and but they still have facilities or may have facilities they can
use like for the elementary school or some part of the educational process. This allows them just to petition.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
14:44
Senator Dawson Thank you, Madam Chair. So it's a petition to The State Board of Education and then the state board
Speaker 86
14:56
would establish a school district. No, no, no,
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
14:59
no, no, no, no, the state, the local, the local board and the and the in the city, a second class or whatever class, they will make an agreement and they will petition the state board. Oh, so you got a little town in your district, uh, used to have a school there, maybe elementary
school, and they have the facility there and there and they've been consolidated with the school district, the larger school district, and a larger school district. want to allow them to have that elementary school in their community. This, this will be a petition to allow it. And it helps the small community have some life still quite honestly, it could be twofold and allow the cuts down on the travel for children traveling on buses in rural areas, so, so this could work if everything works out, but this, this is
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
15:45
just allows a petition to do this. A petition so would they still be part of the district is just a petition to allow for a single elementary school or maybe junior high or high school, whatever, but, but a single public school still remains, so not creating a new school, no, no, no, just establishing a building in that local community in that
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
16:11
community, yes. Can that board of directors not already do this?
No, not without a petition that I obviously, I guess they need they need to go through
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
16:22
a process. This process allows them to do that. I mean, I, I guess I was under the impression that a school district Could Build a school anywhere within their footprint. Or have a school open a school if there's sufficient. Populace in that area. Without having to go through a petition process, I mean,
wouldn't that be, hey, I just talked to your school board members and say, hey, we'd like to
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
16:54
see you allocate the funds, our direction. My understanding is that what makes this unique is the agreement with the with the with the city of that of that class so that city is participating say even the city have a facility. Say, say the school district don't have one, but the facility has a Community center or an old Army National Guard building or something that they want to
utilize in their community and they can work the agreement out and it makes sense and the school and then the state board ultimately approves. The the union. So this is just them being able to make application to the state board for such an occurrence, and it just helps smaller communities to be vibrant and cuts down on travel and rural districts possibly. All right, thank you. Thank you. So we're basically saying that
Senator Jane English
Unverified
17:50
A community schools have been kind of consolidated into a school district. So what you're proposing is that a community out that's in that school district, but away from where we consolidated the schools has the option of Setting up a school in a community. Yes,
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
18:08
ma'am, so a real example in
say a school district, say like West Memphis and Hughes. I don't know if y'all familiar with the Delta. I'm sorry, but let's just say
distance. The school is maybe 25, 30 miles from that community, but inside the community who used to have a school district, then there are facilities there that are still usable for this particular case or the city has facilities. other cases that are usable and so they're still under the same school district. Everything is still the same. It's just Cuts down on travel, gives that city an educational institution that they can use don't, you don't
waste the building a facility, so it's just something
that could possibly be good, a win-win, if the state
Senator Jane English
Unverified
18:58
board approves it. So what would that do for the um all the the costs for the district now, if, if you've got a a new uh building
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
19:05
that they have to maintain and no, no, no, the agreement is that the facility it won't be no cost
to the district that they'll work that out but but with this allows for is the city. Input. If the city in the school district could make it work, so there's no, it's all of that
receiving district is that existing district if they want this. This is not a mandate on a district. This gives a district an opportunity to do
Senator Jane English
Unverified
19:31
this. So it would really be the the city's responsibility then for the maintenance
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
19:34
it'll be an agreement to build a way to be is written. It will be an agreement between the city and that district. If they can't come to agreement, say it doesn't make sense. The facility isn't too bad a shape or the cost is too much, then the district just not don't make the petition. The district will make the petition.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
19:56
Yeah, it's it's an agreed upon solution if
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
20:06
it works for everybody. Are there questions from the Senator Davis. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this sounds like a great solution to let especially young kids, elementary kids, not sit on a bus for long periods of time and um let him go to school there in their community where facilities facilities are available and still usable and it really sounds like, um, a community agreement, them coming
together to say this is what's best for our kids here and, you know, we'd like to support that and have
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
20:40
them close to home. Would you agree? I totally agree. Senator Dodson. Thank you, Madam Chair. So just Going back through, I think I understand. The bill, your intent and everything like that, um. But there's two different words that are used here when I'm referring to districts. One is receiving.
And the other is affected. So it seems almost as if
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
21:03
there's two different districts involved. No, it's the same district, the receiving district
and the affected district is the same thing. So what is the receiving it's I didn't have the way the intent like as you said, we're talking about one district if you're under the Springdale School District
and they're receiving and they're affected and when they're affected maybe the context of affected um within the last meaning the
affected district is the say in this case. The district that was consolidated, you look at online. Line 5 on page 2. Affect the district resulted in a consolidated consolidation within the last 20 years from the effective date of the section. So the affected district is the previous district. So this was a
school district. It could have been a
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
21:51
school district. So it affected school district is the one that doesn't exist anymore and the receiving is the one that is existing right now
Senator Jane English
Unverified
22:01
that clears it up. Thank you. Thank you. Are there other questions from the committee. Are
Speaker 111
22:17
you closed for a bill? I'm closed the motion to pass. Anybody
Senator Jane English
Unverified
22:21
in the audience? Oh. That are solden. Oh, OK, OK. Nobody in the audience speak for or against the bill. We have a motion on the floor in a second. All in favor. All opposed Thank you very much. You passed
Speaker 94
22:31
your bill. OK, let me see, uh. else have we got in
Senator Jane English
Unverified
22:41
here. Oh, Senator Ervin, are you here? Yes, you want to come and do your bill? Which one is that?
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
23:06
1943, 1933, 1933. Yes, ma'am. House Bill 1933 for Representative Austin McCullen.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
23:21
Yes. OK, go ahead. Thank you. Um, I'm Senator Missy Irvin, District 24 need a copy of the bill. Um, I think I've got notes. I think I'll be OK unless y'all ask me questions and then I'll need a copy of the bill.
OK. Um, so, uh, Representative McCollum is bringing forward this bill which is uh it's really about accountability for school boards and setting up a process. Um, where there is a recall, the ability to recall a member from a school board. What this bill does it just provides that level of voter engagement and thank you and accountability, um, and sets up a process that's very similar to um to what you have for mayors, city council members, and other local
officials that can be recalled and school board members should be helped to that same standard, um, this the process ensures that if a board member loses public trust, then voters have a mechanism to hold them accountable, him or her accountable. Um, school boards are not independent constitutional entities. They are their authority is delegated by statute, and so it is proper for us to utilize statute in order to make any policy changes to school boards, um, the state, uh,
you know, has that there are some safeguards in the bill. The bill requires a high threshold, which is 35% of eligible voters. Signing a petition before a recall election may even take place preventing abuse from that situation. It does limit recall petitions to one per elected term and balancing stability and leadership with the voter accountability and the recall election aligns with the next school board election, preventing any unnecessary special elections or costs, so,
uh, that's the bill in a synopsis. It's just providing a process and a pathway to have a recall. like we do very similarly for other locally elected officials. Are
Senator Jane English
Unverified
25:23
there questions from the committee? Senator Solomon.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
25:30
So if uh if one, if the vote passes and the school board member is removed.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
25:41
Then it's not an appointment. There's an election to fill that spot, correct? Um Well, actually, so yes, that there so if there is a petition in this um and this goes through and somebody is removed and a vacancy is created, then the vacancy then would follow the policy that we actually just passed in my other bill that came through here and off the
house floor. So that vacancy then would be determined by, um, the school board directors. the board of directors themselves would choose, but they would follow that public process that we outlined in my
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
26:24
other bill. Help me out. I'm not, I don't guess I'm following, so you, you have a vacancy. Some is out is
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
26:34
that vacancy filled by appointment? No, it's, it's
filled by, it's filled by the school board of directors, so the board of directors meet, so
we outlined in the other bill a process to fill that vacancy, which would be to um that, uh, they would let people know that this has taken place and, uh, then they would fill that vacancy, um, unless it happens at an election time when the the elections for the school boards are happening already. So, so it could be either one. It could be, it could be they could be elected during the normal time that we have a school board election for that
vacancy, which is the most ideal situation, but if it happened in the off time, then,
Speaker 10
27:20
um. Then it would, it would follow the other appointments, whoever was, and I'm going to call it appointed the board select somebody to fill that vacancy. Often
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
27:27
they're not allowed to run in the general election. Would they be allowed to run, so they're going to be appointed. By a board and then they can
run again they're eligible to run in the election or not. Um, on my last pill, yes.
Speaker 134
27:46
There's no, there's nothing barring them from running. That I'm aware of. Senator Johnson, did you have a question? No, no, we did an answer. I can pull it up. any other questions from the committee?
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
28:16
Senator King. Thank you, Madam Chair. First, are we going to be meeting at 10 again or is this? Or 10:30. We're going to meet at 10. OK, OK, so I mean just to We don't have recall elections for our races or governor any of the others, do we? Do we have a recall, we don't have recall elections, do we, for senator and rep?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:47
Maybe I'm missing some. Um, we do for their city council, uh, there is a process for city council and for mayors. Um, state offices are constitutional. We're constitutional offices. We're not created by a statute. These are created by statutes,
Speaker 147
29:17
so there's a difference there, and that's why. This is like the recall
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
29:28
us we had to change. Correct, yes sir. Senator Bryant. Thank you, Madam
Speaker 125
29:34
Chair. Did you cover who pays for the cost? I'm sorry. Who pays for
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
29:39
the cost. Um, so it would just, uh, any. That to eliminate any cost, there's no special election. It would just it would just either have a vacancy and then a
vacancy would be appointed, um, by that process or they would just wait until the next Uh, election for school board. But the cost of the petition, I, I don't think that there's a there's a cost really to voters having the ability to do a petition. I mean, there may be some costs, but I don't, it's not a cost to the state. So
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
30:12
they, they turn in the, they turn in the valid signatures. And then
That position becomes vacant. On the next cycle. As if
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
30:28
they recall a successful. With the recall it would require a vote. The, the recall process as it's outlined allows for A vote and yes, and then that would happen at the next school board election. We're not, we're
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
30:40
not recalling so if it's a 4 year term and after 1 year, you know.
Petitions go up, come back to say we're going to vacate that position the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
30:55
next election, even though it's typically 4 years or 6 years. Do you mind if Gary Newton, can you come and discuss that. I apologize. Let me have him. He was present also with the um health. discussion.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
31:12
I apologize I just maybe a fact a fact scenario type situation or scenario.
Gary Newton
Unverified
31:21
You know, identify yourself Gary Newton with Arkansas Learns what you said is correct. The the recall would happen in an election. The board would then appoint. The person to fill the vacancy and the replacement would be in the next school board election. So at a maximum it could be a two-year period that the appointee could serve. But with the new bill 1724 that's just been enacted. There are now 4 and 6-year terms.
So if the person's automatically up in the next 2 years
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
31:58
there'll be no need for a recall. OK, so so they had just won a 4-year term. And then one year later. Somebody gets frustrated and gets signatures and they turn that into the clerk that Person that was voted in a year ago would have to vacate that position and the board would put somebody else in until the next regular scheduled. That would, that's correct in this scenario the recall is not a vote of the people, it's a
signature campaign. No, there would be a recall election. 35% is simply the threshold to get it on the ballot. So the recall election if it's not a regularly scheduled election. Is there any time that they would have to pay for a special election or the recall election also would only be in
Gary Newton
Unverified
32:39
a school board election. I got it. Thanks. Other other question, Senator Murdoch.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
32:51
Yes Thank you, Madam Chair. Just make sure I got the timeline
right, so if in year one of a 4-year term, someone has recalled the petition is executed. They're recalled. Then how long are you saying they still stay in that seat.
Gary Newton
Unverified
33:10
The recall has been executed. Right? The recall is not executed until the election. So just because they meet the threshold of 35% from the previous election. That simply gets it on the ballot for the next school board election. If, if the election is
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
33:27
successful, that is when they're removed. So I'm just trying to find the effectiveness of such of this if I'm if I'm understanding correctly. If we get if the community has determined someone to be ineffective. And but the bill that's so the the the the the board, the sitting board does not have the ability to make an immediate Uh, immediate replacement appointment, excuse me. And if I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying.
Gary Newton
Unverified
33:58
Is that, am I correct? No, sir. That's why the, the 35% gets it on the ballot if the voters then decide to remove
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
34:08
that. No, no, before the ballot, before the ballot. Before the, no one is removed until there's an election. So there's so, OK, until there's an election or appointment. No, sir. The, the
Gary Newton
Unverified
34:22
35% simply gets it on the ballot to vote whether or not to remove the person.
The elected official if the voters by a majority decide to remove the elected official, then the vacancy provision comes in and the board appoints a replacement. But not until the people
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:41
vote. So it, it, it's just a matter of time of when the school board election would
be set, so if they were in a 2 year or 4-year, I'm not sure how often school board elections occur, but they're not
Speaker 165
34:54
every single year. In the new bill, their every preferential primary. Every preferential primary, so it's every 2 years.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
35:03
So it could be that they would be still in their position, but they wouldn't be removed until an
Speaker 159
35:09
election of the people. Well, They are removed if the people vote to remove them, they're immediately
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
35:17
removed and then the board. OK, you said some immediately that's, that's where I'm trying to get to the immediate. What moves removes
Gary Newton
Unverified
35:28
him immediately. The people's decision, a majority of the votes voting on the ballot to remove.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
35:35
This person but there won't be an election except for every 2 years, that is every 2 years. So then you could be left with a. A situation. So then you
have that person. Still on your board. Or people once the people vote to remove them, they're removed and the board then replaces them, you know, you don't understand what I'm
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
35:57
saying. I understand what you're saying. So if you get your 35% threshold of petition signatures like in
Um, October, you can't execute that that until the election, yes, until the election. So yes, they would be still on that board serving until the election occurred, but the election occurs at the same time as the other, so there's not the cost of a
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
36:23
special election. No, I understand that. I was just dealing with the timing and the concern would be once you you've um. Alienated if you will that person or named publicly that person and if that person isn't
depending on what the situation is. It could just be more egregious for that body if whereas generally, um, well, I don't even know how the recall go. I just, my concern would be once that done, the time period in between execution, if that's the right word. Or application maybe. Thank you.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
37:09
Are there any other questions from the committee, Senator Dawson. Thank you, Madam Chair. So
I'm just trying to think through the timeline just so if someone has a 4 year term. And this is This is exercised in the first year of that 4-year term. But according to Bill on page 3. Lines Uh, 9 through 12. It talks about
if the school board election is less than 60 days after the petition is certified by the county clerk to recall election be shall be held at the next school board election following the next school board election. So, so say. I guess it wouldn't be exactly in the first year. It'd be in the 2nd year right before the, the Right before the end of that uh that last 60 days. So if somebody gets that, then they won't be.
On that election. that immediate election right then it'll be 2 years. And 60 days or 2 days, 2 years and 50 days say away, that may be the end of their term already. Well,
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
38:26
they would, they would have like maybe one year they maybe would have one year left of that term.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
38:38
I'm, I'm trying to think through scenarios. I mean,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
38:43
I, and I, you know, I think with the other bill that came through it was either they're either a 4 or a 6 year term. If I recall, they, they have the option of 4 6-year terms with the the school boards. I'm trying to think through how that would work if they if that district only had a 4-year term, and it's within that 60 day time period, then they would be on the ballot already. At the same time they're being removed from the ballot. In that scenario if they had a 4
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:13
year term. I mean, obviously there's all kinds
of scenarios that we could fill out here, and I'm not going to be, I mean, I don't have a crystal ball and can't predict that, but I think the idea behind the policy is what I need to, I think, to be focused on is that you have a recall process in place that gives a greater level of accountability from school board members to the public. And I think that's what we're trying to achieve here is having a recall process and a recall
policy that provides a greater amount of accountability and, and I think, you know, being able to, I think what they were trying to avoid was any unnecessary cost to call a special election, and I respect that. However, it does create the scenarios that you're talking about that could play out as far as, you know, you're leaving somebody in. plays probably longer than desirable, um, but right now you have no other option, so they're
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
40:15
just there I think this is This is a
very Very good concept bill that I liked and supported, especially when there's annual school board elections because you wouldn't run into that situation, yes, that's right, until I was just thinking through it as I was sitting here, the timing of it, they might be on the ballot. Annual school board elections they wouldn't. They'd be, you know, they were 5-year terms, they'd be out there 5 years. You'd just be coming up the next,
yeah, but a 6 year term this probably wouldn't be the scenario, but if it's a 4-year term, they might. on the ballot. Twice, once to remove and once for reelection at the
Speaker 181
40:58
same time. Um, anyway, just Thank you. Yeah, I have a question
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
41:04
further than that. No, I understand. I think the idea behind it is a policy, a policy for accountability and the ability to recall somebody. If you have
that ability and the voters have that ability to recall somebody. I think it, it provides more accountability for the person that's serving in that role to say, hey, I'm accountable to these people. They could recall me, you know, and no matter how that timeline plays out. If I'm that person, I don't want to be recalled, so I need to be able to be more accountable to the people that I'm supposed to be representing. I'll talk to them, take their phone calls, let them engage on the process. And, and I think that's the idea
behind this policy. I think it's tricky, very, very tricky because of the elections and exactly what Senator Murdock was talking about and how those things could play out. I mean it would be great if we were able to execute the petition immediately, especially if it's somebody who's really egregious in what they're doing. I like that idea, but then, you know, you bear the cost of the special election. So I mean, you know, and who pays for that and, and I think those are the. and kind of the the policy ideas
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
42:17
that you're trying to weave through. Senator Murdoch, thank you. Madam Chair, along those lines, Senator Irvin, why not just do an appointment for that immediate
situation allow for an appointment under the appointment rules that you had in
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:43
that 17. Uh, well, I mean, that's just a vacancy occurs, you know, for
somebody who may resign or for whatever other purpose. If you, if you were able to execute on that petition immediately, then you would have to call a special election. And then who would pay for that because the petition process itself doesn't remove the person. It just says we don't like you and we want to be able to vote to remove you. So, um, So you would have to have a special election, which would incur cost that either this, well, I guess the school board
or the county would have to pay for, and I think that's what the bill sponsors trying to avoid any special election
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
43:28
costs or the designation or need for a special election. And in other recall situations with other elected positions that allow for recall currently it is only done upon an election. It's not done upon a
threshold met the threshold is just 4, an election, so that's consistent with this here. I believe that's correct. I think
I was, I was thinking that the threshold is enough to take action, but the threshold just gets it to the people, to the people.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:56
It's been a it's been a A few years since I chaired City County Local, so I'm not sure if I can remember all of that. Are there
Senator Jane English
Unverified
44:04
any further questions from the committee. So anybody in the audience
to speak for or against the bill.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:14
Not Are you closed? Yes, I, I know. I really appreciate, uh, all of the, um,
input and questions. I think at the end of the day, it's deciding do we want to have a policy for a recall process or not and what value that brings to the table, I would argue that it does bring value to the table, uh, even some of the scenarios that play out, you know, could, you know, leave somebody in that position longer than desirable, but I think the overall effect of having to recall policy. is a good thing just for accountability, uh, for from school board members to the people that they're supposed to
be representing, so, um, I think it's a good bill for that and I would appreciate your consideration
Speaker 12
45:01
and and a good vote. So I'm closed. What is the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
45:06
will of the committee? We have motion in a in a second on paper. All post Thank you, you passed your bill. OK, let me see here we have um. They time. Beg pardon? Yeah, we've got
Julie Mayberry's right behind you too. Be fast. OK. All right. Um That's raincoat but
Speaker 190
45:37
come quickly. Julie will take you. Good job on the
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
45:42
man. Thank you Madam Chair and committee. Uh, Jason, as Representative Jason Nazranco, House District 4. It's Marion County and parts of Baxter County. Uh, excited to bring you House Bill 1986 today, as you see, it addresses the absences for children have
fallen, uh, service members as well as fallen first responders, so this, this bill is brought to me by the veterans Arkansas Veterans Coalition, as well as the Hearts of our heroes, which is a group that deals with individuals who have dealt with tragic loss and my good friend Sherry Briley, who also told me about this quite a few months. back or possibly even a year ago uh letting me know that it was coming, so I was very excited when I heard about it. I have a huge connection with this. I'll tell you a quick story about, uh back in uh back in, in my
days when, when losing a service member, seeing what those children go through when that loss of that service member came about, uh, sitting behind them in a memorial service watching them weep with their mother just having to comfort them. That's the children that this is focusing on focusing on, as I said, service members and phones, uh, as well as, um, those of first responders. So as you can see in the bill, it has to do with uh excuse absences for certain considerations. Those certain considerations are if they're going to sponsored organizations which can be found
on the resource page for military family engagement on the Department of Education. There are some requirements that the parents have to submit or parents or guardians have to submit in order for them to attend those events, and there's also a safeguard in place for the children to be able to complete any schoolwork that's required during that time that they're gonna miss as well as that they can't miss during any time of standardized testing, so a very good bill that's going to offer something great for our fallen soldier or school
children as well as those first responders. With that, I'll stop
Speaker 12
47:31
and answer any questions that anyone has. Questions
Speaker 192
47:37
from the committee. Senator Sullivan. What is there a
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
47:40
definition of what is a fallen law enforcement or does that mean in the line of
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
47:46
duty, it would, sir. That's what it would be focusing on is that written down somewhere? It's not written in there. It gives the definition of the children or the student, uh, and how they
fall in line with a with a family that they have to
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
48:02
be actually connected. You can see that on page one. Yeah, so if you have a service member who dies in an auto accident. As a result of filling the blank, they would still qualify even though it wasn't in line in their line of
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
48:16
duty. They could, sir, but you know the intent of it is focusing on those tragic loss instances where like Gary Sinise's foundation Snowball Express, what they do is they bring those children together that have gone through that experience,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
48:30
I understand it's just not written down. It's not in the law that they would be excused other children who have traumatic losses also, uh, time a child loses a parent. It's a traumatic loss. And I get it it's just
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
48:50
not written down. Thank you. Senator Bryant I'm OK with the language. I think fallen service member captures in the line of duty. Regardless of the case, so I
think the case could be made that if we're falling as a service member they've fallen during
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
49:05
the line of duty. And one of the, you know, on that note, Senator Bryant, the one
word that used to be used or kind of the narrative or the the definition would have been gold star children or Gold Star families, and you're probably more familiar with Gold Star, uh, that was the intent as we're focusing on Gold Star, but because of saying gold star, you'd be leaving out first responders and so that way we're trying to capture and that that was that language. chose to use was fallen service
Senator Jane English
Unverified
49:31
members and fallen first responders. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee? Is there anybody in the audience to speak for against
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
49:46
the bill. Say none. Are you closed? Yes, ma'am. I'm closed for the bill, and I asked for a good vote and appreciate everyone's support and
Senator Jane English
Unverified
49:51
questions, but it's the will of the committee to pass? Do I hear a 2nd 2nd all in favor, all post, thank you very much. Thank
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
50:14
you. Thank you. OK. Mainzie there we go. If it's all right, chairwoman, it would be OK if I have Senator Davis
as well as the number 1874. As well as Secretary come
Senator Jane English
Unverified
50:27
if possible. OK. If you all would identify yourselves, you'll be
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
50:32
recognized. Britt McKenzie, state representative, District 7, Rogers, Arkansas. Brian Davis,
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
50:36
State Senate District 25. Jacob Oliva, Arkansas Department
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
50:39
of Education. Go ahead Thank you chairman. Thank you
committee. I'm here today to present House Bill 1874. This is a companion piece of legislation that just that goes well with the adequacy bill that Chairman Brooks just presented and passed to this committee. This is the only supplemental to the adequacy bill that is necessary over the last 4 terms. We have run this supplemental with the dollar amount as well as a specific um uh defined clause that the money goes to for professional development that defined clause is professional learning communities. Over the past 18 months we've
learned well what professional learning communities really mean. It's a statewide contract with a single source vendor, um, and since the last time we met as a legislature, the RFP process has happened. That vendor has fallen out of the RFP process, um, the secretary and his folks at the Department of Education have done well to make sure those professional development monies go in block grants out to individual districts as they see fit as well as cooperatives. What this bill does is it comes back in and it removes that. dollar amount and sets a to the
maximum of language they line on him an adequacy for supplemental funds and what we're now saying is for the implementation of LEs, and I'll let the secretary go into more depth about that, but specific to the uh the rigors we've now put into um learns for literacy and numeracy, as well as professional development, and before the secretary goes, I'll say this professional development is funded, even with this bill to the tune of $41 per student, um, what the 16.5 million represented previously was Top Hat professional development
money, so money on top of money that this the department would go out and and uh fund a specific program that was wide reaching to the entire state. Every district that's represented at this table will still have professional development dollars, professional learning communities will still exist in your home districts. It's kind of a ubiquitous term. It's similar to when you go buy a soda drink from a fast food restaurant. We call it a Coke. Professional learning communities are ubiquitous to what teachers need for professional. Development, um, this in in the way that we would change this
Speaker 211
52:47
bill does not change how your districts operate. So Secretary. Sure, thank you and thank you for doing a great job, um, explaining the background. So there is a current categorical in our line item funding to support professional learning historically, a percentage of that categorical was earmarked for the implementation of professional learning communities. We've still been honoring that expectation as a state that that first half of the dollars, it's about uh $37
million appropriation about the first chunk of that still goes. to the district on a per student basis so that the district has the flexibility and autonomy to look at professional learning that works best for them instead of earmarking the second half to do a statewide contract, we can do an innovative approach to make sure we're tailoring and customizing the support that teachers need unique to the students in the strategies that they wanna hone in on to better serve their students with learns implementation as we've
implemented a statewide unified coordinated progress wiring system. Districts are able to pull down data in real time and look at how they may wanna support uh the learning that happens, uh, with their professional development with the teachers to make sure that they're targeting students that they need, so, um, this would allow the districts to have access to more funds to better meet their
Speaker 213
54:09
unique ability and needs. I hate to stop you all, but
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:11
it is. 9 o'clock and we have to stop for budget. Because budgets going on. I'm closed.
You're closed to take questions right here quickly. Questions from
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:26
the community. I think there's, I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was anyone to speak up for or against the bill when I told you it
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:35
want to pause and come back. Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea.
Speaker 221
54:46
Hopefully we'll be back by 9:30. Thank you. Yeah.
Unknown speaker
54:52
We're going to recess until budget is complete.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:31:27
We are returned from recess. Senator Davis. Representative McKenzie, I'd like
Speaker 225
1:31:32
to move on with your bill. Thank you, Madam Chair. Banne
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:31:40
Davis, State Senate District 25. Britt McKenzie District 7, Rogers, Arkansas, and
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
1:31:44
I think we're to the is there anybody to speak for
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:31:47
or against the bill? Yes. Oh, he might need that right here. And I think we have somebody to
speak against the bill, Representative, would you like to seat at the table. And identify yourself and
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:32:11
you'll be recognized. There you go. Thank you, Madam Chair. State Representative John
Eubanks, District 46. I wasn't, I wasn't paying attention last week when this bill came to the floor, but I thought about it all weekend and
Whereas nobody has asked me to come and speak against this bill as someone that has been engaged with the professional learning communities from its very inception. I just, I felt compelled that I needed to come and share some information with the committee, and I know that many of you have heard what I've had to say in the past, uh, I spent 10 years on a school board and one of the biggest complaints I ever got was we start a program.
And then in a few years somebody else has another idea or they want to spend that money in a different direction, and we change. You know, when we started this program, it started under Speaker Gillan, and he sent a group of legislators to a solutions tree conference in Phoenix, Arizona. And there were 1500 educators there that Weren't any legislators. There had never been any legislators attend one of their conference.
What I witnessed was an educators that felt like they were doing something that was really starting to change outcomes for students. They were, they were closing the achievement gap. It was concentrated to begin with in areas where it was a high minority, high poverty populations in the schools. A We came back. Legislation was written to fund a pilot program.
That that because there was no emergency clause on that bill. There was, it was a need to do a special procurement, and that's how Solution Tree was initially chosen. The It was a $4 million appropriation for that first year. We didn't even know if anybody would apply. To participate in this program, but We did. We had the, the state had a lot of schools and then they went through the process to choose which schools could
participate, and that continued each year. We increased the amount until we've gotten up to, I think, the current amount is 16 $17 million so that they could have a cohort, and each cohort is 3 years. The school has to commit for 3 years that they are going to participate in this program. I don't The data that solution tree or the Department of Education has supplied it in meetings over the years as to whether this is a
success or not. What I'm basing my feelings on and my opinion are the statements that I've gotten from teachers and administrators that have had this. I had the superintendent from Mountainer telling me this is the best. Professional development that the state of Arkansas has ever provided, and if and if we hadn't started doing this in our school, I would have retired and I heard that from other educators as well. Uh, I had one district in in my house district
that applied and participated in the program. It's a little school magazine that, you know, 40 500 students tops. And they saw significant increases in in achievement for their students. The teachers loved it. I went over and met with them because it was right in my district, but I've heard this multiple times from educators across the state when we were having the discussion with regard to the most recent RFP. We had, we had teachers, we had a group from McGee that
drove all the way up just to testify about how good this program was for them. You know, I don't know what the if this is going to change anybody's mind on the committee or not, but having been involved in this since the very beginning and actually seeing what the results are and hearing it from the educators themselves. I'm still convinced that this is a way we need to go if we want to close the achievement gap if we
want to serve the needs of kids that are in poverty. I know that with learns there's other demands on the budget, and I understand that people are looking for money to help fund some of those things, but, uh, I personally believe that this is something that ought to continue. I didn't agree with the business decision that Solution Tree made when they dropped out of the RFP. But I understand it. An audit
had been asked for at a drug on for some time, uh the the the hearing for and review on the on the contrary contract itself was Contentious, heated, and they felt like their reputation was being damaged and they were not only in the United States but they work internationally as well, so they made that decision. Like I said, I didn't agree with it, but it was made, and then it forced the department to have to come up with
alternative plan. Having a list of qualified vendors at the schools themselves could choose from. Uh I still firmly believe in it. I still think it's the way we need to move our state forward. Back in December I was at the lighting of the menorah, and I met a young man there. He was Jewish. He'd just moved to Arkansas to take a position.
And he had moved down from Illinois, and he introduced his mother and father and his younger brother were there and they were just bragging on how a hospitable the people in the South are, and I said, Well, move. And the mother says, we can't. The younger son was in a she said it's a he's in high school and it's the 2nd highest performing high school in the United States. It's called Adelaide. Stevenson High School, and
that's where Professional learning communities began, and that was where Dr. Rick Defoer was the superintendent and started this program, and you know that was 30 plus years ago. There's still following the program. They're still rated high. It's still a high poverty area, but they're getting good results. The only, the only interest I have in this whole thing was If we're going to give kids a future. We've got to meet their needs and we've got to meet them
where they are, and that was one of the things that this, this program does. They, they have common assessments. They they unpacked the standards, and I've heard Secretary Aliva when he was going around the state going to the co-ops promoting learned the same doggone things that we need to do that and then what do we do if they're not getting the material? Well, you've got to do it in a timely fashion and get them the assistance they need, and if they are understanding it, then you need to also get them enrichment, so
I think this is a mistake. I think we ought to leave the money in the categorical like it is designated for professional learning communities like I said, nobody asked me to come here. I spoke with the Speaker prior to coming down here. He's had success in cabinet schools. He knows firsthand, as do other members. So with that, I would ask that you re you know. Think seriously about this if this is the direction we need to go. And I would take questions if
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:40:28
there are any. Thank you. Are there questions from the committee. Thank you committee. Thank you.
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
1:40:41
speakers for our guest. You all closed. Yes, happy to. A lot of great things were
said, um. And I I tend to, uh, agree with what he said, except for the fact that you guys voting for this bill today doesn't change a district's ability to contract solution. Last year alone,
Solution Tree made $140 million from districts across the state. This is $16.5 million that sits on top of it. What we've done in the last two years, whether you like learns or hate learns as we have put the onus back on students to make sure that we that they are performing as we need them to. This money is going to be better used to enforce the numeracy and the literacy standards that we're trying to get our students. Um, to achieve. The NAEP scores came out at the beginning of the session. Again, Arkansas continues to
languish by us investing in our students' future directly through putting this money into districts to best help kids where they need help the most in literacy and numeracy, we are going to be helping, and I won't make light of the fact that, you know, we can use the anecdotal. I have met with my PLC captains back in my home district, um, one of the promises that PLCs were whenever we started this 8 years ago was we'll train the trainers and then the trainers are going to take over and then we're not going to need these bloated contracts in order to achieve what we need. 8 years later we're still paying
in significantly to widgets and modules that have no, and that's the other part of this, the University of Arkansas education policy reform department did a comprehensive study that there is no appreciable increase to student performance between testing controls of the PLCs for schools that don't have the PLCs. If we can track it, we can hold it accountable for far too long we've let this program fester into something that we absolutely have to have. While students fail, so and I I
appreciate that this is a truly bipartisan cause. Senator Chesterfield was one of the points on the spear this last year that asked us to continue to look at this contract and see where the value is and if students are really gaining from it, um, I, I appreciate the time the consideration, but it's time for us to stop passing the buck and start investing
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:42:52
in students. So with that I'd close. Yeah Do you have something
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
1:42:57
question? Go ahead. Senator Murdoch, OK, I apologize. We back in, I just
came down and you'd already started the process because I really wanted to ask a couple questions uh and just get a perspective because this is a part of and if we get the department to come to the table at the same time, the secretary of please. Um, there's a couple of things that that I'm concerned about. I'm very aware of what was going on with these communities, these PLCs and initiation of the start of it through the processes and what my concern is as a non-educator, but being living
with one and being around it so often. It's the time it takes many times for programs such as the one we're talking about now and others to mature and Take effect in various places. I'm always concerned when we hear make decisions. Based on achievement. And or grades or whatever happens because as the secretary and I have talked privately many times.
Education is so different in different places and different ways that things apply. I love that we still have the opportunity to utilize these. Whatever you choose that a district chooses to use, but
we're doing a lot of transformational things, uh, now under the new secretary, and I'm totally OK with it because most of it is in the name of accountability, but
here's what I'm concerned. Time This stuff don't happen quick.
And everything that I see gives with it some. Ability for a quick change and what I'm concerned about is is continuity in our transformational things that we're trying to do that we don't allow people. Districts Uh, programs to be just Um, blew up blown up. Because in cabbage, they get it and another district is taking, it's taking longer, so they
don't look the same for the same programs. Then, so then we're either the district or the program is deemed unsuccessful. And I'm saying that. I'm just I'm just seeing a lot of transformational things, and I want to make sure as it relates we're talking about this uh we're talking about professional development programs that we are considering. All of those factors and we're not rushing.
For nothing besides excellence, you know, which takes time. Could you comment on that, please? Uh Sector
Speaker 209
1:45:47
Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Jacob I believe Arkansas Department of Education, um, thank you Senator Murra for for the questions and I think
Speaker 211
1:45:55
Kind of what you're alluding to is, is, it's can't even codified on research, typically if somebody will say if you're going to change the culture in the school or look at some improvement over time. It's it's about 3 years you start seeing some garnering some significant gains or results.
With this bill does is it doesn't blow anything up. It just says that there's other people in this space, right? So when we did a statewide procurement to implement professional learning communities, um, didn't have one bid go through the process to get everything across the finish line. So what we did as an agency last year is we just took that earmarked part of dollars, about $60.5 million prorated to the districts and did a statewide request for proposals to see who can be qualified and create a menu. options because I don't feel
like a one size fits all approach will work for every district. We actually had 17, excuse me, different vendors. Apply and we're able to put that out there in districts could interview with different vendors and um Solution Tree was one of the vendors. In fact, if I was to share with you the top 3 vendors that most districts are still working with SolutionTree by far is one of the most sought out requests because districts have invested in that. They wanted to be able to keep investing at. There's some other districts that may not have even been able to start with a
professional learning community process because it was moving through different cohorts and this bill don't prevent that. Bill doesn't prevent that and this and this allowed every district the start engaging in how do we want to Uh, operate, you know, collegiately around improving student learning. So to your point, there, there's some foundations to improving learning that's going to be on what we call effective tier 1 instruction. The teachers know their standards. Do they know the basic strategies. Are they using the science of reading?
Are they looking at data and are they, are they differentiating instruction based on the students that they serve, that is not going away. This is just opening up the menu to say let's make sure everybody has a chance to participate in this process and that we have a a process to make sure that what they're doing is gonna have that
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
1:48:06
return on investment. I appreciate the flexibility and the the opening up the broadening of it if you're the bandwidth for which we give people an opportunity to have
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:48:17
other options, but anyway, thank you. Your other further questions
from the committee. So anybody else in the audience like to speak for or against the bill. Are you close for your meal? What is the will
of the committee? Du pass 2. Is there any Comment on the motion.
Unknown speaker
1:48:49
See none on favor, all opposed. Thank you very much. Representative Mayberry. That we're here. We're gonna be here.
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
1:49:25
you to identify yourself, you will be recognized. State Representative Julie Mayberry. And my name is Jacqueline McEwan. I'm a director of health services from one of the districts in our state and I'm also a board member of the Arkansas Nurses Association, as well as a member of large for the National Association of School Nurses and a member at large for the Arkansas State School Nurses Association. OK, go ahead. And
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:49:57
Members, the very first thing I want to point out is this is what bill
number was 1242, 1222242. The first thing I want to point out on 1242 is actually on page 2 line 3. This bill would not go into effect until the 2728 school year. It's purposely written that way so that we have 2 years while we're discussing adequacy to figure out how to come up with the money that would be expected
in that 2728 school year. I also want to note that we would also have another legislative session taking place before then if there's anything that we need to tweak in this, but this bill is absolutely needed because our school nurses need Help. First of all, I would like to publicly thank Senator Davis for the efforts that she has made regarding teacher salaries. Thank you, my school teachers are very appreciative. I also want to publicly thank Senator Davis for all the work that
she's done to increase salaries for our state employees, um, just to let you know, state nurses, if you are working for DHS if you're working for um our health department and you. a state, um, nurse, an RN, your salary now, thankfully is 75,000 starting salary, 75,000 up to $111,000. I am so happy that that we've recognized the
importance of our nurses and to pay them what they're needed, but let me tell you what our school nurses are making. Our school nurses are ranging from 38,000
to 66,000. They need some help and that's why we need this bill. I'm gonna let our
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
1:51:50
school nurse explain. I am here today asking that you vote yes for HB 1242 to increase school nurses' salaries. Most people carry the assumption that school nurses just get band-aids and ice packs all day
long. I even had someone in my district say, how hard can school nursing be? It's definitely easier than hospital nursing. These thoughts about school nursing are inaccurate and misleading. School nursing is a specialized practice of nursing. School nurses provide continuity of care from physicians, hospitals, and school. School nurses are vital to the health and well-being of our students in any of our schools and see these students day to day and can provide insight on
student behaviors, medical care, and compliance with care. School nurses work with students and families in their neighborhoods and help address social determinants such as access to care, safe and healthy environments and access to healthy food. As trusted members of the education and health community, school nurses address disparities in health every day. Healthy children equals academic success. The National Association of School Nurses state, the school
nurses benefit the schools in 5 ways. The first one being attendance. School nurses improve attendance through health promotion, disease prevention, and disease management. Students with a full-time school nurse have about half the student illness or injury-related early releases from school where no school nurse is present. For example, last year in my school district with an enrollment of 21,000 students. We had 180,000 student visits to the nurse office.
9 times the enrollment of my district. But guess what? We only sent 5600 students home. The second one being academics, the third is time. The four staff wellness and the 5th being accountability. Registered nurses are required to complete a college education and pass a specialized licensing exam to accept a nursing job. Chronic health conditions continue to rise every year, and the school nurses are the ones
that are able to keep these students in school so they can receive an education. School nurses are an integral part of the education system, however, they are the lowest paid nurses in our state and are often overworked and undervalued. The majority of my nurses are bachelor prepared and all of them are registered nurses. Several have their masters and specialty certifications on top of being a registered nurse. I've had several nurses leave school nursing due to the pay and understaffing.
I've also had several nurses that are qualified to do the job and apply but pull back their application when they find out the pay. We want qualified nurses to care for our students. They're the only health care provider on campus who can provide support in emergency situations and provide high levels of care for our students that have medical conditions. School nurses are licensed and educated, and we should be recognized as such. I have 2 high schools that have over 2000 students each with 2 nurses and a health aide at each location.
One of these high schools has 146 medications signed into the health room. 1,386 students, which is 63% of the students in the school that have medical alerts. A medicaller is a medical condition that has been disclosed to our health team. And they have seen over 11,000 students so far this year. The other high school has 1,968, which equals 82% of the school having medical alerts and has
had over 14,000 office visits so far this year. These schools have over 12 diabetics on each campus, multiple CBI students that need assistance, and they handle emergencies on campus that can happen anywhere, at any time on their large campuses, as well as taking care of any student or staff member that walks into their office and needs triaging. Multiple of our schools have medical procedures at school every day that enables our students to stay in school. One nurse in particular has had to
do daily peritoneal dialysis in the classroom. For students so that he can attend school while awaiting a kidney transplant. Reviewing the data across the state, I found a percentage compared to the average nurse in our state, and it's stated that the school nurse was making 43% lower than the average nurse in our state. Let me state that again. 43% lower than the average nurse in our state. The state nurses just had legislation passed raising their salary and I echo Representative
Mayberry, I think it was well deserved. The state are in the LPNs range from 53,000 to $79,000 a day, which equals $206 a day to $304 a day. State RNs range from 75 to 111, which equals out to $289 a day to $428 a day. This is based on working 260 days a year. I was able to gather more information to compare school nurses in our state to the new race for state nurses. The information was gathered on
regions northwest, southeast, northeast, north central, southwest, and central Arkansas. The discrepancy of pay is from 60 to $110 a day difference on the low end of salary. And $78 to 156 days or $16 a day on the high end of the salary. We need more school nurses to help cover the care of the students. We have reached a point where we cannot hire nurses to fill these gaps due to the pay of school nurses.
My district is in direct competition to the multiple hospitals in our city. It is a challenge to keep staff when they can go to the hospitals and make more money, even working just part time. I have nurses that cannot pay their bills, and I've had to help by providing grocery gift cards or other financial assistance. We mentioned to the House that school nurses are able to bill for nurse-only procedures and other states, and that is something that we are starting to work with DHS on how to get implemented in our state. How this would work would be similar to the individualized education
process, otherwise known as an IP. To be able to bill for services in the special education program, they have to have doctor's orders to be able to bill for services such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy. In nursing, we have individualized healthcare plans which you should have an example in front of you, um, that the doctor completes and signs for what is required for the student while in school. This would allow us to be able to bill for nurse-only procedures. We have not been able to bill for nurse-only procedures in the
past, and this would help the district pay for these costs. School nurses provide services to all students in school, all staff
members in the school, and any visitors that come onto the campus. On top of daily medications, taking care of ill or injured students, our school nurses have to provide individualized healthcare plans for each student that has an acuity rating of level 2 up to level 5. A level one is a student that has no medical conditions noted. In my school district, we have
around 20,000 students, over half have medical conditions noted. We have
1 or 2 school nurses on each campus that have to provide services to hundreds and thousands of students and staff, yet we are not being compensated for what we do. I often refer to school nursing as a wild western
nurse. We are qualified professionals that provide care to anyone that steps on our campus with limited supplies and on our own. In the hospital setting, you have a team of medical professionals and a safe
practicing ratio of nurse to patient care such as 1 to 2 in the ICU setting, and 1 to 7 in med surge and anywhere in between those numbers. The hospital also has to come. Also comes with support with all the fancy equipment and supplies that are needed. On a school campus, you were relying on lay people to sometimes assist you if they volunteer to provide support. School nurse pay should be a priority in this state if we are wanting to keep and maintain our school nurses and improve our educational system.
Nurses that work in schools do so because they care about the children in our great state. My question today for you is Why not support our school nurses and education, since all data points to how school nurses make a direct impact on education by putting them at a higher pay scale and compensate for their education? License and work that they do and the care that they provide for the whole school. Students, staff, and anyone that walks
Speaker 252
2:00:53
onto their campus. Thank you. I'd also like to point out that I filed House
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:01:02
Bill 1890, which went to public health and I'm not running that bill because there is an agreement from ADE and DHS that they will work on what that bill was asking to be done, and that was to require, um, Our school nurses to be able to bill Medicaid on page 10 of that other um packet that I passed to
you which tells you all that the school nurses do, um, you can see the services that our school nurses are doing every day, and many of these services in other states, um, those school nurses are able to bill for and I believe we're leaving money on the table. It is a revenue neutral um way. of of receiving some money for our school districts because the school districts actually pay
the match, um, and so this, these are federal dollars that are out there that we're we're not billing for, um, and there is a, an agreement and I would have no problem if Courtney Saiss Ford would be willing to come up and um share that there is um an email exchange between ADE and ADH um or DHS, um. That they are Working on trying to figure
Speaker 253
2:02:17
out how to bill for that. We'd be happy to take questions.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:02:27
Are there questions from the audience, I mean from the committee, I guess
one of my My question is why in the world it is, I, you know, I've heard about this that Medicaid would be paying, should be paying. Our last 4 or 5 years. I'm
Speaker 253
2:02:43
not understanding why that hasn't happened. Well, I think it's because the nurses have not been
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:02:49
set up to be able to build. There's, you know, there's lots of paperwork that has to be done, um, and, and I think that's what this process will
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:02:57
will solve. The questions from the committee. Senator Davis. You, madam. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, can, I'm understanding that they confirmed that schools will not be able to seek reimbursement from Medicaid for services. Can we get that? Is anyone allowed to speak to that yet? Courtney Salis for Department of
Speaker 257
2:03:30
Education. Um, so I'm speaking from information that I've received from DHS, um, but so currently school nurses, they can only bill Medicaid for vision and hearing screenings and personal care services, um, the email to which Representative Mayberry is speaking was from DHS saying that they agreed to look at expanding that. It my understanding is it would require an amendment to our state Medicaid plan, so it's not just as easy as them saying. Yeah, you can bill for that. Um,
there's paperwork they have to submit that for approval to the US Department of Human Services and get approval, um, but so currently they are very limited in what they can bill Medicaid for. And with
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:04:10
or without this bill, they're able to proceed with that to work on um a state plan amendment. OK, OK. Thank you. Are there other questions from the committee?
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:04:26
So anybody in the audience to speak for get you had something else. Go ahead.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:04:35
In a question form. Thank you. Um, so, of course, I love our school nurses where we have RNs at all of our schools in Russellville that I'm aware of on every campus and it's really great. The part where I struggle with this, um, is that there are a lot of professionals that are in our schools, you know, if we contract with like speech therapist, OTs, PTs that are providing services and so my concern is that long term I mean, the school districts are
not going to just pay for this mandate, they're going to ask us to give them money for the mandate and then we'll have speech therapists and all the other ones in the schools doing the same thing and then we don't really have Like what is our basis then and then how much, you know, how many tens of millions of dollars are we putting into our adequacy funding. And so I don't know if you can speak to that. I mean this like I'm I unders I understand your issue, and I agree with it. In theory, I think in practicality it means a lot of different
things, um, at the expense of a lot of state dollars for people who choose to work in a school setting versus a hospital setting, and I and I don't mean that in any kind of disrespectful way. Like I'm grateful we have great nurses, but I think there are pros and cons to, you know, where you choose, um, to Do nursing, right? And so I think there's some pros to working in a school district and and taking great care of these kids, but I just wonder if you can talk to that a little bit,
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:06:05
so first of all I want to point out that OT and PT, they, they can already bill for Medicaid.
Um, our school nurses are not able to do that and we want to make that happen and I believe that there will be money there in the next 2 years once we figured that out to help directly our, our school districts help raise those salaries, OK, but I do want to point out that
um looking back at our, our reports from, from BLR that a registered nurse, um, the average salary in the state of Arkansas, while the LPN is 360.
the registered nurse is 50,000. But when you look at some other therapists, you have a speech language pathologist, the average salary is 64,000. The physical therapist is 67,000 and the occupational therapist is $76,000. So,
um, I believe that we can work on getting those school nurse salaries up to where it should be, and I believe a
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:08
lot of that is because those other therapists can bill for Medicaid and those numbers that you just
Speaker 218
2:07:16
spoke to, those are ones that are working in a school district. Yes, yes, this is from um uh from
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:24
BLR from Julie Holt. Are they, do you know if they're 1099s contracting with the school district, you know, I know school districts do it different. Some, their employees of the district and then some are 1099 99s or work for a company that's contracted with
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:07:36
the district. So the ones in my district are employed by the districts, and they all make more than my nurses do.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:43
OK. And they can build from and all three of those.
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:07:49
Therapists, professionals, can I with doctor's orders, yes.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:52
Well, I like the Medicaid path a lot. I think that makes a lot of sense, and, and we hope that it produces the amount
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:08:00
that we need, um. Why do we need this bill and I, I know you're gonna say, well, why do we need it? So I'm just trying to answer this. It holds all of us accountable. It's telling our school nurses, hang on. For 2 more years. Please don't leave because they're now
motivated to leave, we just gave increases to other state nurses and they're gonna say, but I could make $75,000 or more if I do this, and I think we're gonna start seeing some, some leave and they don't want to. They love these kids. That's why they're there. They love these kids and they want to stay and by saying in 2 years, we're going to have this fixed, either Medicaid dollars will come in, or We're going to figure out how an adequacy to address this more.
It means that this committee on the Senate side, I serve on the House side, we will have discussions over the next 2 years, it holds all of us accountable. It holds our school districts accountable because they're gonna have to start looking at their budgets and say, oh, in 2 years we need to do this and it holds our holds ADE and DHS. It, it, it says we're all in agreement. that in 2 years. We're gonna, we're gonna come up with this, this funding to make it.
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:09:23
What we need to do, and that's what this is all about. And I do want to add that you did state Senator Davis, that there are pros and cons. There are pros and cons to everything that we do, um, with school nursing, you are literally when I say it's the wild west of nursing, you are on that campus providing services to thousands of people, hundreds and thousands of people. You are the sole provider for all of those people. You have to write care plans for all of those people that have students that have medical conditions in the hospital.
You have a team, with the state nurses, you have a team. In our schools, I'm their team as the director, and I have over 60 nurses in my district. So dividing my time amongst all of those nurses, it can be difficult, and I have nurses are leaving due to the pay because they can go somewhere and work part time and make more money, or my nurses have to have 2 to 3 jobs and that the time, the benefit of being a school nurse, you hear it all the time is, well,
have holidays off, you have the summers off. Well, no, they don't because they have to work to make up and provide
Speaker 134
2:10:36
for their family. You have another question? Well, I guess I don't have a question, maybe just more discussion. So I think there's more discussion. No, I
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:10:51
just. Or anybody else in the audience who wants to speak for or against the bill.
Speaker 266
2:11:07
You identify yourself, you'll be recognized. I'm Cynthia Hines.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:11:11
I'm uh microphone thing closer to you. Can you
Speaker 266
2:11:15
hear me now? I'm Cynthia Hanes. I'm coordinator of health services. For, um, one of our large districts in the state and um I would, I would. My 5252 year career, 47 of those have been in school nursing. I was a school nurse in my hometown for 31 years.
I came to Little Rock, I started commuting, and I've been in this position for 16 years. I just want to say with everything that's been said about our nurses leaving, I have that same problem as well. There's gonna come a time because we're in a dire situation. It's going to come a time when we don't have enough nurses to cover our schools and the districts are going to be needing to pay agency nurses, which is going to cost the district a lot more money. Because those those agencies.
Make a large profit and they hire that they build their nurses out at more than twice of what our nurses make. So just want to bring that up that um If we don't do something, we're gonna continue to lose nurses who really do love their job. It's just
Speaker 267
2:12:30
I can't take care of their families. On the inca that
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:12:36
I get. Thank you. Senator Sullivan. And so it. The witnesses or school nurses
have presented that this is a huge problem. Big, the cliff is coming, yet our local school boards aren't acting. So why should the state, this committee, Overrule. What your districts don't want them out, don't want to
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:13:00
move on. I don't think it's that they don't
want to move on. I think some of them may be unaware, but I also, when I have brought this to the attention to my leaders in my district. They say, what are other school districts doing?
How much are they getting paid? bring that comparison to me. So they're not asking for what is a nurse make.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:13:21
They're just asking what others let me rephrase the question. So if you're coming before this committee to force districts to adopt a pay raise. Why haven't you been making the same case districts. Why come and have a state solution for
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:13:39
a localized problem. I appreciate your sentiment and your experience with working
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:13:46
with uh the schools. However, it doesn't work for school nurses to do that. And so we what doesn't work for them going to it
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:13:59
does not work to raise the salaries. I thought you just
said that they I don't salaries are pretty similar across school nurses in our state, which is very low for what nurses make compared to $1 a day. So when you're comparing Nurses to nurses in the school district.
Yeah, but that's not what I'm asking. You're asking why we don't go to the board, and that's what I'm trying to answer is that is what their answer is. And
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:14:27
so there's no discussion further on how we can increase that. But then you, you recourse then is to override them by coming
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:14:33
to the state legislature. Correct. My other, my other point too just to kind of throw it out there is You know, we had to put some state legislator in place for our teachers, which is wonderful, and I'm glad that we
did that because those teachers work very hard. My grandma was a senior English teacher for 30+ years. My family all worked in education and it's well deserved, so we need to make this something that we're making a point that school nurses are valuable and important, and we need to provide the
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:15:03
support to them. Well, and I would take exception if the response to that is they care and we don't, I would take exception to that. I think we at the legislature care about our school nurses. They are important functions to
suggest or make the point that we don't care if we don't pass this bill. I think it's false. What we're saying, what I'm saying, I can't speak for the rest is that this is a local problem. It's not the same problem with every district and every district needs to solve this on their own, not that we don't care about nurses, but
Speaker 277
2:15:33
we care about local control over a local issue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Other further questions and
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:15:39
comments from the committee. Are you closed for your bill?
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:15:48
Members These nurses have been asking for help. Year after year, if any of you have been here since 2011, you know that this is an issue that. is near and dear to my heart. They keep going to the school boards. And asking for help, the school boards start looking to us as legislators saying help us find some more money. This bill keeps us all on the
same page saying we will all work together to find this funding for the 2728 school year. Why am I so passionate about this? Why do I keep trying to do things to help our school nurses. Because I have a daughter with spina bifida who now is finally in our last semester of college. When she was in my womb, I never even imagined that she would live. To graduate from high school,
let alone actually graduate from high school. I appreciate every single teacher that helped her get through high school. With an above 3.5 GPA and with two college classes under her belt. Teachers were fabulous, but without that school nurse who saw her every day, twice a day. I could not have sent her to school and therefore she never would have had the opportunity
to be around those amazing teachers. A school nurse is integral. To helping our students succeed and our staff. I appreciate a good vote. So what is the will of the committee? Do I hear
Jacqueline Mcewen
Unverified
2:17:48
a second? A 2nd Senator Murdoch, did you second?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:17:53
Yes, OK. Discussion on the motion. Senator Davis, thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to say, uh, representative Mayberry, I appreciate the passion and the work that you've put in this over the years, like this is my 3rd session and you're bringing a bill like this and I want to say I think this Medicaid option is Really the best thing you've brought to us that makes sense in a way that's sustainable for districts and for the state to
be able to pay for it, and it aligns with what other professionals are able to do in the school, um, so I think that's huge progress and I really like that option, um, and I am willing to help keep the pressure on in the next 2 years, uh, with both agencies to ensure that we see some kind of state plan amendment, um, for nurses to be able to charge in this way. I, I want be clear, these are hard votes because a lot of people care about this issue of people in
schools right now that are helping take care of my kids, you know, like I've got 4 kids in in public school and so these fell personal, they feel emotional, um, it's hard for me to vote on bills like this because I, I agree with what you're trying to do, which is why I love the option for Medicaid, um, but I also have to be concerned about impacts long term to the state and how we fund different things. And so I have like dueling responsibilities and that makes it hard, um, and it makes me feel bad, you know, cause I
know, like I said, I've got people back at home that are taking care of my kids and I value them. I think they're absolutely fantastic, um, and they're a huge essential to the school day and to our kids. So, um, I just want to say that, you know, me voting against that does not against this doesn't have anything to do with how I value, um, nurses and they do, but I do love and and committed to helping you work with the agencies in the interim to really push that and stay on
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:19:55
top of it. I am committed to doing that. I think that's great.
Thank you. Are there other comments from the committee. So we have a DuP pass right did I hear a second? 2nd, OK,
Speaker 243
2:20:13
all right, all in favor all opposed. I think the noes have it.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:20:19
Thank you. Thank you very much. And I think we'll be working on this.
I think everybody feels like it's an important issue, so we have it is 10:30. We have 3 bills left. That we need to do, but we will have to postpone them hopefully until we have a recess with the Senate. Yes.
Speaker 124
2:20:45
House bills or somebody can let us know which one.
Speaker 284
2:20:56
Yeah, I think you've got yeah. right now. Yeah.
Speaker 285
2:21:15
Hospital 1903 030 what? 19031903 1945 1945 and 199 the
Speaker 286
2:21:28
last 1, 1919, 1919. I don't think we're worried about that. What's the 45 0
Speaker 283
2:21:46
45 or 19. 9 1919. Uh. If we it doesn't matter. OK, so you have 2. Yeah. That's 03 Yeah. In 1945. Yeah
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:22:04
sex, I think so unless the Senate
has a couple of bills they're meeting their houses meeting house education is meaningless. I
Speaker 286
2:22:13
have a couple more bills. back. Even the last house.
Speaker 283
2:22:20
Yeah, those are house bills. Yeah. So we may meet again this We'll look at the how the day is
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:22:31
going. We may meet first thing tomorrow morning. It's what we might
do. Beg pardon. Well, they won't be meeting at 8 o'clock. Nobody seems to get here at 8 o'clock
like we do, so, um, we might meet at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. We are adjourned.
Agenda
Call to Order
HB1966 Barnett TO AUTHORIZE AN INCORPORATED TOWN OR A CITY OF THE SECOND CLASS TO PETITION THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A LOCAL PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OR SATELLITE SCHOOL UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.
HB1242 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES ARE COMPENSATED.
HB1719 Vaught TO AMEND THE DAYS INCLUDED IN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF MATERNITY LEAVE DAYS APPROVED BY A SCHOOL THAT OFFERS MATERNITY LEAVE.
HB1986 Nazarenko CONCERNING EXCUSED ABSENCES FOR CHILDREN OF FALLEN SERVICE MEMBERS AND CHILDREN OF FALLEN FIRST RESPONDERS.
HB1312 Brooks TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003.
HB1806 Vaught TO PROVIDE CURRICULUM TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS OF KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE TWELVE STUDENTS; AND TO ALLOW A PARENT TO REVIEW AND OPT OUT OF SELECTED LIBRARY MEDIA MATERIALS FOR HIS OR HER CHILD.
HB1874 B. McKenzie AN ACT TO AMEND THE USE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDING THAT EXCEEDS THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT AWARDED TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003.
Recess
Reconvene
HB1933 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS; AND TO CREATE A RECALL ELECTION AND PETITION FOR REMOVAL FOR A MEMBER OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
Adjourn
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — EDUCATION COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE MEETING JOINTLY WITH ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION, Apr 14, 2025 | Agenda | 3 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 15
Speaker 24
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Speaker 47
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
Speaker 49
Speaker 56
Speaker 57
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
Speaker 73
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 86
Speaker 111
Speaker 94
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 134
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
Speaker 147
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
Speaker 125
Gary Newton
Unverified
Speaker 165
Speaker 159
Speaker 181
Speaker 12
Speaker 190
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
Speaker 192
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
Speaker 211
Speaker 213
Speaker 218
Speaker 221
Speaker 225
Speaker 209
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 252
Speaker 253
Speaker 257
Speaker 266
Speaker 267
Speaker 277
Jacqueline Mcewen
Unverified
Speaker 243
Speaker 124
Speaker 284
Speaker 285
Speaker 286
Speaker 283
Speaker 289