Education Committee- House

started in prayer this morning. Father, your gracious and faithful, thank you for your mercies which are new every morning. Thank you for, uh, the safety that you blessed us with God on the roads clearing up and the sunshine, just the simple blessings of life we want to recognize today, Lord, go before us today as we do the business of the people of the state of Arkansas. May we act with compassion and grace and wisdom and all things. It's in Christ we pray. Amen. Barely. Uh, so first members, uh, we're hearing two bills this morning. We're gonna hear HB 1117 and then SB 206, 1st on HB 11,170, we'll hear that first. However, we do need a motion initially don't, don't jump the gun there, Representative Richardson. Uh, we do need a motion to expunge the vote. By which it failed, we have a motion from Representative Vaut, uh, is there any, is that a debatable motion? That is a debatable motion. Is there any debate on the motion? Representative Cozart. So that bill only failed once that we have to debate it. I mean, we have to expunge that vote or can we not just run it again? You have 2 times, don't you? Just, just curious. So there seems to be a little bit of question on that, but uh we do have a motion to explain that's fine, that's fine. I mean that's that'll put it back to 0, right? I believe so, yes, sir. Uh, so we have a motion, we have a motion to expunge, is there any other debate on the motion? See, no debate. All in favor say aye, all opposed. The vote has been expunged, uh, now Representative Richard Junior recognized to present your bill, HB 1117. Please introduce yourself for the record, and then you're recognized. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Scott Richardson. I'm from, uh, House District 13. Uh, thank you committee. Thank you for that, uh, vote on expunging the. The previous, uh, Poor decision that I made to continue forward. Hopefully I've, uh, addressed in this bill all of the challenges that uh you guys presented to me and that we have a bill that uh that best represents what you guys would like to accomplish, uh, if, if you look down on Uh, line 35 of the bill, um, you'll notice that we removed any reference to use in the bill. This is not about training the use of firearms. This is simply about safety, uh, so we want to make sure we clean that message up and and and made that clear and then also you can look uh, on page 2, down the line 34, 35, 36, um, there was a lot of concern that we were trying to teach uh Second Amendment or the Article 2. our constitution state constitution, that is not the intent of the bill either so we've moved all reference uh to that, uh, and, uh, clean that portion up as well and with that, I'm happy to take any additional questions that you might have. Are there any questions from the committee, Representative Gonzalez Worthy, you're recognized. Yes, thank you for making those changes, um. I wanted to ask um about line. Um, 19. Through 29. Toward the end of the bill. And off-campus commission approved firearm safety course may be provided in conjunction with a live fire exercise or sporting event. And then it goes on to say about the off-campus event, so what I'm wondering is the bill is on about. safe gun safety. So if they're wanting to go further to learn how now to shoot a gun properly, shoot a gun, etc. That would be out of school time, is that, is that correct or how, how, how would that work? How, how, how, what do you anticipate? This looking like absolutely, and that's a great question. uh, thank you for that. So this is written in specifically to address our current shooting sports that we have across the state that you participate in, um, and allowing the substitution of their safety training that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission already provides in that as a uh as this prerequisite, so that's just simply if they do participate in that and the parents already have approved them for that and we have that. written here that the parents have to have approved that, then that can substitute for this term. For the safety training OK so because my understanding and I just wanted some clarity, was that all students would then go off campus to learn how to um shoot a gun, so that's not the case, so. That is, that is not the case for students who are already in shooting sports off campus like an extracurricular or outside of school if they're involved with that sporting event, then they, they would have the knowledge if they went through the um. Safety program from the parks. from the, from the um Came in fish. I was gonna say parks Arkansas State game and fish. So I, I do know that they do provide, you know, how to shoot a gun and gun safety and so forth. So you're just saying that if a student already is doing that through the Arkansas State Game and Fish. They have that certification that they know how to use a gun, then that would offset them having to be in a classroom learning about gun safety. Absolutely. OK, I just wanted the clarification. OK, and then one last question. Um, one last question is, when do you anticipate? The gun safety course or training to be held during the school day. We've left that completely up to the department. We feel it's best for them to manage that, um, they have, uh, the tools available to determine the best time to, to implement that and and it'll be dependent on um uh what else they've got going on throughout the year. I, I, there's a lot of really great suggestions that came out of the committee, uh, and in speaking with the game and fish, they, they've already got a lot of really wonderful ideas around safety week, a red ribbon Week, all of those kinds of things that would provide an opportunity for them to. Just introduce this small piece and go forward. Thank you Thank you Other additional questions from the committee. Represent painter you recognize just the motion at the proper time. Additional questions see no additional questions. There's no one to sign to uh to speak on the bill. Representative Richardson, would you like to close for your bill? I, I, I appreciate the opportunity to represent this bill committee, and I appreciate uh a good vote on it. Represent Richardson's clothes for. We have a motion on the table of do pass from representative painters or discussion on the motion? Resent Beck. I, I just want to thank the, thank you for making the changes. I read it this morning. I thought, I love this bill now, so it's a great bill, so I appreciate your extra work on it. Thank you. Uh, Representative Gonzalez Worth, you recognize? No, oh sorry. So you know the discussion on the bill, uh, all on paper, say I, all opposed. Congratulations Representative Richardson, your bill is passed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. Uh, now we're recognized representative Burks for SB 206, if you would please introduce yourself for the record and you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Rebecca Burks, District 11. I'm here to present SB 206, and you may note that it's a pretty small change to the code. There are um some dates that needed to be removed because they were past dates, events that had to occur by a past date, so we're just removing those dates, but then the bulk of it really relates to the um literacy tutoring grants and. the Learns Act. You might recall that was a grant for K through 3 and to help these students who are, uh, particularly at risk for reading or who have been held back in 3rd grade. This grant had a cap of $500. All we're doing in this bill is increasing that cap to $1500 not appropriating any more money and the fiscal impact is 0. I'm happy to answer any questions presented the bill or the questions from the committee. Represent painter you recognize for a question. Just motion at the proper time. Erson Gonzalezworth and you recognize. Yes, um, thank you for your bill and I was wondering just out of curiosity when it comes to literacy, um, students who are not reading on grade level, this is specifically to assist them to then eventually move closer to reading on grade level. That's what we're wanting, OK? That's correct, is that correct? Yes, the tutoring grants to assist the students that are having difficulties, so they're identified as having difficulty and then they're eligible to receive the grant. OK, and so the tutors themselves. Would these be Guess how are the tutors selected, so the Learns Act laid out specifics of who could qualify and it's a pre-approved list of individuals or, or of, of um of resources that can provide these grants or these two this tutoring, t I didn't see anything in here, um, and, and maybe, uh, I'm, I'm just asking with the num large number of of multilingual learners, English learners, how that fits into this, um, you. Related to um yes, the science of reading, etc. but specifically with that group of students. How would this? And we have individuals from the Department of Ed who could address that more specifically, but I do know that in this program, 30,000 students were identified as being eligible, and we only had a small percentage, 5300, apply for the grant, um, and so our hope is by raising the cap and encouraging more students to apply for the grant, we'll be able to capture a wider swath of students who, who really could benefit from this tutoring. Absolutely. Representative Pater, you recognize for a question. Representative Burks, did you lose a bet, uh, because you had to work with Senator Crow. I am honored to work with the senator. All right, it's good to see my friendsenator role. Representative Garner, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a quick question about the funding, the grant funding, um, who decides where it goes once it gets to the schools. So that might be how it's yeah, so there's $8.5 million available for this program and um and we can have somebody from the Department of Ed come up and speak to the process, I guess, of, of how that works if you would prefer. Somebody from the department like to come to the table. Secretary Levy, if you would please introduce yourself for the record and then you'll be recognized. Jacob Oliva, Department of Education. um, thank you for the question and thank you for bringing it forth, uh, what I think is uh something that's very much welcomed. So when we talk about tutoring the states actually sponsoring kind of two different buckets with tutoring, so sometimes I, I hear people get them kind of construed. So one is we support the high impact tutoring program with the school districts and have a pre-approved list of vendors where um school districts are getting dollars from the state to work with students in school. To uh help um get them up to grade level and and fill in any gaps that they might have in their learning. This tutoring program is also to support students and families, and it could be in the school day or. Even outside of the school day where the dollars are allocated through an account that the parent can draw back from down from to get um tutoring, whether it's one on one small group above you know beyond based on their choice and preferred method. And that would be up to the provider, I mean typically if you're gonna target specific vendors, yeah, one of the specific vendors or providers because my hope is when the student and the parent comes in with the tutoring, they're probably gonna do some kind of diagnostic screening and try to identify gaps in services and supports that they need. And then the curriculum would be tailored around the specific um areas that have been identified that they need additional support in and these vendors are educators or, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, there's a list of the vendors on our website, yeah, we can send it to the chair. Perfect, thank you. Gonzalezor, I think you recognize your question. Representative McGruder, you recognize. Uh and On page 5, line 8, online or in person, high dosage tutoring services from a list of state provided tutors. Are we saying that students can, uh, Received this training online or does it have to be in person? I'm trying to get clarification. There is a digital opportunity, uh, associated with the grant as well. Thank you, Chair. Other additional questions about the committee. Seeing no additional questions, uh, there's no one signed up to speak on the bill. You have a question, Representative Beck. You're looking at me very questioningly. back you recognized. I, I was just wondering that the online aspects of it does. I, I, I, my concern would be someone who doesn't. have Equipment at home or a connection at home to do stuff online. Is there any kind of in this program where we could help with that if they needed a computer, let's say to do online tutoring my understanding and again we can dig a little deeper with the department. My understanding is that it, it is an in-person option. It's up to the parent who applies for the grant to, to determine which resource they want to use, so if they want an in-person tutor, they can set it up that way. I believe there are software applications that can also be used. ut il ized for this tutoring and um if, if they don't have it at home, they can certainly, you know, work at the school to to make that happen. So they would use. Uh, equipment at school I believe that's correct, yes. All right, thank you. See no additional questions and no one's signed to speak for or against the bill. Would you like to close for your bill, Representative Burkes? I'm close, Mr. Chair. Rip and Burkes is closed for the bill. We have a motion on the table of do pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? See no discussion on the motion. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Congratulations, Representative Burkes. In spite of Senator Crowell, you've passed your bill. Seeing no additional business before the committee. Uh, Representative Cozart Representative Cozart has two copies of Arkansas Access if you'd like to uh take a look at one of those copies, please feel free to, uh, he has one copy left they're going fast, uh, one question or one quick note on scheduling, uh, just to let everybody know as we move into next week, uh, we'll start having several bills that come off of fiscal impact, uh, a couple that we passed over today. I know that Represent Mayberry wanted to ensure that people could come and speak on those and so just given the travel challenges, we passed over them, uh, so we'll be hearing those. next week and then uh we also likely will schedule, schedule a special order of business for Arkansas access whenever we have the fiscal impact back on that, so just a, a note, uh, we'll probably have a very full calendar the next few weeks as things come off of fiscal impact. So no additional business before the committee, House education is adjourned.