Education Committee- House
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Transcript
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Bills discussed (38)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1370
· 4 mentions in transcript, chapter, agenda
Matched: “…2 bills on the regular agenda that we will hear HB 1242 and HB 1370 by Representative Mayberry, uh, the other bills are also st…”
|
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. |
|
HB1242
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…uh. We have 2 bills on the regular agenda that we will hear HB 1242 and HB 1370 by Representative Mayberry, uh, the other bills…”
|
TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES ARE COMPENSATED. | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1490
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1490 Wardlaw TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT THAT A PUBLIC SCHOOL STUD…”
|
TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT THAT A PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT RETURN TEMPORARILY ISSUED ITEMS, RESOURCES, MATERIALS, … | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB135
Act 399
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SCHOOL IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE TO ENROLL IN A HOME SCHOOL. SB135 J. Boyd TO AMEND ELECTION REQUIREMENTS IN THE CASE OF AN UN…”
|
TO AMEND ELECTION REQUIREMENTS IN THE CASE OF AN UNCHANGED RATE OF AN ANNUAL AD … | J. Boyd | Notification that SB135 is now Act 399 |
|
SB90
Act 902
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…aught Rep. Hope Duke REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle SB90 J. English TO REQUIRE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO BE AFFORDED…”
|
TO REQUIRE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO BE AFFORDED THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT PUBLIC COMMENT … | J. English | Notification that SB90 is now Act 902 |
|
HB1017
Act 904
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SCHOOLS ACT OF 2025. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle 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 |
|
HB1020
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…O PAY FOR INCURRED COSTS FOR APPROVED PAID MATERNITY LEAVE. HB1020 A. Collins TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL FR…”
|
TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM ACCOUNT PROGRAM; TO CREATE A NEW EDUCATION FUNDING … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1023
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND OPEN-ENROLLMENT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS. HB1023 A. Collins TO AMEND THE STATE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM; AN…”
|
TO AMEND THE STATE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM; AND TO AMEND THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR LOAN … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1025
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NTS UNDER THE STATE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM. Page 2 of 3 HB1025 McGruder TO CREATE THE TEACHER FAIR DISMISSAL ACT OF 2025.…”
|
TO CREATE THE TEACHER FAIR DISMISSAL ACT OF 2025. | McGruder | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1027
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…McGruder TO CREATE THE TEACHER FAIR DISMISSAL ACT OF 2025. HB1027 D. Garner TO CREATE THE BRIGHTER START ACT OF 2025; AND TO…”
|
TO CREATE THE BRIGHTER START ACT OF 2025; AND TO REQUIRE THE TREASURER OF STATE … | D. Garner | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1030
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TING AND FUTURE ARKANSAS BRIGHTER FUTURE FUND PLAN ACCOUNT. HB1030 T. Shephard TO REQUIRE A SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER OR LAW ENF…”
|
TO REQUIRE A SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER OR LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL TO OBTAIN CERTIFICATION IN YOUTH … | T. Shephard | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1031
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OUNSELOR TO RECEIVE YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID TRAINING. HB1031 D. Garner TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS HEALTHY LIFESTYLE EDUCATIO…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS HEALTHY LIFESTYLE EDUCATION ACT OF 2025; AND TO ENSURE THE HEALTH … | D. Garner | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1051
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…IC SCHOOLS ADDRESSES CERTAIN HEALTH ISSUES FACING STUDENTS. HB1051 Andrews TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL START DATE REQUIREMENTS.…”
|
TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL START DATE REQUIREMENTS. | Andrews | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1062
Act 565
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Andrews TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL START DATE REQUIREMENTS. HB1062 R. Scott TO CREATE THE TEACHER AND STUDENT PROTECTION ACT O…”
|
TO CREATE THE TEACHER AND STUDENT PROTECTION ACT OF 2025. | R. Scott Richardson | Notification that HB1062 is now Act 565 |
|
HB1081
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…THE TEACHER AND STUDENT PROTECTION ACT OF 2025. Richardson HB1081 B. McKenzie TO REPEAL ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE DEVELOPMEN…”
|
TO REPEAL ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES. | B. McKenzie | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1139
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NT AND ADMINISTRATION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES. HB1139 B. McKenzie TO CREATE THE RELEASED TIME EDUCATION ACT. HB11…”
|
TO CREATE THE RELEASED TIME EDUCATION ACT. | B. McKenzie | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1197
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…REPORTING REQUIREMENTS TO WHICH PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE SUBJECT. HB1197 S. Meeks TO PROHIBIT SCHEDULING, HOSTING, OR REQUIRING AN O…”
|
TO PROHIBIT SCHEDULING, HOSTING, OR REQUIRING AN OUTDOOR PRACTICE, SCRIMMAGE, GAME, OR ACTIVITY FOR AN … | S. Meeks | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1239
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…THE HOURS WHEN AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING HAS BEEN DECLARED. HB1239 A. Collins TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003;…”
|
TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003; AND TO ADD AN ADDITIONAL CATEGORY … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1283
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…DITIONAL CATEGORY OF FUNDING FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION FUNDING. 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. |
|
HB1312
Act 909
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OF DIRECTORS. PENDING FISCAL IMPACT Number Sponsor Subtitle 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 |
|
HB1398
Act 352
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…UNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003. HB1398 L. Johnson TO REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO SUPPORT, ESTABLISH, AND IM…”
|
TO REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO SUPPORT, ESTABLISH, AND IMPLEMENT A CARDIAC EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN THAT INTEGRATES … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1398 is now Act 352 |
|
HB1457
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SPONSE PLAN THAT INTEGRATES NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED ELEMENTS. HB1457 L. Johnson TO REQUIRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO SUBMIT DATA AND OTH…”
|
TO REQUIRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO SUBMIT DATA AND OTHER INFORMATION RELATED TO A PUBLIC SCHOOL … | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1477
Act 303
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…N PROGRAM USING A UNIFORM STATEWIDE DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM. HB1477 Barker TO ALLOW THE GOVERNING BODY OF AN OPEN-ENROLLMENT PU…”
|
TO ALLOW THE GOVERNING BODY OF AN OPEN-ENROLLMENT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL TO SUBMIT AN APPLICANT … | Barker | Notification that HB1477 is now Act 303 |
|
HB1482
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. HB1482 Gramlich TO CREATE AN EXCEPTION TO THE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RE…”
|
TO CREATE AN EXCEPTION TO THE SCHOOL ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR A STUDENT WHO TAKES A … | Gramlich | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1483
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE TWELVE DIGITAL MEDIA STANDARDS. 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. |
|
HB1484
Act 910
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ENTS FOR A STUDENT WHO TAKES A GED TEST AND RECEIVES A GED. HB1484 Gramlich TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF CREDIT HOURS A STUDENT MAY…”
|
TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF CREDITS A STUDENT MAY OBTAIN IN A COURSE CREDIT RECOVERY … | Gramlich | Notification that HB1484 is now Act 910 |
|
HB1492
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…S A STUDENT MAY OBTAIN IN A COURSE CREDIT RECOVERY PROGRAM. HB1492 Gramlich TO REQUIRE EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND OPEN-EN…”
|
TO REQUIRE EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT AND OPEN-ENROLLMENT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL TO IMPLEMENT A MOBILE … | Gramlich | Recommended for study in the Interim by the … |
|
HB1495
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SCHOOL EMPLOYEES WITH A WEARABLE PANIC ALERT SYSTEM DEVICE. 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. |
|
HB1496
Act 304
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORD. HB1496 Andrews TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE TO ENSURE…”
|
TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE TO ENSURE ARKANSAS STUDENTS ARE TAUGHT BY QUALIFIED … | Andrews | Notification that HB1496 is now Act 304 |
|
HB1528
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…PMENT IN SCHOOL DISTRICTS RELATED TO SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST. HB1528 McGruder TO REQUIRE A REPORT CARD TO INCLUDE A STUDENT'S CU…”
|
TO REQUIRE A REPORT CARD TO INCLUDE A STUDENT'S CURRENT READING GRADE LEVEL. | McGruder | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1539
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RT CARD TO INCLUDE A STUDENT'S CURRENT READING GRADE LEVEL. HB1539 A. Collins TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003;…”
|
TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003; AND TO ADD AN ADDITIONAL EDUCATION … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1541
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TIONAL EDUCATION CATEGORY OF FUNDING FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION. HB1541 Wooten TO REQUIRE A PRIVATE SCHOOL THAT ACCEPTS STATE FUNDI…”
|
TO REQUIRE A PRIVATE SCHOOL THAT ACCEPTS STATE FUNDING OF ANY TYPE TO PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION … | Wooten | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1542
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TRANSPORTATION TO CERTAIN STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE SCHOOL. HB1542 Wooten TO REQUIRE PRIVATE SCHOOLS TO ADMINISTER AN ANNUAL S…”
|
TO REQUIRE PRIVATE SCHOOLS TO ADMINISTER AN ANNUAL STATEWIDE STUDENT ASSESSMENT; AND TO REQUIRE PRIVATE … | Wooten | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1545
Act 501
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…D INTENDS TO COVER PRIVATE SCHOOL COSTS WITH STATE FUNDING. HB1545 K. Brown TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS MILITARY CHILD SCHOOL TRANSI…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS MILITARY CHILD SCHOOL TRANSITIONS ACT OF 2021. | K. Brown | Notification that HB1545 is now Act 501 |
|
HB1561
Act 473
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…THE ARKANSAS MILITARY CHILD SCHOOL TRANSITIONS ACT OF 2021. HB1561 Painter TO ESTABLISH THE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PROTECTION…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PROTECTION ACT OF 2025. | Painter | Notification that HB1561 is now Act 473 |
|
HB1571
Act 502
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…STABLISH THE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PROTECTION ACT OF 2025. HB1571 Ray TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS ADULT DIPLOMA PROGRAM ACT. HB1580…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS ADULT DIPLOMA PROGRAM ACT. | Ray | Notification that HB1571 is now Act 502 |
|
SB223
Act 400
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TYPE 2 DIABETES WHEN OTHER HEALTH INFORMATION IS PROVIDED. SB223 M. Johnson TO CREATE THE RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS…”
|
TO CREATE THE RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACT OF 2025. | M. Johnson | Notification that SB223 is now Act 400 |
|
SB226
Act 247
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ENSURE ARKANSAS STUDENTS ARE TAUGHT BY QUALIFIED TEACHERS. SB226 G. Leding TO AMEND THE SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST PREVENTION ACT…”
|
TO AMEND THE SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST PREVENTION ACT; AND TO MODIFY THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PROFESSIONAL … | G. Leding | Notification that SB226 is now Act 247 |
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- October 2, 2026
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
0:10
Representative Eubank says he recovers from surgery. Pray with me, dear Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for allowing us to wake up today and Lord, just help us give the wisdom, have the wisdom to do your will and shape the education in the right way. Lord, just be with our colleague, John Hugh Banks as he covers, recovers from heart surgery and L. Just guide us and help us and help us be better. We
appreciate it and please forgive us where we fall short of you in your son's name, Jesus. Amen. Thank you, Representative.
members, so a couple updates uh for you and for our, our guests in the audience to the schedule today, uh. We have 2 bills on the regular agenda that we will hear HB 1242 and HB 1370 by Representative Mayberry, uh, the other bills are also still awaiting amendment uh to uh to be introduced and uh without objection we're gonna take 13701, uh, and go out of order there and then once we get to 1242, I believe we got uh and a handout as well and then uh Blake is handing out an
amendment for 1370 that we'll have to adopt first. So Representative Mayberry, if you would please introduce yourself and you're recognized to begin. Thank you so much,
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:43
sir. Good morning members. uh Julie Mayberry, State Representative District 92, and I do have a
guest with me, um, who will be joining, uh, this discussion. You want
Speaker 12
1:58
to introduce yourself too. Yes, But I, I never did get that
Speaker 13
2:02
right even when I was here, uh, Charlotte Douglas, a former representative, and um this bill we're gonna be speaking out is a bill that I passed back in. 2017, so. Well, uh, see if I can answer
some questions to make it clearer why it's
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:23
a good bill. And members, I, I have an amendment after listening to some concerns and talking to some members about some potential ideas to solve the problem. Again, I'm just really trying hard to, um, find a, a happy medium and so what I'm presenting to you right now if, if you don't mind, if we can um adopt this amendment and then have greater discussion because I would like others to. Yeah
We have a motion to double the amendment from Representative
Vaugh. Is there any discussion on the motion? See no discussion, all in favor say aye. All opposed. Congratulations, your amendment has been adopted. You're now recognized to present
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
3:02
HB 1370 as amended. Thank you very much. So let me explain what the amendment is, um, because there's some folks out here and people watching who may not know what the new idea is, so when I came to you on Tuesday, we were talking about AMI days and trying to bring some AMI days back to our school districts to
allow some school districts some flexibility to meet the need. needs of their students in the way that they feel is best and um. Originally the bill. Made the school districts have 5 built-in snow days. Emergency days, whatever you want to call those days, and then they could use 5 AMI days for a total of about 10, and so when you get to the 10, then you would have to figure out what you're going to do after that and go to the, the Board of Education for some more help.
After listening to several of you, the idea was let's just allow 3 AMI days. So this amendment takes it to where the 1st 7 days that a school district must close for emergency circumstances. They have to be in person making up those days. The next 3 days, so that's day 89, and 10. They may use an AMI day. Again,
no school district has to if they feel that it is best to make up those days in person, then they can do that. But it would allow school districts 3 days. Um, that's what the amendment is and um sometimes we do have to take a step back and know that this legislative body at one point felt that this was a really good idea. And so. Who better to explain what were the circumstances back in 2017
that allowed this legislative body to overwhelmingly support this idea, so I, um, would like to let former representative Charlotte Binning Douglas, explain. Thank you,
Speaker 13
5:10
uh, Mr. Chair. And uh honorable committee and uh colleagues and uh the audience out here, uh, I just a little bit about my background, yes, I was in the.
Legislature for 6 years and I served on the education committee and I think you're the hardest working committee down here, uh, honestly, you have, you have so much on your plate. Uh, so I appreciate your work, uh, but I also before that, I was a lifelong educator and uh I served 27 years in a classroom. And so I got to live. Makeup days. In snow days. And days where tornadoes hit our building.
And The flu And a lot of things that happened during the school year that cause you to have to make decisions about letting kids, uh, come to school. And maybe an unsafe environment or. Do we have them stay home, so, um. Where did this law come from? Where did the idea come from? Uh, I was at a conference in Kentucky, actually. Uh,
presented this bill and they had already had it up and running and they uh were using it mainly for snow, but they used it for whatever would pop up during the, the school year that needed an emergency day if, if this was the appropriate tool to use. So that's where it came from. So how did it disappear? Um, it was working well.
Uh, I had no complaints that were overwhelming that we could not work through. Um, and then I had lots of calls when we figured out that the Learns Act had some language in it. That repealed this bill. And I never have really been given in a solid answer about why. Um They just didn't like it. So they put language in there to
repeal it. And so here we are, uh, I'd like to give you some. Information possibly to show you how it can work well and, and why it is needed and why school district can use it to their advantage. First of all, the advantage to the AMI days is that you are making up the work in real time. Real time means the day you missed that day, you are making
up assignments that had to do with that day's work. So when you make up a day and it's spring break. Or it's You, uh, Good Friday or it's a PD day and it's down the road. It's weeks and weeks or months. You're not making up the, the work that you possibly missed that day. So real time. is a great thing for you to
remember about AMI days. It makes up the work in real time. And when you make it up in real time, then the teacher decides to give you work that has to do with current work that you're working on in class. So you're working on that test that's coming up. You're working on that end of course test that's coming up. You're working on skills tests that are coming up. Or I like to think that some of the
teachers were working in their PLCs and they could see, uh, that class. Didn't do well at all on photosynthesis. So I'm gonna put a piece in that PL in that uh AMI packet that has to do with photosynthesis and give them a a review. If you had this day after the test. That would be irrelevant. But when you can make it up in real time.
It matters Or Um, and in the data that you're collecting in the PLCs could have a real application to their makeup work, uh, during these AMI days. I can identify it from the data that you've got, uh, what concepts that they need to make up. AMI days can be prepackaged. And for the younger grades, usually that's what they do.
Uh, and. They can determine really at the first of the year. Uh, what are some skills that they're gonna need to know by the end of the year in May that I could put in that packet and, and send home with them. And the packets are labeled day 1, day 2, day 3. And They opened the packet that is appropriate for that day. And that's a good way for the
elementary students maybe. For and for students that don't have uh internet capabilities or don't work well on the internet. They can always have a packet of the materials sent home. So makeup days at the end of the school year. And I've lived that nightmare. Uh, can have a very different Tone to them. Then they would have. For makeup days in real time.
Uh, makeup days were usually the day after. Every, you know, all the testing and all the grades were handed out and all semester tests and whamm, you got one more day in there. What do you do with that day? Do you study photosynthesis? What, what is the meaning of that day when you've got half of the kids there. A lot of the kids have been pulled out because their parents had Vacations planned.
T-ball has already started. AAUs already started traveling. It is a nightmare that last day to even have half a class. If you're trying to make up those days at the end of school. So, let me emphasize also that the assignments that you sent home are were never. Um purposed to make up for 8 hours of a school day. They were purpose for review.
Go over some concepts to introduce maybe something different to let them do a fun experiment at home, um. Teachers became very, very creative with what they sent home, uh, for the, for the students. So have you ever thought about the AMI days being a safety feature. And if I've got any superintendents or school personnel in the room, they know what I'm talking about when I say that one of the most
difficult decisions the superintendent has to make is whether to have school that day. What time is that ice gonna hit? Is it gonna hit at 6 a.m.? 10, noon. Should I get the kids here for half a day and try to get them on a bus by one o'clock when that hit that ice just hit. Or do I Call it off and the kids are at home. With nothing to do. And it didn't snow at all.
Those are hard decisions that superintendents make and they catch a lot of flack about it. But what superintendents told me is that having an AMI AMI day in their toolbox. It's not what they pull out every time, but just a tool. Gave them the ability to make better decisions about whether or not They would You know, have school, bring the kids in. Or do we need to take a day off to let that virus. Cycle out
And let, uh, let us. Detox the school. But having that and realizing that they can make up their work in real time was uh an important tool that they needed to have. So knowing that some meaningful work can be done by students in their homes can give superintendents the freedom to choose an AMI day instead of rolling the dice. On whether or not the snow is gonna come in.
Or it's gonna be too bad for the kids to even get home at one o'clock. Oh, it's a safety issue. And have you ever thought about the AMI days being a financial consideration. When you have the students at home. For an AMI day. You're not Serving food in the cafeteria. You're not running the buses, you're not paying the non-certified personnel. You're not paying utilities.
At the end of the school year. Or if you have it on a Friday or whenever you decide to have your makeup day, all of those things are in play. And you're gonna have an expensive day. On top of that makeup day that you're gonna try to plan something important for the kids to do during that day. So financially it is. A way for the school districts to be able to uh have that AMI day have current lessons at home
for them and they're not out that extra expense of a, a day in school. Uh So if I haven't already convinced you that this is a great bill to vote yes on. Then let me tell you what happened during COVID, and some of you have different stories about that. But the bill was rocking along school districts were signing up. They were. Presenting their plans to the ADE of how they were gonna do their days, uh, the teachers
were getting their packets together. Everything was going smoothly. And, uh, working out all the kinks and COVID hits, um. When COVID hit, The nation. was struggling with how to. Navigate COVID with students at home. They were struggling with ways to teach virtually, but Arkansas
already had the answer. And our schools were. Up and running, much, much quicker. Uh, we had a website that uh Don Benton I think and his wife Brandy put together at the ADE, uh, I don't know if they did it through the AD, but they put it together for all the teachers that were at home with these uh virtual lessons. And you cannot imagine the innovation and how the teachers work together and they showed
each other how to put lesson plans on, how to do the grading online. They were communicating. And then I started noticing on that website, on that Facebook page, we had other states. How are you doing that? How are you all ready to this point? Other states came to Arkansas for the answers because we had the answer already in our toolbox. We didn't have to use it every time there was a snow day, but we had it in our toolbox. As an option
to be used. So, AMI instruction, uh, in Arkansas put us at the forefront front of delivering meaningful wholesale instruction because of our work on AMI days to that point. So Why shouldn't this be a decision of the school board or the the schools themselves and that's why I think this would be good to be put back into that toolbox
and let the schools devise their plans, get them okayed at the ADE. And uh give the local autonomy back to the school board on how to use this or not, should we take time to tweak it? Maybe call in some teachers, some students, what did you like? What did you not like, uh, administrators, how can we make it better? Sure. We would be foolish not to listen to solutions if, if there
are some wrinkles in, in the program. Uh, and that would be a, a great discussion to have. So, thank you. For your consideration. And Uh, as you see, I'm very passionate about schools. And how we operate them and I'll be glad to assist in any way I can, uh, to answer your questions. After uh Representative Maberry is finished. Represent Mayberry, do you have
Speaker 12
18:58
anything else to add? Just whatever questions there might be,
Speaker 21
19:01
I do know that we have some also some students who would very much like the opportunity to
share their perspective with you as well. Rip and Mayberry has presented the bill as amended and there are questions uh in former Representative Douglas,
thank you so much for your time being
here, uh, Representative Barker, you're recognized for a
Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker
Unverified
19:20
question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I know my own personal opinion, having been in the classroom during COVID, during AMI days and
I am not going to get into that, but you did mention that you never got an answer as to why it was taken out of learns. I Believe it was not done arbitrarily and I would like if the department is willing for them to come and. And tell us about that, uh, so maybe is my question. Wouldn't you agree that we
should have the department come. Missiles for if you would please.
Introduce yourself for the record and you're recognized
Speaker 34
20:00
to answer Represent Barker's question. Thank you, Courtney Salis Ford chief of staff of the Department of Education, um, again, Secretary Oliva was pulled away to other matters, but, um, we spoke about this very, very in depth after the last time it was run, um, and, and I would not even dare to try to speak for the sponsors of Learns, but I can tell you as being part of many, many discussions, and the, the draft of learns and part of getting that through. It was taken out because as Secretary Oliva has
said multiple times in-person instruction matters. Kids need to be in school, they need to be in front of a teacher. They need to be learning in person. AMI days
Speaker 35
20:40
had their time. They served a purpose at the time, but we have seen through all of the data that our kids are in the bottom across the country. Our kids are not growing and recovering from COVID at the rate that other states are. Our kids need to be in school. And, and I thoroughly agree that superintendents have
the ability and the knowledge to know when to close school. We don't want kids to be in unsafe conditions. Don't make kids go to school when it's snowing or icy on the roads, let them stay home. Let them enjoy that day at home. But before you get to that point, because we all know we're going to have snow where I stays for closure, building in days at the beginning of the year, start school earlier, don't have. such a long break in the fall. And I speak from personal experience because that's the best way for me to explain it. My kids do nothing on fall
break. Well, we have a week long at Christmas break. We have 2 weeks at Christmas. We have a spring break. There are lots of opportunities and holidays to make up these days before the end of the year, because I'm going to use personal experience again and agree. No, kids aren't learning in June, because my kids are sitting there playing on their phones while their teachers pack up their classroom. My kids are being sent to the gym to play on their. phone or their iPad because those teachers in a hurry to, to get out of school. And, and I have the utmost respect for
teachers. I do. They have a very hard job. I, I could not do their job. But I also want my kids to learn and Secretary Oliva and the department, we feel very adamant that we want kids to learn and the best way for the them to learn is to be in school, to be in front of teachers. You you mentioned other states' representative and with all due respect, those other states go in excess of a 180 days. Our minimum in this state is 178 days. So you want to take 3 days away from kids
and make that 175 days. There are districts that go 143 days because they do 4 day weeks. So that's 140 days. You're talking about 40 days less of school that kids are getting in that classroom with their teachers, and then we wonder why our students are performing so low. So why did AMI get removed with learns because we believe that kids need to be in school in front of a teacher. Are there additional questions about the committee?
See no additional questions. Representative Mayberry would, uh, I'm sorry. We do have someone signed up to speak on the bill. I believe we've got, first we have signed up uh Eli Wolf. if you like to come to the table, if you
would please introduce yourself. Welcome, and then you're recognized to speak on the bill. Just push that button, there you go. Oh, so you guys can hear me now. OK.
Speaker 39
23:40
Hello, I'm Eli Wolf. I'm a student, you know, I'm speaking on behalf or not behalf, but you know, as my own perspective of, you know, something that this will affect because I don't think it will affect you guys very much, but it will affect me and the future generations of America.
Speaker 42
23:57
Could I ask how old your children? 1617, OK, I'm
Speaker 39
24:01
a junior. I'm 17 years old. Uh, fun fact, Monday, I won 2nd place at a chess tournament. Ah, thank you.
Um, I think, I think that AMIDs can be helpful, and I don't think that we're trying to take away 40 days at the end of the school year. I think we're trying to take away. None, and that's the whole point of AMI is that we add days that we can't get back due to weather. And I think, I think that it's, it's very beneficial and helpful if done correctly, and we should allow the schools the opportunity to do it correctly. If you know, they wanted to. And that's the point of this bill is that it's up to choice of the school. And I think, I think over my experience of COVID and AMI days
and, and, you know, bad weather and stuff like that. I think MIs have been very helpful. And that's, that's to say, you know, maybe they need students need in-person education. Yes But that's also Only 3 days online and the students that don't want to do any work online, are doing work in school either. So I think that it's still very helpful for the people that, you know, want to proceed with Education and better themselves push push their own limits. And I think that
And could be helpful if done correctly, and it's up to the schools to do that. Not the representatives. Thank
you, Mr. Wolf, for your time and congratulations again on your chess tournament win. I would imagine if you
were, uh had a match against everyone in this room, he'd finished first, so, uh, outstanding. Uh, next we have, uh, Mr. Gavin Goldman. Mr. Goldman, if you would please introduce yourself and you're recognized.
Speaker 48
25:49
Either one, it's on. OK. Uh, can you hear me? OK, so I am Gavin Goldman. I also go to Sheridan with Eli, and there is one thing that I think was left out, so in high school, you can tack days on at the end of the year, but one thing that you can't change is the AP test dates and. Stuff likein current credit classes, they have a deadline, and you can't go past that. So AMI days. From a student perspective, they
really give me that chance to catch up on work if I need to, and if I miss that day, then that's that much more compact, the rest of it has to be, and we don't get as in depth for the rest of the learning. And As much as in person is needed. You can't go past the deadline. So I think it is better to have AMI days then no days at all because. In high school
I have 5 classes and. Well, aside from music and all of them are AP, so no matter. If you add this on to the end of the year. I am losing more learning without the AMI days. Thank you, Mr. Goldman for your
testimony. We appreciate you coming our way. Represent uh
See no one else uh signed up to speak for or against. Oh, there may be one more, OK.
If you'd like to come to the table, please feel free to. If you would please introduce yourself
Presley Milligan
Unverified
27:34
for the record, then you're recognized. Good morning. Um, my name is Presley Milligan, and I'm a senior at Sheridan High School, um, a lot of great points were made and I feel very confidently that I'm on the right side of this debate because my entire speech, every single point has already been said today, but there were a few things that I agree and disagree with. Um, a big thing is AMI is
not a replacement for in school days. That was never the argument and I, I 100% agree that it can't be the argument. AMI days. Or for those days, we have to be out of school. When the superintendents have to make those decisions for us not to go to school. AMI is a tool and a resource, and that is the best way to describe it because it allows us to continue our education and continue our path of the curriculum we are on, um, I am upwards of 35 college hours my entire high school career has been AP classes and college
classes, and I value my education a lot, but with that, I would never want to take away my breaks. Um We've someone else has already mentioned it many times. Summer break is a break, that's what it is for teachers, for administrators, for students, and adding on to the end of the year is not necessarily going to benefit the students or the teachers because AP tests, standard test, national tests have a set fixed date. If we add on to the end of the school, yes, there's more in-person
learning, but is that gonna help us meet the goals that we need to meet, um, a very big part of that also goes into. break, Christmas break, spring break, they are what they're called, their breaks. They allow students a chance to take a step back from our academic setting and be kids, um, my spring break, I travel fall. I hang out with my family and even if I don't do stuff, I enjoy that time and I value that time because school I work for 8
hours a day. I am working and I am learning. And so those breaks are super valuable to maintain. My sanity, um, as a student and as a person and a really big part of AMI is it is a tool that allows us to stay on curriculum, um. For children and for the younger um grades. Yes, it is stuff that you can implement things that we need to go back in and relearn, but it's a super big and important part of my life because as a senior, whenever that deadline is for the end of
the year, I'm done. I don't have an opportunity to go back and retake that test and especially AP tests, those are college hours. So if we are missing a week of education in the middle with absolutely no way to keep up with curriculum. Then when school resumes, we have to cram in content or shorten content in order to get all the knowledge we need for this end of the year tests and AMI allows teachers to give us content and application content that we would already have to do
in school, um, busy work is my least favorite thing as a student, and I think teachers could probably agree to that. Um, I don't want to do busy work and I don't most of the time have any busy work, um, but even reading material, something and AMIJ, yes, it's a break from school. I've never had an AM AMID where I've had to sit on my computer for 8 hours. It's just not how it is, but at the same time, an 8 hour school day is not continuous learning for 8 hours straight. You have multiple classes, you get breaks, you get lunch, you get,
I have electives. It is not an 8 hour continuous learning. So AMI does not take me 8 hours, um. For an example, I took AP psychology, um, my AP government politics, politics class, my college algebra class, all of those AMI days that we did whenever we had bad weather or not to interfere with anything and they're not to go back and fix anything. It is because each and every unit of my school career adds on to the next one. I have to understand content to
learn and continue that content. So whenever we have AMI, it allows teachers to give us that application. and we maintain what we're learning, we retain what we're learning, and then when school resumes, we are that much more ahead of everyone else, um, breaks are necessary, but also AMI I think is necessary to keep that flow and to keep that path in that curriculum that we need by the end of these test dates. Yeah Um Y'all can ask me questions. I think I'm prepared enough.
Outstanding job and and congratulations on your 35 hours. That's uh definitely above and beyond, so that's outstanding. Uh, are there questions from the committee? See no questions. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience
who'd like to speak on the bill? See nonrepresented Mayberry,
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
32:22
would you like to close for your bill? I don't think I can talk with those kids were saying, um, I think we're looking at future leaders, and I'm so proud to say that they're in my, my district and very thank you for coming up here. Charlotte Bonney Douglas,
thank you for sharing your perspective, um, members, I, I close and I hope for a good vote, um. And I make a motion since I'm a part of this committee for due pass. As amended amended. We have a motion from Representative Maberry do pass as amended. There's
a discussion on the motion. Representative Barker recognized for discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'm still of the belief that
Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker
Unverified
33:07
Schools can use AMI days right now. They can add them much to what these students are saying at any point extra that they want, but I don't believe they should take the place of the 178 day in-person instruction, so I will be a no on this. Represent Andrews
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
33:26
you recognize for discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'm still a no on this bill. I believe like, like Repson Barker said, students need to be
in class 178 days, um, I went to school of course before AMI days and not only did you go to school the whole day, but I was up till 9, 10 o'clock at night, 4 nights a week doing homework. A lot of homework, like so much homework that even parents fussed about the amount, the amount of homework, so I still think it is on the students' responsibility to study and to be prepared for that material on days when they miss. Um You know, you, you missed school day, you can still study, um, the material that you've already
covered you can read forward in textbook, you can be ready, you can still study that in person instruction is so needed. And For, for the excuses of. You know, why we need AMI days and the breaks needed, uh, to me, you know, this is just more liberal talking points from teacher unions when teachers don't wanna work and don't, don't, I don't, I'm not trying to disrespect teachers because my mom's a teacher, my grandma was a teacher, my great grandparents were teachers.
And I'm against this bill. Duke you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair,
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
34:48
and, uh, thank you, Representative Maybury for bringing the bill. I know your passion behind it and you know where I stand on this one. I didn't speak about this last time, members, because I don't know. I just didn't. And, but I figured if the bill came back, I was gonna share a little bit of my experience. We all have them on here. Um, but in 2017, I had a senior and then I had, I don't remember what grade Michael was in, I think he
was in 7th. And then I had a daughter in college. I remember when this bill passed, I was sitting on the grab a school board and I didn't like it then. I questioned it. I didn't support it. I said at the time, and there was only a couple of members on the board that felt the same way that I did at that time. I did not like AMI days. The kids need to be In school they need to be in person, um, kids learn best. I learn best. There's a reason down here in Little Rock, I don't necessarily agree with it, but Legislators make the point of we need to come down here, you need to be at some of these other
committee meetings because you do learn and you experience things differently when you're here in one person rather than online. There is an impact to that one on one conversation or dialogue that you have with the teachers. Also, I, I've got a lot to say on this one. Sorry, um. I also in the have represented the district in Northwest part of the state. So we get a lot of snow and ice. Other members do too. Um, when I was in kindergarten because I lived there, I went to school on
Saturdays because we were out of school for a month and we went half day school on Saturdays. My kids experienced school days. My daughters, my son's birthdays are in June. We went to first of June, many, many times that they were there. I believe there's a management issue sometimes when we don't maximize our days at the end of the school year. I found it offensive when I was a teacher and I am offended for teachers whenever we are told, um, and, and it does happen. I'm not saying it didn't happen. I, I know the teachers pack up their classrooms. I know that teachers don't always maximize
their end of the day, but I did that in the school year, and I know teachers who do. And those, those days they make up, maybe it's field trips, maybe it's time that you are doing experiments or some other things, but you, you make value out of those days. They do matter. I lived During COVID Which rolled into this. I lived watching because I still sit on the school board. I had a kid who was in elementary school or maybe anyway, no, he was in high school and then I had a kid who was in college doing virtual, moved back in with me. A lot of
us have these stories, and then I had a daughter who was teaching first grade. And teach in first grade online. It's not good. Elementary classes are not the same. High school students and I had a high school student in it too. It's not the same. And what I, I mentioned this bill a while back to a judge. Talking about 4 days, and one thing that he had mentioned to me was your kids who excel, they're probably gonna do great with the AMI days. Because their parents may be engaged or be able to be engaged
and they're gonna excel, they're gonna do whatever work which is never the full amount. They're gonna do it. But the kids whose parents either have to go ahead and get to work even though because there's snow or ice on the ground, they still have to get to work, they still have to get the paycheck. Their kids are either unsupervised, they have to figure out childcare
and they're not able to help them, and that gap grows for those kids when they're not there in person. Being in person in front of a teacher matters. It just does. It does matter. Greatly
For your younger students who need to have that. It doesn't look the same for the high school kids and the college kids, but I watched it with my kid who was in high school too. It wasn't the same for him, sharp kid, he got through with his stuff in about an hour. Lots of kids don't show up for those AMI days. They don't come there and the teachers review them anyway, so they get back to school and they still have to review that because if your kids are not there. Or because they don't have like in a lot of parts of my district, they don't have internet.
So they can't get on there and they can't do those days, so we got to catch those kids back up for what we missed during that time period. And then for the pre-packaging. I've I know it well, right? I've sell the prepackaging before COVID. I saw it during COVID. I. And you know, we talked to, I heard. Testimony both times about well we we get to have the continuity and the content, but then we prepackage it. So you can't have continuing content if you're prepackaging, you might be able to grab some of their standards, but you still lose the continuity of the content and you're having to
prepackage for the older kids too because there's older kids who don't
have internet service as well all across this state, particularly in my area. So you don't have that continuity going, so that
argument just doesn't really work for me. Those teachers are coming back and they're gonna have to go over that content again because so
many students are going to miss it. So you're gonna lose days in that as well. I say I also, as I told you, I got a lot, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, I got a lot on this.
I had teachers in tears. During COVID, and I know it's not COVID, but these things happen. They care about their classes and they
were so frustrated cause kids would not show up for those classes. Kids would not do the work. And they're working and they're trying and they're managing all these different pieces of the puzzle. And, and the kids weren't there and the parents weren't able to help them frustration abounded. And I'm afraid this will be a
slippery slope because that's what always happens down here. We give it a little and then we
go more the next time. It always happens. I feel as
you could have it figured out. I feel passionately about this when I try sometimes to keep the emotions out of this one. So I'm gonna try and dial back a little bit. I feel so strongly about what's best for kids. I don't think AMI is what's best for kids. I tell my kids a lot, life's about choices. School districts have choices. They need to manage
their calendars better. We didn't have all of these breaks before. We still had snow and ice.
We still had kids get the groups get the flu. We still had things like that happen. But we also didn't have
some of these long breaks. And I got teachers and friends and children who like fall break, were jealous of Oklahoma when they have fall break and we didn't. But if our choices are the in-person days. At the time most beneficial and having fall break and having a week off at Thanksgiving and having some of these other days sprinkled throughout. Or having the most and having or
having any my days, you need to lose some of those other days. You need to start earlier, you need to get rid of all, not having a full week of Thanksgiving, not
having a full break because life is about choices. You don't get to have everything the way you want it all the time. You have to make some hard choices, and I'm not saying. I, I get why kids like
AMI days, but our perspective here is not just about the high school kids, it's about those kindergarten and 1st grade and 2nd grade kids too. It's about those kids whose parents aren't gonna be there
with them, who are going to be at home alone. It's about those kids who do not have internet and will not be able to do that stuff online. It's about the kids whose packages get lost on the bus and all the classrooms that will go back the next day when they get back in person and go review it all again because probably 50% of the students in that class did not. do the AMI day the way they should. So in case you hadn't figured out I'm a hard no. I'm a no on this one, and I'm a no out of convictions on this one that were born out of 2017 before
COVID were reinforced with COVID and have been reinforced since then by seeing what I've seen live out with my kids as they became adults who like with cell phones, when I didn't let them have, one of them have their cell phones till they got a lot older, the youngest one eventually came back to me and said, Mom, you were right. I didn't like it whenever I was a sophomore. a freshman and I didn't have a cell phone. They came back to me as a senior saying, you were right. And I,
I believe firmly. Firmly that in person learning,
without a doubt is best, and I really encourage my other members to really think on this one because we cannot mess up these days. We cannot get those days back of learning loss with these kids. It is not worth rolling the dice in
education on whether we try this again or not. So with that I am, I'm sure you're all thankful. I'm done. Represent Nazarenko, you're recognized for comment. Uh,
Speaker 71
43:21
thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, uh, first, I just want to start off by
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
43:24
thanking the folks that took the time to visit
here, you boys and uh young lady, you did a wonderful job, excellent job, and uh just incredible. I appreciate you taking the time and, and for you, ma'am. Thank you for your many years of service to the state, uh, and the uh the, the children as well, uh, as I mentioned the last time I had spoke to my district, the teachers as well as superintendents on this, and they stressed the struggles that they, they uh, and, and they passionately, uh, let me know that they were not for online AMI and so for
Speaker 76
43:59
that reason, I am a no. Reson Barnett, you're recognized for discussion. Yes, I just
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
44:11
want to thank you, chair. I wanted to thank Representative Mayberry for uh making the effort to amend her bill and attempt to reach a happy medium. Also thank you for putting that trust in our local school district officials to make those children, um. I don't think
That Days tagged on at the end of the year are sufficient for Recovering from missed days of school, um, crammed instruction is not quality instruction. And so I just wanna thank you for making an effort to amend this bill to find a happy medium. Representative vault, you recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's just
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
45:00
kind of been weighing on my mind the whole time we've been sitting here talking about how important in person is when
we have virtual Arkansas in our state. We have lots of students who take class by computer in this state, and there are a lot of them. And they seem to be very successful at doing it. We're not talking about. I'm so tired of talking about COVID, I could just drive a nail in the coffin for that. This is 3 days. This is not COVID. This is, I agree, the end, I've got two teachers at the end of school, those
students don't want to be learning in June. They don't care. They've already taken all their tests and they do not care for those last 3 days in, in June when we are making them go to class and the teacher might try to teach them something, but I guarantee you, those kids, I think it was someone talked about a switch being flipped off. Maybe it was, uh, the chairman that switch is flipped off after those tests take place. I mean, I hate it. It is the way that it is, but we
are not talking about days upon days upon days. You're talking about 3 days. Say the water is out in the school and it's 3 days before testing starts. That is good instructional time when those kids could be getting something right before a test starts on Monday. So that's something just to kind of pause and take, because I think we've blown this into, it's like all these days, we're talking about 3 days, possibly 3 days, and it doesn't even mean that a school has to take it 3 days. So we're not like.
Like jerking the rug out from underneath anything, so. Thank you Send additional
comment, we have a motion on the table. Oh, my apologies, didn't see your lights there, uh, representative
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
46:50
McGruder, do you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you, uh, Ms. Maybury for Representing Mayberry for amending the bill, your students did a tremendous job uh I am not a fan of Sheridan because I'm a coach in West Memphis, so, uh.
It's a personal thing for me. Uh. But, uh, as I was one who advocated against the, the Learns Act, uh, I can recall the discussion when I was at Aly speaking Adly speaking against it was the choice issue and we wanted everybody to have a choice in the issue. We have home school available on the lines. We have private school options available on the learners and we have the public school option available on online. And we also have the
virtual option available for students under the. learns. So, I don't understand the pushback or against having 3 AMI days when we're giving the choice back to the school districts, so we don't have to oversee what they're doing, uh, AMI is alternative methods of instruction. So if they don't have access to a computer, there's another option available for them, and this is decided on the school district. Being an educator, being a second generation educator, having a family of educators, education
is very important in my family, having 6 children. who survived before AMI who lived during AMI and are surviving well after AMI. The problem that we have here or what I don't understand is, even before this, Now and in the future, the concern is our test scores aren't changing, period. Before AI and we spent millions on solution tree and all these other options. And so, uh, what it sounds like with the days is
we want our kids in their 365 days a year, where teachers don't get a break, and teachers deserve a break. Our day does not start at 7 and end at 3 o'clock. We're dealing with our students after school. Some of us have to take kids home, and we do so much for our students. So I, as an educator, I'm passionate about this. I know I spoke with my superintendents this morning, all 3 of them in my district. All of them said we need some assistance in this situation. I'm not saying they need 30 AMI days, we're asking for 3. So I appreciate that and I even said
it. I wish it was 6. 6 days of instructions and 4 AMI days. So I wish we could find a happy medium and we could do what's best for our districts so we can put the choice back in
their hands. So that's why I'm voting for
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
49:24
this bill. Repent Gonzalezor and you're recognized for discussion. Yes, um, I also would like to thank uh Representative Douglas for giving us a little bit of history of AMI. I did not know that, um, that it had started,
um, in 2017 and that Arkansas was ahead of the head of the curve when it came to um, uh, you know, COVID coming into place and now we, we have a method, an alternate method of instruction when we all had to stay home, um, we all went through that, uh, teaching, I, I teach at the university and I also coach teachers at pre-K all the way to grade 12, and so I saw what, what happened during that time. What I didn't know is, and I don't think in education we tend to do this, um, and it's an all or none
principle. And so essentially when Learns came about, it was all or none, all AMI or no AMI and it turned out to be no MMI and I, I didn't know a lot of that history. So I do appreciate you bringing that up, um. The classrooms that I go into pre-K classrooms, um, there's, there are routines, the students are learning about the weather, they're, they're taking leadership roles in the classroom, you get into a little bit upper elementary, uh, teachers are working one on one
with students or in small teams of 3 or 4 on particular, um, concepts that they need to continue building upon while other students are working in small teams or independently on some other areas. classroom looks very different than than the way it looked, uh, when, when I was teaching, you know, 35 years ago. I mean, a lot has changed. The kids are very familiar with um online instruction. They're they're turning in assignments on Google Docs, um, they're, they're watching, um, videos that go
along with the curriculum and then they're having to critically reflect on what they just saw all of this that I just explained can continue to be done in in a in. an AMI format. Um, I've seen parents have their kids online and what that looked like and then we also have, uh, parents are a student. Well, I have to work, but my neighbor is a stay at home mom and so now we have groups of kids in the neighborhood coming
together doing AMI so that so that there is that parental supervision, so, um, I do like the, uh, idea of, um, uh, only 3, you had 5 and 5, now it's more day 7 in person and I'm all about in-person learning, but I'm also all about a choice and I know how creative teacher. can be when it comes to the lessons where students are not, um, they're, they're not missing out on key facts, material, etc. um, there's a lot of project-based learning going on
nowadays. There's a lot of, uh, lessons that are being taught. Teachers are creating PowerPoints, PowerPoint presentations that go along with their lessons. Those are all way preplanned and they're and they're doing those in, in PLCs, um, so there's, there's so much that can be done and is being. being done with AMI and, and again, it's a choice. If a school district doesn't want to use their, um, snow days or uh uh bad weather days or whatever
they have at least 3 days that they can serve using AMI and. And there are lots of opportunities for kids to continue their learning. I have seen teachers at the end of the year making up snow days and, and, and it's just, it's a chore. It's, it's a chore because the kids, they knew they wouldn't have to be in school, but now they have to be in school and they're just tuned out and, um, and so I'm, I'm voting again in a, it's a stronger yes because you went
back and you amended your bill, uh, to have only 3 and have 7 in person days of learning and I thank you. and the and the students, the students, y'all were awesome. I mean, to take all of those AP classes, I think they can figure out how to do AMI at home, OK, so, um, I think that that, yes, thank you for your bill and I think it's important. I think choice, giving the choice to the school districts and superintendents, and they're gonna make the right decisions
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
53:51
for all of their kids and families. Thank you. Or some coz are you recognized for discussion. I'm just gonna speak around the hour out we only like 5 minutes, so, uh. We'll just get it rounded up. No, I mean, uh, I am on this bill. I, you know, I, I was the one that told Julie we needed to go back to 3 days, and I kind of thought that originally, but we've tried for 5. So I don't think this is gonna apply to a lot of people because a lot of people is not going to have this happen, but I think it's a great option to have and and I'm just
gonna say something I'm probably gonna get in trouble for, but, you know, all of our schools doesn't like everything that comes down from the Department of Ed, you know, and this is something that's, that's being pushed on them from learning. and from the Department of Ed and some of the schools would like to have this option and, um, uh, you know, I, I, it's not that I'm against the Department of Ed or anything they do, but I just know there are some things that superintendents would like to do a little different and have that option to do so I think we should give them that free freedom. I could care less we had 5 or 7 days on the, on
the first part 5 was fine with me, but, you know, at least that option on that 3 AMI days and believe me, this is not COVID. We're never going to have that again. If they do, I think somebody's gonna shoot me because It was that bad, but anyway, uh, I love our teachers and I think they work really hard. I think they do their job. And, uh, I don't think they're gonna abuse this and, you know, we do have kids that are not going to do the right things. And so, uh, you know, each one of y'all have to vote your heart. I will be a yes on this and thank you, Mr. Chair.
See no additional discussion on the bill. We have a motion on the table from Representative Mayberry is to pass as
amended. All in favor, say I. All posts in
no. Congratulations Representative Mayberry. Your bill is passed. You're now recognized to present HB 1242. 1st we do have a handout from Representative
Mayberry. Staff is passing that out right now after members have an opportunity to review that,
uh, Representative Mayberry has a guest. And Representative, if you would please have her introduce herself. For the record, and then you're recognized to present HB 1242 actually. Real quick point of personal privilege. I do want to recognize a group that has just come in a few minutes ago, Mr. Brad Parish, uh, who is a, uh, fellow State Farm agent, he's from Truman, um, I don't know if
he sings like our friend from Truman, uh Representative Rye, but, um, so Brad Parish is here with a homeschool co op group from uh Northeast Arkansas, Jonesboro, Pocahontas, and that area, so we like to recognize or now these young folks over here who've joined us. So thank you for being here. OK,
Speaker 100
57:04
we'll, we'll start a second one just a point of
clarification real quick, so we're gonna be hearing HB 1242 and uh members as well as the public, uh, so this does have a fiscal impact on it and so there's an increase in general revenue and currently, uh, the house uh procedures or that we are hearing these bills, uh, taking discussion, taking public comment on the bills, we're not voting on them, so there will not be a vote on this bill today. We will take the false presentation. We will take. all discussion, all public comment on it, but we will defer the vote on it towards the end
of the session as um leadership gathers all additional bills that have some type of a fiscal impact on the general revenue, general revenue impact, so just wanna let you know that process, uh, process, um. Situation and represent Baberry, you're recognized to present your bill. OK, uh, State Representative Julie
Speaker 57
57:59
Mayberry, District 92. And my name is Chuck McEwan. I
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
58:03
am a director of health services in one of our school districts in the state. I also serve as a board member for the Arkansas,
uh, nurses Association, and I'm a general member of the National Association of School Nurses in the Arkansas State School
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
58:22
Nurses Association. Members, I, I'm going to assume that you probably have gotten the same emails that I have and in this legislative session, I have probably received more in response to this particular bill than any other bill this session. I don't know if they've all gotten into your email box,
but, um, hopefully you, you hear that school nurses across the state need help. And they're looking to you for that help. So I want to point something out in this bill that I think is a really important point and it's on page 2 line 3. And It says for the 2027 to 28 school year. I'm gonna repeat the 27 to 28
school year. So what I'm proposing in this bill and the fiscal impact that's noted on here does not go into effect for 2 years. I presented this exact bill last session. And I even gave a solution to try to find the money that had to go through revenue and tax that bill did not go through. And I realized I really need more help. I had many members.
Hearing the plight of all the school nurses around the state, so many coming up to me saying we wanna help, we wanna help, we understand there's a need, and here we are two years later with the same problem. I believe that if we put our heads together that we can find that money in the next 2 years, we will have time in our adequacy review process to figure out what that is and I'm very thankful I have wanted to
be on this education committee. This is my 5th term. I finally made it here. And because I'm on this committee, I promise you if we are meeting in the interim. I would like to ask our, our chair to make it a concerted effort that we try to find a way to find the money to adequately pay our school nurses. I believe that there are several ways that we can do that and we can talk about those things, but
first I need to present to you just a little bit of information that I've gathered from, um, BLR. So when you compare. Arkansas to other states and what we're paying school nurses. Um, we are at the bottom with all the states around us. Texas, the average salary is 65,000. Tennessee 57,000 Oklahoma 54,000. Arkansas is sitting at 50.
The average of all RNs in all those states, again, this is not specifically school nurses, but in Texas, the average REN is making $90,000 a year. Um, in Tennessee, 78,000 in Oklahoma, 82,000, and Louisiana 80,000 and in Arkansas 72,000. That's all our ends. So, however you want to compare this, if you wanna compare school nurses around the surrounding states, they're at the bottom. If you
want to compare what nurses and other areas working in hospitals, working in clinics, they're at the bottom of this. And I do also want to point out. That The nurses who are working for our state right now. There has been luckily lots of conversation from the governor's office, from the Department of Health, from DHS all saying and
admitting that our state. Nurses are not making enough money, OK? Let me tell you what currently, again, this is from, from BLR from our fiscal department that I got yesterday. The average salary for RNs who are working for the state. The average salary is $74,000 a year. And we keep hearing that those nurses are underpaid.
And we're waiting any day now I keep hearing that there's going to be a, a boost in salary for those nurses in the state of Arkansas because they make
too little. But the group that's left out of that. Are
our school nurses. They deserve an increase as well. Um, I'm not gonna go into all the details, but this, without a doubt, is some great homework for you. I printed all of it. It
probably got emailed to you by some of those nurses as well, but this shows you a look at what our school nurses are doing every day. They are a mini ER. They are not just seeing students, they're seeing faculty and they see everything. I promise you it's not just lice and band-aids. They are seeing some of our most complicated medically complex students in this state. And they're taking care of them.
Our most vulnerable population. I just wanted to put down those numbers so you understand we are at a crisis situation, these school nurses love their job. They love being there with those kids, or they would leave because they know they can make more money doing something else for another, another department or, or what have you. I'm gonna let Jacqueline take over from here. There you go. Thank you,
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
1:04:33
Representative Mayberry, and thank you all for allowing me to speak to each of you today. I'm here today. Asking for your support. And vote for HB 1242. To help support school nurses and to please have open minds and hearts as I speak to you today. I'm going to explain all that nurses do to keep education going and to keep kids in school. I'll be using teachers and all the good work that they do as a comparison to school nurses to
justify why school nurses should be on the same starting salary level. Most people carry the inception that school nurses just get band-aids or ice packs. All day long. I even had someone in my district state, how hard can school nursing be? It's way 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, to the schools. 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 single day. Healthy children equals academic success. The National Association of School Nurses state that 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 releases from school where no school nurse is present. For example, in my own school district, we saw over 180,000 students last year and guess how many we sent home? 5600 academics is the second one. Improved attendance means the healthy student is in the classroom and ready to learn. School nurses enable better performance, which also contributes to reducing dropout rates. The third being time.
School nurses save time for principals, teachers, and staff. A school nurse in the building saves principals almost an hour every day. Teachers almost 20 minutes a day, clerical staff over 45 minutes a day. The 4th being staff wellness. School nurses improved the general health of staff, according to school reports, principals and teachers and clerical staff are very satisfied with having a school nurse in their school for several reasons. Teachers can focus on teaching. Office staff spend less time
calling parents and sending students home so they can do their job. Healthy stuff means increased attendance and productivity. The 5th 1 being accountability. School nurses help schools stay accountable, promoting compliance with federal and state law mitigates lawsuits. Advocating for adequate staffing aligns with healthy people 2020 recommendations on the ratio of one school nurse per 750 students. Preparing for emergencies saves lives and property.
Addressing student mental health links to academic achievement. Registered nurses are required to complete a college education and pass a specialized license exam to accept a nursing job. Chronic health conditions continue to rise every single 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 the state.
And they're 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 are very interested in being a school nurse because that's what their passion is, but once they find out the pay, they pull back their application.
We want qualified nurses to care for our students. They are the only healthcare provider on campus who can provide support in emergency situations and provide high levels of care for our diabetic students, asthma students, seizure students, 2 Fed students, students with severe allergies, heart conditions, students with mental distress and disorders, students with brain injuries, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, food insecurity, drug abuse. have lice and disaster preparedness to name just a few things.
However, nationwide, 3434.2% of RNs working in the schools make greater than $60,000 compared to 69.5% of the RN workforce as a whole. I have nurses that cannot pay their bills. I've had to help them by providing grocery gift cards to help them out so I can keep the staff or provided some financial assistance as well. School nurses are licensed and educated, and we should be recognized as such. I have 2 high schools that have
over 2000 students with 2 nurses and a health aide. One of these high schools that have over 2000 students with um one of these high schools has 146 medications signed into the health room. 1,386 students have medical alerts, meaning that they have a medical condition. And they've seen over 10,000 students so far this year. The other high school has 49 medications, 1968 medical alerts in that school, and they've seen
over 13,000 had 13,000 office visits so far this year. They also have 12 diabetics on each campus. They have multiple CBI students. And they handle emergencies on their campus, which are rather large campuses, and you never know what time those emergencies are going to happen, and they have to leave and go help in that emergency situation. But they also have to make sure that they take care of anybody that walks into their health room at any point in time.
Our smaller schools also have to be able to handle multiple medication students, chronic health conditions, and any illness, injury, or emergency that happens on their campus. Multiple of our smaller schools have medical procedures at school every day that enables our students to stay in school. One nurse in particular does daily peritoneal dialysis in the classroom. For students so that he can attend school while awaiting a kidney transplant. This nurse also has 26 daily medications. And sees the staff and students
that can walk in at any moment and either care. I've mentioned before that we also see staff members. We are a school district that has a little over 3000 staff members in our district and on average every year we have
Speaker 113
1:12:03
6000 staff member office visits into our
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
1:12:07
health rooms. Another school example is two nurses work on a campus with over 1000 students. The nurses have a very busy health room. There are 92 medications for students on their campus. Some of those meds are given right away when the kids show up because the
students cannot manage to have consistency while taking um the med at home. They have 554 students with medical alerts, and this year so far this elementary school has had 9300 office visits. There's a child that cannot urinate on their own, which requires a catheter daily, sometimes twice a day. They have several students that are on 2 feeds because the students cannot eat. One child even needs a hydration through a button in their belly because if they drink water on their own or too fast.
Then the student will aspirate that into their lungs. The nurses monitor 2 students with diabetes. Anytime the students have a snack, the nurses need to provide insulin, so the student's blood sugar doesn't stay too high. Many times those students' blood sugar has dropped so low that the nurses have to run and find them and give them a fast acting carbohydrate. The nurses then have to sit with the students until their levels are high enough to walk away and be on their own. Mental health is huge right now in our schools. This particular school states that they are calming space and
have ways to help reduce anxiety for those students in need. And these nurses have kids who come to them when it starts to rain because they're still not over the fear of the tornado that impacted our city two years ago. These nurses want to ask, have you all ever thought about what happens when a student gets gets wet when their clothes get wet? Not all children have a change in their backpack. Our nurses are a safe place for students to come if they have an accident. And this can happen to any age of student on our campus. We're not just talking about our pre-K kiddos.
The nurses know the parents, um, are working and cannot come to provide a change, and the child wants to be dry and sit still in class, so our nurses also provide clothes, sometimes buying these clothes on their own with their own money. Our nurses are advocates for children every day with vision, hearing, scoliosis, BMI screenings. The nurses provide valuable information for those kids to help them succeed in our school. Our nurses communicate openly with parents and give suggestions when needed. Our nurses call parents for things such as broken bones,
head lacerations, and severe asthma attacks to name just a few. In a doctor's office or clinic setting, you are, they have appointments that are scheduled and they can only take a certain number of patients a day. School nurses do not have scheduled appointments and never know it will walk into their office or never know what radio call they are going to get. Which requires critical thinking nonstop during the 8.5 hours they work each day. Nurses on their same hourly and day contract as teachers, while we are supposed to have 2 15
minute breaks and a lunchtime. Many times school nurses are not able to take their breaks or lunches due to the influx of students that come in at all time periods during the day. And up until the time that they leave, which is not always just an 8.5 hour day. Most of my nurses stay after they're assigned time to care for students and to complete work. Nurses are also responsible on each campuses for educating the staff members and hands-only CPR, AED preparedness, stop the bleed education, EpiPen usage, and continuing to keep their
Project Adam team current and running drills. We need more school nurses to help cover the care of the students, but 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 is a challenge to keep staff when they can go to the hospitals and make more, more money. Even working just part time. I currently have 5 schools with open nurse positions.
The nurses that we do have are very caring and passionate about helping our students. When the teachers got a pay raise that they deserved from the state. It did leave out other education employees such as the nurses that should be compensated as well. We do not hire brand new graduate nurses. They need to have at least 2 years of hospital experience due to the base knowledge that they need to have it be to be a school nurse. Another reason for having experienced nurses is that they're nurse-only procedures such as adjustment of
ventilators, insulin, glucagon, nasogastric tube feedings, nutritional assessment, GJ 2 feedings, total parental feeding through an IV, sterile catheters, central line catheters, peritoneal dialysis. Developing protocols such as healthcare procedures, emergency protocols, and individualized healthcare plans. And are in scope of practice is the delivery of healthcare services. Which require assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation.
An LPN scope of practice is a delivery of healthcare services which are performed under the direction of the professional nurse licensed physician or licensed dentist, including observation, intervention, and evaluation. I often refer to school nursing as a wild west of nursing. We are qualified professionals that provide care to anyone that steps onto our campus with limited supplies and on our own. In the hospital setting, you have a team. A medical professionals.
In a safe practicing ratio of nurse to patient care, such as in the ICU, you have 1 nurse to 2 patients, sometimes 3. In med surge, you can have a one nurse to 7 patients. And anywhere in between those numbers. The hospital also comes to provide support with all their fancy equipment. And supplies that are needed. On a school campus, you are relying on laypeople to sometimes assist you if they volunteer to provide support. While teachers are educating on average 25 students.
A student may get ill or injured in their classroom. Having a school nurse on campus allows the teacher to continue to provide a safe learning environment while the nurse takes over care. Now take each classroom of 25 students. Add in all the classrooms for that grade. And then add in all the grades for that school plus faculty. That this nurse is responsible for. all at any moment. School nurses provide services to all students in the school, all staff members in the school,
and any visitors that come onto 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 health conditions noted. In my school district we have around 20,000 students. Out of those 20,000 over 10,000 students have medical conditions noted that means there needs to
be 10,000 IHPs on all of these students. We have one or two school 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 all that we do. 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.
So 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 on the campus. Thank you.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:20:13
Thank you very much for sharing a lot of that. I mean, You definitely know that there's a need for these school nurses, um, and I would even say that if you had superintendents up here, they're going to say they know that there's a need, they know that there's school nurses are, um, doing great work. And they're not opposed to trying to raise a, a salary, but they're gonna say we don't have money to do that. And that's where the complication falls, um, until we say this has got to be the base salary.
We're never going to fund them adequately for that. So it's kind of like what came first, the chicken or the egg, and so that's why this proposal is saying in 2027, 928. That this would take place that gives us 2 years as a team. Working with DHS working with the health department to find some outside of the box solutions to find that money that we need to raise these
salaries. That's what the goal of this bill is it does not mean that we have to find it right this second, but it means that we are committed to helping our school districts find that funding source and this survey that was, um, part of our Adequacy said that 58% of superintendents reported that their districts were in moderate or extreme need of more funding for nurses, um. Some school districts may not be
billing Medicaid enough. Um, Arkansas Medicaid and schools, they, they, they can bill Medicaid for some services for eye exams for, um, hearing exams and for personal care. Are we making use of that enough? Is there something that we can do? Can we work closer with Medicaid and trying to figure out how that could also branch over and help find this money. The money that's in there, I know it's, you might say, well, it's a
a few million dollars, but really in our big Picture, it's really not a lot, and if we find a little bit here and a little bit there, there might be tobacco settlement money that we can explore. I, I would encourage us over the next 2 years and if, if our chair would allow us to have some meetings, um, I've been working on this since 2011. I promise you I'm dedicated to try to have some, some meetings so that we can work together and
find a solution to find this money. There you go. Represent Mayberry has presented your bill. Thank you for your time. Thank you as well for being here for your uh comments or the questions from the committee.
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:23:08
Representative Duke, you're recognized for a question. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, thank you, Representative Mayberry, for your work on this, uh, I think we've talked offline and that and last session that. We know that there is an issue here, and I think, um,
I mentioned earlier, you know, having teachers in tears about things during the, the word that Representative Lot doesn't want me to say anymore. I won't say, um, but there were a lot of, um, there were a lot of teachers and nurses in tears several years ago because of the things that they were having to deal with. I, I do, I'm sorry, I need to get to your question. So my question is, I want to preface that by saying, Don't take this question as I'm not supportive of trying to do something for nurses, but I need to have some data. So can you tell me when you're
doing the average salaries on these nurses when you're comparing those, are you doing those with the same amount of 190 days. Salary that teachers, that nurses get. In the public schools and in the private sector. So we're doing apples to apples because that's a conversation I've had with teachers a lot. Uh, there is a difference whenever you're doing a salary for 9 months versus somebody who's working 12 months, and so that, those days off, those months off, that's, that's a bonus, that's, that's an added value to being a
teacher and to being a school nurse and things like that as well. So that is, I would, I would like to know the answer to that. Are you comparing apples to apples when
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:24:34
you look at salaries and you're saying what they are. To the days that are worked. So, uh, yes, I, I do understand there it's 190 days that, that, the, uh, school nurses work and it's kind of hard to know the data that the state has given me when it says the average salary for Rents in the state. Now these, these are again are state. Employed nurses, OK, working for
the Department of Health or county, you know, uh, health unit. Um, it's hard to know without more information and there's so many different positions, exactly how many days that would be OK, but roughly I was guessing and, and if someone is smarter than me and knows this information, oh, do you know? from Ma'am, if you would please, uh, go to the end of the table and
if you would please introduce yourself for the record and then you're recognized to help answer
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:25:27
the question because I did some math, uh, last
Amy Fortner
Unverified
1:25:30
night, just trying to analyze what that would be, but my name is Amy Fortner. I'm the president
Speaker 132
1:25:35
of the Arkansas School Nurse Association and current school nurse in the public schools. The information that was provided to um you guys from the fiscal impact was directly from e-finance and e-school which comes from school nursing or school, public schools services only. So the numbers as far as salaries that are on the information provided would be from school nurses in the schools working the 178 to 190 day sector. OK
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:26:00
Some of the information, but to, to get back to where I think you're going comparing that that average salary of the state employee making about 74,000. I was estimating based on. 243 days. I don't know if that's correct, um, but that would be about 58,000. So, um, yes, they, they do work less days, they are off. There are some advantages, and that's why a lot of these school nurses are willing to continue with that job because they, you know,
they see the advantages of that, but it's still below what it, it needs to be and keep in mind that that amount, that average salary of 74,000, we are hearing. is too low and to my knowledge, there is a state pay plan that will significantly increase that, which will make it even more challenging to find our school nurses willing to continue to stay with their job because they know they can go find another job making even more money.
So the problem's just gonna get worse,
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:27:04
so to follow up. If you, since I, my understanding is we're not voting on this today, um, if you can get a little more concrete information on that. Because I, I want to compare apples to apples. I, I felt that way, um, with teachers or anyone talk about salary because that is an added value that oftentimes doesn't get talked about when we talk about races, and I do think it matters and so that we have that information. Also whenever you talked about
the other states surrounding and you gave those data well, as well. It again the number days. That they are working so that we are comparing apples to apples so that we just know because That is a, that's a hard conversation. So if you would be able to get that if
you don't have that already, if you have it already, great, I would love to hear it. I will work on on those
numbers. Representative Gonzalez Worthy, you're recognized for a question. Yes, um.
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:28:05
I too was wondering about the number of days because I think contract days are different among school districts, so that, that was, so I'm glad, I'm glad that you asked that question. Um, I was curious, do we have any data on, you know, your typical school nurse, you gave us a lot of data in terms of what their normal day looks like. And compare that to a nurse in terms of, you know, one that works in a clinic or a hospital in terms of their case load. And the, what they see. I know
that. I don't know if there's such a thing, but I'm just curious, um, if you have any knowledge of
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
1:28:42
that. Thank you, Representative Gonzalez. I, uh, brought up the point of, you know, clinics office settings, and they can schedule appointments so they can make sure that they don't exceed a number of patients that I can care for in a day, um, and compare that to our school nurse offices where, for example, I was at a school on Monday subbing for one of the open
schools that we have. And during an hour and a half time frame. I saw 25 students during that hour and a half time. Had a student with a low blood sugar that was having to correct an increase to make sure that they were OK. I had a student with a head injury that was in there that I had to keep in there and evaluate and multiple medication students are coming in during that hour and a half hour time on top of students that are ill, students that had playground injuries, and that wasn't an hour and a half time that I had to deal with all of
that on my own. OK And in the hospital you also have, you have a team of medical professionals that you can go, hey, Amy, can you come help me with this patient really quick. I don't have that in the schools. I don't have that. I don't have the, I don't have any oxygen in the schools. I don't have anything that I can do. Besides, on my own. And with the tools that I have been provided. And you also have a safe staffing ratio. They look at that, they go, how much can a nurse handle in the hospital,
which is that in the ICU I've worked in the ICU, I've worked in the ER. You have 1 or 2, sometimes I'll have 1 to 3 when I worked in the ICU in the ER you have a whole team of nurses that will come to your rescue with, with all of their experience and knowledge, and you do not have that in the school. So I think when you're looking at the days and then comparing to the number of hours and the things that you do, you also have to think about all that we have to do as one individual. Sometimes if we're lucky, two nurses on a campus. But those individualized healthcare plans are part of
what Jesse says that we have to do to complete, and one of those schools that I mentioned earlier had 1,968 students in their school of 2400 students. And they have to write that many care plans. Well, you have to write those care plans, but then you also have these students coming in at all hours of the day, you have the multiple medication students, you have the diabetics that are having the low blood sugar, the high blood sugar that you're having to treat and do. And so I think it's, it's when you're, I get that we need to have a number
that we need to produce and say, you know what, this is what's compared statewide, but I also implore you all to think about it as I don't do just the bare minimum. What do we need you to do to support school nurses in our state because there is something that we need to do to support because I have lost great nurses due to salary. I lost one this year that goes, it's really hard when you've been working my school district for 10 years. And your brand new teacher. Comes in and they're getting paid more than I am.
That's hard. That's a hard pill to swallow when we can't even practice unless we have passed our licensing exam. So I think we need to think a little outside of the box on this, and that's what I recommend to all of you is that it's not necessarily a numbers game because what school nurses do brings so much to help support the education and that's what we love to do. That's why we're in this. We love to work with our teachers. We love to work with our principals. We love to work with our counselors, but what is being put on our plates and also what we have To do required statewide.
And you're asking one person to do that or two for these large campuses. It's difficult and it's stressful, and my nurses tell me that all the time, how stressful it is. They could go to the hospital and have their buddy nurse come and help them whenever they need it, and you don't have that in the schools. OK.
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:32:39
I, I just have one follow up, so based on the survey that that this information that you gave us here on page 5.
Um, these are all of the, uh, chronic health conditions that our students currently have in the state and so, um, so the students that, that have all of these conditions at the bottom it says quick fact 86,558 students missed at least 10% or more of the school year, regardless, that's due to having a health condition. I'm just asking, is that correct? That's that's correct. OK, and so my follow up.
It's not a question, but it's just a comment. So when a student misses more than 10% of the school year, they're considered chronically absent. That's chronic absenteeism. So when it's, and we don't think about it that way, but that's chronic absenteeism and that definitely. will impact their learning and whether they're reading on grade level, etc. So I appreciate the
data that you gave us today. Seeing no additional questions from the committee. Beck, did you have a question? Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Right Sorry about
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:34:06
that. It should have been read. All right. A lot of people make fun of me here because they say I always want to see the data, the data, the data. And, and I, I think you're lacking some data here. I think there's some holes in
your data. I'm, I'm just gonna say that right, I mean, you know, we need to apples to apples is, is a great, you know, as far as days worked and all that, I think all that's important. But the real concern that I have and I'm, I'll try to make a question out of this, but I, I'm giving you this because this is the concern that I have, right? I don't understand. Trying to attach The nurses' salaries. To a teacher's salary, uh, and, and you and I have talked offline about this as far as the
comparable education and the similar experience, I think was the term that you used in the. In the bill, but That doesn't work for me. Because, quite honestly, maybe a school nurse needs to be paid more than a teacher. I, I, I'm not saying more. I'm not saying less. I'm saying we need to evaluate the job based upon what they're doing, not comparing it to this other job out there that has a whole different skill set. They might have comparable Um, you know, they might have
some crossover things, but, but it's, it's a whole different ball game and, and I think that that's what we need to do with this. Going forward. Take a, take a look at that. You know, it, it, I, I, I love, I loved your opinion, uh, your, your statement that you know, maybe we need more nurses, right? Yeah, yeah, maybe we need more nurses being, you know, maybe the pay's not as, we don't take the pay up as much but we we put more money in there so there's more nurses so that people have backup so you don't have to do all the, all the things I, I don't know what
the answer is there, but I think just grabbing. Someone with sort of a same level as postsecondary education level, you know, and say, OK, that's going to be the basis for these people's pay because these other people that have this same level of education, do the same thing. I think that's. A problem. And I would encourage you. To to To redo this. With that data. I think you got some great data here. I like that and I do appreciate the
nurses, and I'm sure there's lots of nurses here today. I think they do a great job and I think they have a hard job, as you said, because they're looking at a pretty wide area, things that they have to deal with. I think all that's important, but we need to put that together, uh, and then come back and say this is what teachers pay should be independent of what teachers, I mean it's nurses' pay should be independent of what what teachers pay. Wouldn't you agree? And, and, and
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:36:48
we did have this conversation ahead of time, and I really appreciated represented Beck coming and talking to me
about this. I, I mean, I, I don't stand here and say I have the perfect solution. This was an idea that the school nurses came to me last time and said, you know, we, we, we, we want to um. If, if we have a bachelor's degree. And the teacher has a bachelor's degree. It, it shows that they've had the same amount of education and, and we were just trying to be fair and come up with something. There really isn't a formula out there, and so that was the idea of, OK, you
have 0 experience, brand new bachelor's degree of nursing, zero experience brand new um degree to to teach and let's, let's at least use that as a base, because again, it's different than other nursing jobs because it is the 119. days and you're off and all that, and so where do you even begin? and that's, that's where that base came from, um, I think if we follow just nursing, it's probably gonna be even higher than that. I, I'm just, I'm just
telling you, um, I think it's gonna be an even greater fiscal impact. So I don't mind exploring that. But I'm just warning that if we go down that road, it's probably going to be even greater than that $50,000 a year minimum. So again, I just, I put it back to the committee. We're a team up here and um, you know, I'm not standing here saying I have the perfect solution. We, we know that there's a problem. This is
one idea. If you have a better solution, by all means, let's talk about it and figure
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
1:38:35
it out. Uh, and, and I, I, I appreciate your efforts on this. I, I really do, but. You, you just use a bachelor's degree, right? Alright, so anyone in that school district. bus driver could have a bachelor's degree. Yeah, you see what I'm saying? That's, that's the problem. I think we, we really need to pay the nurses what what they're uh and that don't mean this in a negative
way in any way, what they're worth, right? You know, this is, this is where their profession is. This is what they do, uh, you know, and, and we should pay them a a a a salary that they, they, they need to be paid and, and if not, I don't, I don't, uh, quite honestly, I don't blame them for going somewhere else and, and, and, and going to to work in a hospital or or our clinic or whatever, but I think that's the basis that we've got to start with, you know, where's this at? Now, the other thing I,
I'll comment on then I'll, then I'll shut up here, but it is this. We, we have a thing that we call superintendents, and we fund through a matrix that pumps a lot of money into the school districts. They decide what the teacher's salary is. Now that your, your statement, I think you said 56% of the the superintendents, I might have got that wrong, she said 56% of the superintendents said they needed more money for nursing, I think for to pay nurses, I think you said that. I don't know if
you've ever sat in on when we do the matrix, every category. There is 7. 25%, 50, I'm tell you what, 56% is a low number. They use it, everything's like 75% or whatever like that. I've, I've been in there and setting those things where the superintendents said they needed more money for a category, and we looked at the thing and I didn't even spend the money that we gave them the last time, but they said that we needed 75% of them said we needed more money in this category. You didn't even spend it the last time, so anyway, I, I,
I would look at a different number than that. Thank you.
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
1:40:30
Would I be able to comment again, um, so. I like your example or your idea of having more school nurses. I would love to have as many school nurses as I could to help with the workload. But the problem is we can't get them into our schools period dot because of the pay. We've lost 25% of school nurses in our state. Due to the pay. We cannot continue to lose more because the value of our students and their education is very important and how we take care of those kids and keep them
in school so they can receive an education. You can't put a number on that. So, I think we, we need to evaluate. I love the ideas getting paid more. But this is kind of where we're at. We're kind of at this, what do we do? How can we get the nurses a recognition, and I think the matrix, the nurses and the counselors are on the same line in the matrix. Um, our counselors do, I mean, I can celebrate them as well. They do a great job for our students, and we tag team a lot with our counselors. If I can't fix it, I send him to the counselor. The counselor can't think he said,
they sent him to us. We do a lot of team collaboration. that. But I have to stress while I'm here today, that There needs to be an increase. And it can't just be $1000 can't just be $2000. We need to do something so we can get the, the Skilled nurses in our schools because it requires a lot of skills to take care of our students. Representative Brown, you recognize for a question.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:42:04
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much for your presentation. I know that school nurses do work hard and you have a, a challenging job. I had a nice visit with a school nurse this week, um, my question, um, has to do with um. Well, I'll just make the question and I will be legal, uh, not all schools have school nurses, am I correct? Absolutely correct. So what, when you're facing all these challenges as a school nurse.
Can either of you comment on what the schools do that don't even have a
Speaker 137
1:42:40
school nurse. So we have to train our teachers, which takes
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
1:42:43
away time from their education. We have to train the clerical staff, which takes away from their job that they need to do to help support the principal, um, and to help support the schools, um, some districts have some float nurses that can help fill in some gaps and float between those schools that don't have somebody, um, for example, myself, I've been filling in at a, at a school. I can when I don't have to do my
administrative duties to help cover for, for those campuses. But there are schools that have students that have needs, but you're having a registered nurse that has to do the training for somebody, but that pulls away from their job. Represent Mayberry, just to clarify, are you
requesting someone else to join you at the table, Cynthia I'm sorry, I
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:43:26
didn't turn that on. I think Cynthia Hines wanted to Share some information and you
would, please introduce yourself for the record and then uh if
there's uh an answer toresentative Brown's question, I'll take that, otherwise I won't let representative Brown continue her line of questioning, please. Anyway. I'm,
Cynthia Hines
Unverified
1:43:46
I'm Cynthia Hines. I'm coordinator of health services with Pulaski County Special School District. I'm a member of the Arkansas. If you would please speak into the microphone. My name is Cynthia Hines. I'm coordinator of health services with Pulaski County Special School District. I have been in
nursing for 52 years, 47 of those years have been in school nursing in the last 16 of those have been in an administrative position as Ms. McEwan in my district. um, I'm gonna be, be very brief. I reiterate everything that she said, um, and I wanna say we have been fighting for about 20 years. To get a pay increase for nurses. I have been coming to the legislature since about 1990, fighting for school nurse issues even when we were trying to get
a ratio of 1 to 1000. Um, I just want to give you an example of my, my district ma'am, and I apologize, I respectfully, I want to
make sure we stay on the question right now. We have a question from a member and I know that we have time signed up to speak on the bill. I want to make sure I allow for that because I know you're signed up as well, but I want to make sure that we, uh, stick to the question that representative Brown has asked, representative, if you don't mind, just reasing your question, we can stick with that and continue with
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:45:05
member questions. Well, I express my appreciation for school nurses because I know you, you have a,
you're juggle on a lot of things, um. But what do our schools do? My question was, what do our schools do? How do they handle all these situations when they don't even have a school nurse and I, and I'm not trying to diminish school nurses at all. I'm just saying what do these other schools do? Please. Thank you. Um, as I
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
1:45:29
said before, um, sometimes if there is a nurse in the district, that nurse is responsible for the education for those schools that do not have a school nurse. If
there is a school for um that is empty due to someone quitting or things of that sort. We pull nurses from other schools to help cover the nurse only procedures at those schools, or we had trained somebody to be a medication pro, um, on our campuses to give medication in the absence of the nurse. Thank you. That was. What I wanted to know. Thank you.
Speaker 161
1:45:59
Are there additional questions by members say no additional questions, uh, we
have several people who are signed to speak on the bill. And I apologize. I feel like I'm about to sneeze, so I don't want to sneeze in the micro away, thankfully for everyone.
Thank you. Uh, so, um, Miss Portner, you have been at the table. Uh, do you have additional things that you want to add beyond
uh what you've already spoken on. You're the first one signed up to speak on the bill. If you would please go ahead and just recognize yourself again or introduce yourself again and uh
Amy Fortner
Unverified
1:46:42
you can make your comment. My name is Amy Fortner. I'm the president of the Arkansas School
Speaker 132
1:46:48
Nurses Association, and sometimes my passion comes out in my eyes. So I have been crying and it's because I'm very passionate about this. I've been in the school district for 13 years. I do not make $50,000. I have a master's, um, that I'm fixing to graduate with, um. Our children in the school, some of them could not even attend school without the help of a school nurse in the schools that do not have a school nurse, we
can delegate certain things to non-licensed personnel by training, but there are lots of things that are not delegable by the Arkansas school board, um, Arkansas school board of nursing and if someone in the school district is doing something that's not delegatable to them, that's practic. nursing without a license, and that is a, it's a crime. I feel very passionate about making sure that our kids have nurses. Being the president and
in this position for over 8 years. We've, this, this is the largest empty section of school nurses that we've had by far, and we were 25% at the end of last school year, and several of those positions were never filled this school year and actually we're taken away by the school districts, putting putting more pressure on school nurses. We've got to do something and we've been saying we want to help, we want to help, but 1990 to now every two years we
come up and there's not a, there's not a solution. When is there gonna be a solution for the kids in our districts that need to be in the school. Health healthy with access to a school nurse. When is that going to become the priority. Education is the priority, but if they're not healthy and safe and ready to learn, they're not gonna be in those seats. That's all I have to say. Are there questions from members? Morton Thank you for your time.
Uh, next signed up, uh, Cynthia, I believe you're already at the table. If you would please uh
Cynthia Hines
Unverified
1:48:53
go ahead and introduce yourself again and you can continue with your comment. My name is Cynthia
Hines. I'm coordinator of health services with Pulaski County Special School District. Um, as I said, I've been in nursing for 52 years and 47 of those have been in school nursing with the last 16 being in administrative position. Um, I've also said that I have been coming to the legislature since 1990 fighting for school nurse and student issues. And like Amy, I get emotional, so.
I'm sorry for that. But what, what, what we're trying to say is just in my district, I wanted to say that now that the nurses I mean, the teachers can start at a $50,000. Or a teacher just coming in. A nurse in my district, I don't hire a nurse with zero experience. They have to have a minimum of 2 years. And then that puts them on a step 3. If I did hire a nurse with no experience, her salary
would be less than $43,000 a year and a nurse with 2 years' experience it's only 44. So a nurse in my district has to have 25 years of experience before they ever make $65,000. After have and so what we're What we're, what we're asking for is to at least Get our nurses up to a minimum. That is better than what we have now so that we can get some
nurses in my district alone, I've been In the past 16 years that I've been in this position in my school district. I have interviewed 376 nurses. And I've hired 130 out of those. Oh, I only have. 15 those nurses. The other 115 of them have left because over 90% because of the pay. And this is what we're asking. We cannot get and retain nurses.
Because For the salary. And that's just what we're asking. We I've been a member of the National Association and the Arkansas School Nurses Association, all these 47 years in school nursing and when I was, when I left my hometown as a school nurse after 31 years there, I still was not even bringing home $23,000. And it's really not much better now. So this is what we're asking.
We, as, as Miss McEwan said, Ms. Portner said we've had so many students with complex medical problems that need their nurse in their school or they couldn't be here. And if we, if we, it's, it's a dire situation and I think it speaks for itself with these numbers I just gave you. And I've hired 130 and 115 of them have gone. So It's People in general have, have a
very incorrect conception idea of what we do, we do. Nurse school nurses wear so many hats. And there. Their service is vital. And I'm, I'm just asking you to please have open hearts and open minds because this does affect their education. It affects their well-being. And We've tried and we've tried. And we continually get Shut down and every 2 years.
Over the years, all these years, all these decades I've been in this, more and more things have been mandated for the school nurse to do, but there's never any funds. It always says if funds are available, but the school districts never have the funds for us. They seem to find funds for other things. But This is a desperate, and our kids deserve.
I have a nurse so I can't stay in school and they can learn. Are you open to take questions? Are the questions from the committee. And thank you so much for your time and your passion. I guess I, I do have one quick question, and I think you just hit on it just then, uh, you made the statement that school districts always seem to find funds for everything else, so maybe you could opine a little bit as to why that might be in some of your perspective on, on Uh, what the priorities are
Cynthia Hines
Unverified
1:53:32
there that that are placed over nurses. Well, I don't know. I don't mean for this to sound the right. In my district, I serve on the district wellness committee district and um at that time we just had one, We were in a meeting in his office one day, and our district
has between 75 and 80 coaches. I have 30 full-time nurses. And I know that I know that is. But we've asked for things over. And we get denied And because of this, Our nurses
Thank you for sharing that example. I think your point is well made. Are there additional questions from the committee for the?
Uh Cynthia Thank you for your time. We have one other person signed up to speak on the bill. Presley Milliken. Oh. Perfect. And we have no one else signed. Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak on the bill, saying no one else to speak on the bill. As I said, we will not be taking a vote on the bill, so I will not take a
motion at this time. Uh, we will reconvene on HB 1242, uh, closer to the end of the session and we'll uh take a motion at that point and discuss the motion then vote on the bill, uh, and, and Reverend Baberry, thank you for bringing your time. Thank you for bringing, um, Bringing the issue, uh, yes, Representative Garter, you're recognized. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just would
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:55:43
like to make a comment. As a nurse practitioner who worked in the schools. I'm one of the ones that couldn't hack it.
I went to a cancer center where I did have the support because we could not take care of the kids that we were. That we were supposed to be taking care of and that was 40 years ago and by all means, we were not, uh, we were not just band-aids and ice packs then, but now every time I go into a school as an educated education committee member, the first comment is the mental and behavioral health of the kids. So those kinds of issues are
happening across the board. We are in a crisis. We're in a crisis for mental health and behavioral health. We're in a crisis for school nurses, and I, for one, implore you guys to do something to make sure that we have the care that our kids need in the school system. Sometimes the kids I saw, I was the only one who saw the child or the parents. They didn't have a PCP. They didn't have anybody else. They came to school and they came to the nurses. So I, I'm so
thankful for you guys. Like I said, I, I couldn't do it. Because I didn't have the support and so I appreciate everything you're
doing and I for one will do whatever I can to make sure that
you guys get a paycheck. Thank you, Representative Gardner. So, uh, again, uh, we're going to be, I'm not sure what the. procedural term would be for pausing the bill. Uh, do I need to, is there any specific terminology we'd use otherwise, OK.
right, yeah, just wanna make sure we're doing that properly. Uh, so again, and, and I will say represent Bay again, thank you for bringing the bill and you know, certainly you ask a couple of times if uh if the chair would allow for us to have discussion on this moving forward as we go in the interim, uh, those who've been involved in the past have, have known that we meet, uh, definitely a few times uh a month to, uh, to the adequacy process on regular meetings and, uh, absolutely committed to work with our partners in the Senate, uh, to have these conversations moving forward with it, with the time frame out in the. So I look forward to taking that
up and again we will take this bill back up uh closer to the end of the session for motion and voting on it so and see no additional business how education is adjourned.
Agenda
REGULAR AGENDA
SB90 J. English TO REQUIRE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO BE AFFORDED THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT PUBLIC COMMENT AT EACH MEETING OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
HB1242 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES ARE COMPENSATED.
HB1370 J. Mayberry CONCERNING MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS; AND TO REQUIRE A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO INCLUDE ADDITIONAL DAYS OR HOURS, AS APPLICABLE, IN ITS SCHOOL CALENDAR FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS.
HB1490 Wardlaw TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT THAT A PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT RETURN TEMPORARILY ISSUED ITEMS, RESOURCES, MATERIALS, AND PROPERTY BELONGING TO A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE TO ENROLL IN A HOME SCHOOL.
SB135 J. Boyd TO AMEND ELECTION REQUIREMENTS IN THE CASE OF AN UNCHANGED RATE OF AN ANNUAL AD VALOREM PROPERTY TAX LEVIED BY A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — EDUCATION COMMITTEE- HOUSE, Feb 27, 2025 | Agenda | 3 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
Representative Keith Brooks Chair
Unverified
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 12
Speaker 13
Speaker 21
Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker
Unverified
Speaker 34
Speaker 35
Speaker 39
Speaker 42
Speaker 48
Presley Milligan
Unverified
Representative Wade Andrews
Unverified
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Speaker 71
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
Speaker 76
Representative Lincoln Barnett
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
Speaker 100
Speaker 57
Chuck Mcewan
Unverified
Speaker 113
Amy Fortner
Unverified
Speaker 132
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
Speaker 137
Cynthia Hines
Unverified
Speaker 161
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified