Good evening, everyone. I call this meeting of the Alaska Children's Caucus to order.
It is 6.01 p.m. here on Tuesday, February 10th.
We are in the belts committee room here in
the beautiful state Capitol building located in
the heart of downtown Juneau.
I just want to remind folks who are joining us here today.
If you could please ensure your cell phones are muted.
documents for today's meetings have been distributed to lawmakers.
They are also uploaded to basis and additional copies are available for folks right there by the door.
We have members present today, co-chair, Senator Giesel,
co chair.
Representative Dibert, my self-coach here, Senator Tobin,
and we are also joined by Senator Forrest Dunbar.
I want to thank Susan from the Juneau LIO
for moderating today's meeting
and for staying up late with us on the agenda today.
We have a focus on early intervention and infant learning.
We will begin with a presentation
from The Alaska Department of Health,
and then we will go on to a Presentation
from Interagency Coordinating Council
about the need to expand infant-learning programs,
The very brief update on the piece of legislation that was introduced from the Senate Health
and Social Services Committee to expand the eligibility for the infant learning program.
All right, we have folks here with us at the dais.
If you guys know the drill, if you could please identify yourself as the record and begin
your presentation when you are ready.
Thank you.
So first, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to come today and share important
program updates about the great work happening within the ILP program. It's funding and
projected funding for FY27. We know that the infant learning program supports early childhood.
in a way that's important, right?
The earlier that we identify developmental disabilities
and delays and get support in place,
not only supporting children,
but their families and their caregivers
makes a long-term difference on outcomes,
not just in their educational outcomes
but over the course of their lives.
So this is important work.
The Department of Health may...
feels that the Infant Learning Program is a cornerstone
of supporting Alaska's youngest children and families.
So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Director Newman,
who's going introduce his program staff and provide the presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you, Leah. For the record, my name is Tony Newman. I'm the director of the Division of Senior Disability Services
of The Department of Health.
I work here in Juneau, and I'd like to, if with the chairs indulgence,
I would like bring Pam Burton, our Chief of Developmental Programs to the table.
We're gonna give you a quick overview from the state's perspective on the infant learning program.
Let's see here. How do I advance? There we go. Thank You.
The mission of the infant learning program is to enhance learning and development of young children by building on their natural supports and providing resources to family and caregivers.
Our goal is make sure every family in Alaska can get the support they need to help their children grow and learn prior to preschool.
Working with families and care givers to support the child's development through everyday activities and in the Child's Natural Environment.
Really, we're talking about 15 programs operated by nonprofit organizations, tribal health organizations and in one instance a school district.
And together, these 15 program's represented here by a star in the map are responsible for covering services across the entire state, no matter where families live.
Infant learning receives both federal and state grant funds that are distributed to these fifteen programs.
Federal regulations require that infant learning services be provided equitably statewide.
which is a challenge with a shortage of providers increasing costs of travel and
the nature of services being in the child's home if possible but
waitlists are not allowed for services so programs must find a way
to serve a child that is eligible for early intervention
even in case of provider shortages and budget challenges
this is the federal requirement and uh...
due to the short time frame that uh early interventions can make a
difference in a life of a trial
breaks down for you enrollment in infant learning by region, showing the number of children served in each geographic area of the state.
We wanted you to have a sense of families being served your communities.
And now, before I turn it over to my colleague, Ms. Burton,
I just wanted to note that all the infant learning programs
across the state and by extension, all these families are served
by a small unit at senior and disability services,
consisting of just four full-time employees.
And I want to express my appreciation to Susan Kessler,
who's on the line to help with questions.
Samantha.
Samantha Wilson, Carissa Irwin, and Delight Melds.
And the significant amount of time and assistance they receive from their supervisor, Pam Burton,
who serves as the state's designated coordinator to the federal government for
this program in addition to a huge range of other responsibilities.
So thank you Pam and I'll turn it over to you.
Thank you, Director Newman.
For the record, Pamela Burton.
I am with Senior in Disabilities Services Department of Health.
Okay so we were asked to present on the fiscal and funding systems of ILP so these next slides
will focus on that.
This chart shows the number of children referred and enrolled in ILp over the course of a year.
The dark blue bars represent the Number of Children referred last year that meant 2,868
children in fiscal year 2025.
When a child is referred the process involves providers completing an intake with the family
Getting permissions for evaluations and speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy maybe confirming custody if the state has state care.
If the child is eligible for Medicaid, some of these referral costs can be billed to targeted case management or TCM.
If not, if a child isn't eligible or if parents choose not to enroll, the costs associated with that referral need to be paid out of state and federal grant funds.
The light blue bar shows the number of children enrolled.
Enrollment is based on one of three criteria, which I'll get into in the next slide.
You'll notice a dip in enrollment during the COVID years.
And this is mostly attributed to the change from telehealth,
from change to tele-health service delivery from in-home delivery of services,
which some families opted out of.
As you can see, now we are now back to enrollment levels equivalent to pre-COVID.
So, there are three main ways a child can qualify for services, and they're demonstrated
on this slide.
First, if the child has a diagnosed disability on the IOP established conditions list, this
is a list of diagnoses that makes a Child automatically eligible for Services.
These diagnoses are known to result in significant developmental delays.
Down syndrome, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, autism,
and hearing and vision impairments,
as well as various chromosomal abnormalities
or congenital syndromes.
Secondly, a child will be eligible
if the child shows a developmental delay of 50% or more
in one of more areas such as motor skills, language,
and communication, social and emotional development
or cognitive skills.
And lastly, a child may be determined eligible through what's called Inform Clinical Opinion.
And that's when the ILP team decides when a Child's disabilities are significant, but
difficult to measure with a standardized tool.
It's important to note that Alaska's policy requires a 50% developmental delay, which
A lesser delay is allowed in statute if funding were available, but that funding typically is not.
Also of note, eligibility needs to be redetermined annually.
So if a child progresses to, let's say, a 40% delay because of the early intervention services,
that child may no longer be eligible for services.
ILP is governed under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.
And it pertains to children with developmental delays and disabilities aged birth to three
years, and children are exited on their third birthday.
We're also governed by Alaska statute and regulations.
This slide explains the key fiscal requirements under the code of federal regulations.
The state IOP unit is responsible for fiscal oversight and compliance of maintenance of effort or MOE.
Maintenance of Effort means the federal Part C funds are designed to supplement not supplant state and local funds.
They cannot be used to reduce the state's financial responsibility.
The state IOP office also oversees the system of payments per federal and state regulations.
Programs must bill, I'm sorry, this is going out.
Programs will bill private or public insurance with parental consent before using those federal part C dollars for
services that are otherwise billable like the speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy services, as well as case management.
And then finally, another area of oversight of the ILP state office is the payer of last resort.
Unlike other programs where Medicaid is billed last, here in ILPs,
Medicaid must be billed first before using those federal parcid dollars.
Ms. Burton, I have a question.
If a family wants to have an intervention in their child, is it a 25% delay or maybe a 10%
delay, can they use their own private insurance to cover that?
I'm sorry, I understand the question.
So in the program, you indicated that students must have a 50% or more delay to be a part
of this particular program.
However, if a parent wants their child's screen and delay is 25% percent or 15%, can
they continue with receiving services if they use their private insurance?
Oh, no, they would no longer be eligible for the Program unless that is a Program that
is able to use other funds other than state and federal funds
to pay for our lesser delay as outlined in statute.
Okay, this chart compares state funding, which is represented by the blue bars and service hours per child
for services that are not otherwise billable represented
by The Orange Line.
While state funding has remained unchanged, the Alaska Consumer Price Index has shown inflation has risen over 20% over the last ten years.
This has had an impact on the number of service hours that can be provided per child.
Since special instruction cannot be billed by other sources such as Medicaid or private insurance.
It is paid out of those state general fund or federal dollars.
Special instruction is similar to special education services, but provided in the child's home and provided to both the children and the parents.
Since fiscal year 2019, the number of hours of special instruction per child has decreased 43%.
We attribute this decrease to one, a shortage of special educators due to losing these providers to higher paying employers and
two, since wait lists are not allowed, it means higher caseloads per provider, which results in less service units per child.
The slide represents the early intervention infant learning program grants components and the amount of funds that go to grantees.
100% of the allocated state general fund mental health dollars go directly to programs while some of
the federal part C funds and SDS general funds are used for administration of
the program. This slide compares this year's authorized budget with next year
governor's budget. The green bar shows the total grant funds followed by
the Federal Part C, State General Fund Mental Health and the Alaska Mental
Health Trust Association funded special projects. In fiscal year 2026, we have
two projects funded through the Alaskan Mental health trusts, which are very
much appreciative of, one of which is in its final year this year, thus the
decrease in the alaskans mental health trust funds for FY27. Otherwise, the
Thank you, I do want to note that we've been joined by a representative story.
This pie chart shows the other sources of revenue that infant learning programs use before tapping into state or federal dollars.
ILP services are funded through a mix of revenues sources.
In addition to billing Medicaid and private insurance for
Programs also receive revenue from targeted case management or TCM for case
management activities for children enrolled in Medicaid.
Another revenue source is the Medicaid Administrative Claiming or MAC.
While MAC does bring in some revenue, as you can see,
it only covers activities that happen before enrollment in ILP,
such as helping a family apply for Medicaid
Okay, this slide lists the services provided by early intervention and infant learning programs at no cost to families.
The column on the left shows services that can be billed to Medicaid or private insurance with parental consent.
The columns on right show services not currently billable and therefore paid out of federal or state grant funds.
In Alaska, ILP does not have specific Medicaid rates for early intervention services, and private insurance companies are not required to cover them.
That means the services in the column on the right must be paid for with state or federal dollars.
For children without Medicaid or private endurance or the parent does
not give consent to bill insurance, all services are paid from these grant funds.
This helps us leverage other funding sources instead of relying solely on state and federal funds.
Examples of progress in this area include adding targeted case management,
Medicaid administrative claiming, and many grants.
chart from an article, research article called the Heckmann equation.
It was developed by Nobel Laureate economist, Professor James Hecman.
His research makes a powerful point. Investing in early childhood education is one of the most
cost-effective strategies for economic growth. This is because early intervention has shown to
improve educational achievement, employment outcomes, and health. It reduces the need for
college accommodations, and even social services and criminal justice costs.
Hecman's study looked at high quality birth to five programs for disadvantaged children.
The result was a 13% annual return on investment per child through better education, health,
and economic outcomes.
And finally.
I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to recognize the great work of our 15 grantees that make the real differences in both the child's and family's life.
That despite all of the challenges, data from fiscal year 2025 shows that over 44% of children exiting ILP at age 3 were functioning within age expectations in the areas of social, emotional knowledge and behaviors.
A true testament to the power of ILB.
Each year, the state ILP office surveys families about their experience.
This past fiscal year- fiscal years 2025, we had a 31% response rate with 169 parents
of the 269 that responded, taking the time to fill out that little comments box at the
end of survey.
Well, a few comments noted areas needed for improvement, mainly staffing shortages and
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
92% of families that commented praised the program, the providing of services in the home,
and the personalized strategies to help their child improve or reach developmental milestones in language,
communication, mobility, cognitive, and social skills.
just five examples of the many received.
Like the others, they show the value
and the positive outcomes of ILP services
for both children and their families.
Thank you.
Thank You Ms. Burton.
Are there any questions?
I want to thank you again for joining us
and for the work that your team does.
I don't try to hazard to speak for everyone in this room
but I think we do thank for all of
the services you do provide Alaskans.
Thank-you and thank- you for that opportunity.
We'll now move on to the next item on our agenda,
which is a presentation from representatives
from the Interagency Coordinating Council
on the need to expand eligibility
for the Infant Learning Program.
We are joined by the Executive Director of Programs
for Instance and Children's Ms. Amy Simpson.
Okay. Welcome to the Alaska Children's Caucus.
If you could please identify yourselves for the records
and begin your presentation when you are ready.
Awesome. For the record, I'm Amy Simpson.
I am the Executive Director of Programs for Infants and Children,
which is the largest infant learning program in the state.
We serve Anchorage, Gerdwood, Whittier,
and six communities around Lake Iliomna.
I also am a member of the Interagency Coordinating Council.
And the chair of the, I always, that's a big title,
of ICC Subcommittee Finance Subcommittee.
I get it wrong every single time.
I'm also a speech language pathologist
and have been an IOP provider in the state of Alaska
for 31 years.
I can't believe that.
I'm also a member of the Alaska Infant Learning
Providers Association, a board member.
And that is some of that hats that I wear.
And sitting with me is Rich Seville from the Governor's
Council on Disabilities and Special Education.
I'll let him introduce himself.
Thank you for the record, Richard Seville.
I am the Education and Early Intervention Coordinator
for The Governor's Council on Disability Special Education,
and I'm a staff person for
the Enter Agency Coordinating Council.
Okay, awesome.
All righty, we'll do this.
So Pam Burton did a wonderful job of explaining
all of the behind the scenes
So, like she said, it is part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and it's Part C of that act.
That's why we call it Part Z.
No one knows what that means outside of us, right?
But as Pam explained that it is a federal program designed
to help infants and toddlers with disabilities
meet developmental milestones.
It's also, as PAM described, it's jointly funded
between federal and state.
It focuses entirely on the first three years of life.
And when families are referred to the infant learning program,
we are able to evaluate all areas of development,
including communication, which is receptive and expressive
language, motor, gross and fine motor.
Adaptive or self-help skills, cognitive skills
and social-emotional skills.
It's a lot to look at in one little thing, right?
Pam explained that it's administered through the Department of Health.
Programs for Infants and Children is one of 15 grantees across the state.
That provides these services and we've been providing the services in Alaska since 1984.
It's one the really cool things about infant learning is that
provide services without families.
It's a voluntary program and families
are part of the decision making for creating the plan
and providing the services.
And so we really don't do anything without the parents.
This gives you an idea of all the different programs
across the state.
I will say that there's one program
that is oddly missing from this,
and that's Frontier Community Services in Kenai
for some reason they fell off the State,
but they are also, they're one of 15 minutes, are they?
In the middle, the green.
Are they.
Oh, the green right now.
See, I missed that.
Okay, perfect.
Okay.
Awesome.
I was like, oh, no, they're not on there.
So part of my work that I've done with the Governor's Council and the ICC Finance Subcommittee is in 2022.
We worked with.
We worked with a contractor, provided by the Mental Health Trust Authority, to really
evaluate the infant learning program in the state of Alaska and how we can improve it.
And so the result is this wonderful report that I sleep with under my pillow every night.
And hope that all of the recommendations in that report can come true because it would
certainly be fantastic.
the key recommendations of it really are to align part C of IDA with part B of
IDAs. So part b is the special education the public school special
21, especially in the public schools.
So to qualify for part B services, it's a 25% delay.
So, but in part C,
it is a 50% delays.
So you know, often we have to wait until kids are...
That enough, which is a terrible thing to have to tell parents, right, before we can
provide services.
And in Pam's slide, there was the graphs between our referrals and then our enrolled.
That gap represents kids.
Many of those represent kids that we evaluate and we have tell to parents.
You know, we're worried.
A child has a significant delay, but come back in three or six months and we'll give
it another world.
And it's heartbreaking as a provider to sit in front of a family and say that, especially
in some of our rural programs where the infant learning program is the only game in town.
Like, that is where services happen, and there aren't private.
therapists, there aren't hospitals,
there are anything to provide services.
So we want to align Part B and Part C,
which means expanding eligibility to 25% delay.
What we have in our Magic 8-Ball,
we decided that that would increase
the number of kids eligible for early intervention by 77 percent.
So nearly 80 percent so that if that happens we don't have enough funding to provide services
with the current kids that we have and so it's we need to plan for that right.
So increased funding and for ILP for the years of back.
back negligent funding of infant learning, and then we also would like to have the federal
government share the load in paying for infant-learning programs, so supporting changes to the Medicaid
there would be a new IOP provider type under Medicaid and we could bill for all services
that infant learning provides to children and families. As was described earlier right now,
we can only pay for OTPT and speech services. All other services that we provide are paid 100%
having having that. We also take great pride and and a lot of time in creating
an individualized family service plan that that maps out all the goals for the
kids and how we plan to do that and using that as the authorizing document
for Medicaid. There are some challenges in some communities for kids to get
a doctor's prescription for those because they don't see the doctor very often, right?
So, just like in the school-based system, we would really love to see
the IFSP, so in school based system the IEP is the authorizing document.
We can cut copy and paste and have the
IF SP be the authorizing document for Part C services.
Tell me if I miss anything.
You're joking.
I tend to get a little carried away.
So why should we expand eligibility?
So what we learned as we were doing the report
is that Alaska has become the most restrictive state
or has the the more restrictive eligibility
of all the states.
Cringing right so so there are only two other states that have 50% delay
Most states have changed their eligibility to either a 33% to lay or a 25%
delay and
and
We believe that
That it should be different
Pam talked about the Hackman equation and and really that says that
our return on our investment is to invest early in kids and we believe that whole heart of
the in in our research we what we found in the Neil study which is the national early
intervention longitudinal study is that 46 percent of kids who received early intervention
required no interventions in the special ed when they hit kindergarten, which is huge.
So for a child to receive special education within the school district, it's cost about
a child to provide early intervention services.
The money that would be saved or avoided
in those special education costs
is about almost $35 million every year,
which is huge, right?
And that we know, or I know that early
intervention improves the long-term outcomes
for children's families and the state,
like kids graduate, kids.
find jobs. Kids become engaged in their communities and that's really what we
would love to see. I think this slide is really important and and what it shows
is the number of children statewide that have individualized education
services in school districts and so at three those are the kids that transition from early
intervention into the school system at 3 and as a really small number of kids but what
we find is that it takes a number years for those kids to be identified within the the
So, in my mind, I believe, and this is just me,
I'll just, say that, is that...
that graph could shift, right?
So if we're able to identify children early
and we are able
to find them when they have a 25% delay,
give them a little something,
and they meet their developmental milestones
when the hit kindergarten
that they don't need those services.
So, if believe the deal study
that gets cut in half.
Like, that's huge,
right, so.
I think that's significant.
Mrs. I'm just going to intersect here for a moment.
We've been joined by Representative Galvin.
Oh, awesome.
And Pam shared something similar.
So this is a chart that shows what we know about brain development.
So little kid, I mean, it's an amazing number.
It's like two billion connections.
per second. I mean, it's like crazy. And so their brain development, most of their
brain developing happens before they turn five. But yet, we wait until third grade or
eighth grade, or tenth grade to really invest in their, when, you know, they just don't,
their brains don t have the capacity to do that.
I think our return on investment is best suited in the birth
to five range and particularly in
the births of three range.
This is another slide that probably isn't as meaningful
to other people as it is to me.
So I will say that.
But the chart number four.
I think is a really good representation of our restrictive eligibility, so what this shows is
that our children fall below the national average of the number of children who are meeting their
developmental milestones. And I I, think it's because we have a 50% delay, right? So the other two
who have a 25% delay, this is where they fall,
and their kids are above the national average.
The top five states is what I want Alaska to be,
and 65% of their kid are meeting their developmental milestones
at age three, which is outstanding, right?
And so that is my dream for that to happen,
and I think eligibility change can do that.
the chart on the right, I have to.
Sure, before Rich.
He's good at this one. This one I've got down.
This the chart five just explains
If the funding were to be available to expand infant learning after four years of working with expanded
intervention early intervention the
Money annually we're putting in is neutral. We're gaining that back in either savings or avoidance or something like that
After six and a half years not only are we doing that are
recovering that annually. We've also made up for that first four years where we weren't making
money up, right? So after six and a half years, we're completely even on the money that's been
invested. And after that, the savings just grow and grow. So, after, well, you can see the chart
just exponentially goes up. That's what that shows. Awesome. Thanks, Richard. Okay.
I think that really the challenges that we are facing as a director of an infant learning
program, the challenge is that I'm facing is flat funding and competing with other businesses
in our community, that higher OT, PT speech, special ed teachers, social workers, we have
and and our health insurance costs have gone up everything travel like travel has gone
up that that really our buying power is at least 25% less than it was and that the what
Pam described as kids receiving about half a smith at half is the frequency is about
I can say that is actually happening.
So we do not have a wait list.
So any child who is referred, who has found eligible,
we make space.
So that happens by.
You know, our providers adding kids to their caseload reducing the number of services so
that they can spread their knowledge and expertise wider and farther.
And I think that bar where our kids are going to fall below the national average is going
to continue to slip if we don't fully fund infant learning and we can reap the rewards
research says and data says that we should expect a takeaway is just that
we need to expand eligibility we needed to give 625 more kids and families the
opportunity to be successful in school every year that's about 300 and
I'm sorry, 3,600 kids a year, that would be eligible for early intervention services.
We also need to make sure that kids all over the state have equal access to early-intervention
services and that we're able to really capitalize on this return on investment.
can really make the difference.
And if we're looking for 35 million dollars
a year to spend on other things,
I think the 5.7 million in early intervention is well spent.
Madam Chair.
Yes, Senator Gisa.
This was the number I was looking
for, the five point seven.
You know, Madem Chair, we know that there is an oil company
that doesn't pay any corporate income tax.
And I mean, I'm going to keep saying this, we could institute the corporate income tax
for this S corporation business, and it's estimated it would bring in $90 million a year.
I think this would be couch change to cover the $6 million to fund IOP from an oil company
that is profitable to an individual that doesn't live in our state even.
I know that the potential is amazing and then of course I think about the child advocacy centers that need 25 million again
This one correction in our corporate tax would bring in 90 million dollars that would cover all of this
It's frustrating that chair that this isn't being done. Thank you
Sorry.
Hi, I joined you, Senator Diesel.
I think for us to expand high quality pre-K
would be $17 million.
And imagine the cost savings that would result
if we just continue to our investment
in the youngest Alaskans.
And it's not even monetary, Madam Chair.
It's the quality of life for Alascans and those families.
Yes.
I know you all have advocates here at this dais,
and we're not going to stop.
We're going keep working.
Well, thank you.
I wanted to thank Senator Dunbar and the Senate has committee last year that introduced Senate Bill 178 to expand early intervention.
So I want to,
thank personally for that.
I was very disa- we worked so hard last year to get the increment in the budget and it actually
made it through the conference committee and and my disappointment in The Vito was
beyond the pale, right? So I appreciate all the work that all of you have done to advocate for
work forward this year to or or keep working to pass Senate Bill 78 and and
have the expansion the funding so that we can do this work that you know I I
consider infants and or I consider children a natural resource just like
And, you know, for all that we have invested in oil and all of that, let's, yeah, couch
change for infants' dollars, right?
So, yay, and I hope that happens.
And I'm going to turn it over, Rich, because he knows more about the other.
One moment.
We do have a question from Senator Dunbar.
Yes.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
A statement and a questions.
the bill last year and move through. HES is currently in Senate Finance.
My office put in a request for a hearing earlier.
in this session and so we're hoping you know but we are still pushing for it.
I wanted to assure all the advocates here that we
are hoping that bill will pass and I was also disappointed with that
veto. You know we have heard a lot of rhetoric from this
administration about wanting this to be a place where young
families can thrive and wanting to arrest the
I'm hopeful that if we pass that bill that we can fight for that increment again,
but I wanted to ask you a question about if the bill passes, but funding gets vetoed or funding
doesn't pass or a smaller income it passes. You know, one of the critiques I've heard is we
can't even serve the people we have now with the very, you know the, very restrictive requirements
What does it look like if we make it easier to get admitted to the program, but we don't have the resources to cover everyone?
Through the Chair, Senator Dunbar, that would be kind of catastrophic, really, for infant learning programs.
Because we we really feel that with the elements that are in the bill with putting the Medicaid
stipulations that we're able to do some cost sharing with federal through Medicaid dollars that that
provides us
mechanism to keep funding the infant learning program our our hope is really that
as we roll that out and I don't believe or there is no way that if the bill passes on Tuesday that
that report from the Mental Health Trust, Rich and I,
worked on the implementation plan of the recommendations
of that reported this last for the last six months.
And part of it is expanding the workforce
and then a tiered way of rolling through expansion
of eligibility.
But yeah, it's without funding.
It means that we would probably, because of the stipulation of no wait list,
that kids will likely be seen once a quarter instead of three times a month, right?
And because the floodgates would be open and we don't have a way.
to waitlist kids and none of us who work with kids
and families want any child to be waitlisted, right?
So without the funding, it would be very, very challenging
to make any of those premonitions come true
or what we know what the data tells us would happen
if we were able to expand eligibility.
Very good.
A brief moment, I'm sure, just a comment.
I'll say that I appreciate.
that answer. And that this caucus is not sort of hiding the ball there. You know, sometimes
we try to pass reforms and we pretend like it's free.
Hear what we're saying is there's a very good return on investment, but we have to have the
funding that goes with this reform.
And we are going to answer that question that way in Senate Finance. We are not trying to
hide the Ball here again. But I think I believe, and I
think everybody here believes that if we going expand almost any, almost, there is almost
is they're going to be expanded this year.
And if I was going focus on one, it would be this one.
It would this, and it'd be education funding, so.
Two huge thanks.
Yes.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
OK.
Thank You.
Again, for the record, Richard Seville.
First, I'd like to just say from the council,
thank you for scheduling this meeting.
While we're here in person this week,
we really appreciate being able to do this in-person
and see you face to face.
We'll be seeing more of you over the week in the next couple of days.
We have visits scheduled with all of these.
So I'm looking forward to that.
And I want to thank Senator Dunbar for pushing for that Senate hearing on this.
We really appreciate that, I think the veto from last year is kind of on the forefront
of all our minds and we really are hoping that when this passes, that it is.
relatively soon so that if the veto happens again there's time to come back
and hopefully deal with that so at least have an opportunity to deal
with it so we're really hoping this can get some fire behind it and and move
through both chambers quickly that being said
With the council being here, I felt when having you here
I would have been remiss if we didn't at least
really briefly touch on our other priorities
for the Council.
So obviously we've talking about the ILP
at length here today, so I will skip that one.
The second priority for us is the Special Education Services
Agency Funding Representative Josephson introduced a bill
to increase their funding, HB 246.
Well, CSSA is an agency that provides consultation and training to districts, schools, teachers,
paraeducators, in some cases, families all across rural Alaska.
They are instrumental in being sure that those communities
who are sorely lacking in special education professionals,
whether it's on-site teachers or others,
that the people that are working with those kids
in those community get the training
that they need to help them as much as they can.
And their funding formula is tied
to the state's average daily membership.
And so as that continues to drop,
their fund continues
to dropped at the same time the
need and request for their services is growing.
And so they're at a point where they are having
to institute wait lists because they do not have
enough specialists to meet the need that's out there.
And I just read last week and I apologize,
I don't remember the source, but I think it was credible.
It wasn't on social media, I promise,
that the average data membership is projected to fall again
next year by another 1500 students.
put CISA in a larger hole.
So we really are hoping for support for that bill as it comes through as you see it.
So and please feel free to reach out on that one if you have any questions.
The next priority we are here talking about is HB 141.
And that is Representative Mina's bill, I believe, and that
is to provide universal changing spaces in all public
facilities.
And so it was introduced last year.
It's going to be moving through.
And I think what we'd like to,
I just would share a quick story.
We had a parent come to us last
year who has an adult son.
and she was forced to, he's in a wheelchair,
he was a wheel chair user.
They were in the Anchorage airport, excuse me,
and they were forced
to use the floor of the public bathroom to freshen him up
because he needed to used the restroom
and there was no place that was either sanitary or...
dignified to do so and so to their credit the public the airport did put one in
after that but she came to us and said hey this is not right everywhere and all
public building should have one of these changing spaces and we believe that is
absolutely true and that's one our priorities this year too we hope to get
your support on number four
Senior Disability Services has been working on implementing the new assessment tool,
the Enter-I, Enter I, sorry, Director Newman, and so we just are requesting that
If there's funding that's needed to continue that process that that is granted, that
is very important to ensure that our folks on home community-based waiver services receive
the services that they need and the tools that the departments currently using are sorely
outdated.
I think one comment in our meeting, our council meeting today was that it still asks if someone
for real. So, yeah, that's pretty, it's old. And so that needs to be updated.
And they can't, the department cannot look at.
adding any new services if they don't update their assessment tools, so that's really important.
And we also, I know that they just went through a rate study for their long-term care rates, and
we just would ask that the legislature will work with the department in figuring out how to implement those.
Those are really very important to be sure people get the services that we need.
And the more and more of the rates.
stay down when inflation goes up and the need goes
up, it's just going to get worse and worse.
So as far as trying to find providers, so please
work with the department on that.
What's next, public and community transit, there is a bill that passed the house last
year and it's in the Senate this year, and will make public, the Department of Transportation
basically, um, There's no statutory mandate currently for them to prioritize public
and Community Transportation and so this bill would just make them prioritize that and
their duties and how they go about working on transportation and what this would be very
meaningful for people with disabilities across the state.
I think of sidewalks and Anchorage and I get angry because someone in a wheelchair, there's
just no way.
that they can get around in the winter time, and it's too bad, so it makes me sad.
So please take a look at that and support that.
And then Senate Bill 8, actually it is HB 39 education for deaf and hard of hearing,
just passed the House last week, I think.
And so, it in Senate now, we hope that you will support
that among other things.
It ensures that parents and families receive unbiased
information about communication modes for their children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
And it also protects the Alaska School for the Deaf and Statute, which I think is very
important.
And currently, the school is considered a special school in regulation by the Department of Education and their regulations.
And so, I think the language is that they may fund a Special School, and so we'd like to be sure that that school for the deaf is protected.
And I will also say for their record, there's been no indication that this Department
of education has thought about getting rid of it.
people change, you never know. So we'd really want that to be protected. And then the last one
is insurance for prosthetics and orthotics. This one, currently, someone who has a prosthetic or
by insurance, but prosthetics and orthotics are not necessarily one size fits all when
it comes to things that you want to do, and so you may have a regular one for walking,
but if you're a swimmer, you might need a different one, or you know, those kinds of
It's unfortunate that people who use those prosthetics have to take a chance with their 10 to $15,000 prosthetic
because they want to go play golf or go to the gym or swim to live a healthy lifestyle and potentially
break that orthotic because it wasn't built for what they're trying to do. So we hope to change
some insurance laws for that to require insurance to pay for a second orthotics for other things
that they would like to live a healthy, happy lifestyle. I hope that wasn t speaking too fast.
And I think that's it, thank you.
Yeah, so thank for the opportunity to,
I could talk for like three days on infant learning.
And so I sure appreciate you guys taking time out
of your evening to have us and have me share
all these passions that I have for
the infant-learning program.
Thank you very much.
Thank-you, Thank You, Ms. Simpson, Mr. Seville.
Is there any questions for folks?
I just wanted to say thank you so much for being here and hopefully I get to have further
discussions with you and I wanted speak up as a third grade teacher for many years.
There's a lot that happens in children's lives by the time they get me in third-grade
the second grade teachers, first grade teacher, kindergarten teachers for all their heavy
lift to get them to me.
But I know that many of my colleagues have, I don't know, 28, 29, 30 kids in kindergarten.
And so when you have someone who doesn't have that help before getting into kindergarten,
it's a tough ride from there.
with that many kids by third grade, it really shows.
So I hope we can pass this in some way to help our kindergarten teachers.
They have a special place somewhere after they're done teaching.
But thank you so much and I look forward to talking more with you.
I also wanted to say how important it is for our rural communities
assistance with families and include families in whole well-being for our children. So no question,
but just lots of thanks. Thank you. And thank you for being here with us and for spending your
evening with. We look forward to hearing more from the council and on your priorities as you
visit legislators in the coming days.
As I see no additional questions, we're going to have our final item on the agenda,
which is a very brief update on The Progress of Semaphil 178, which
is to expand early intervention services from Mr. Mike Mason.
Thank you, my name is, excuse me,
my, name, is Mike Mason, I am staff to Senator Lukey Yiltobin.
I appreciate your patience tonight.
This has really been quite the bill to work on, and I've been working on this for quite some time.
And essentially this bill, of course, is being sponsored by the Senate Health and Social Services Committee.
As noted, it has been referred to the senate finance committee.
A hearing has being requested.
Once that hearing happens, you're going to see some of these people here helping us in that process.
I really want to thank the Interagency Coordinating Council for helping develop this bill.
We went through a lot of very technical work in trying to get the Medicaid language correct.
If you look at the statutes and the way that everything is implemented, it's very confusing.
And so, thanks to Rich and Amy and others, we have come up with a bill that everybody
seems to think does what we hope it will do, and then the funding aspect of it.
So I just wanted to real quick just kind of confirm the
funding part.
Of course, a significant financial investment would be needed to accommodate the eligibility expansion.
As noted, the cost would about $5.7 million.
The FY26 budget did include that $2.5 million to account for inflation and
then $3 million for the Eligibility expansion from the 50% to the 25% delay.
Unfortunately, of course that was vetoed.
There's going to have to be two things that go hand in hand here.
That is passage of the bill, SB 178, and then the budget component as well.
So as Senator Dunbar's question pointed out, you can't do one without the other or there will be harm.
So essentially.
We're going to be coming to lawmakers with both the request for the bill and then the
request of the funding as well.
You've heard a lot about the Bill and the need.
I don't need to go through any of that kind of thing, but we will be championing this
in the Senate Finance Committee, and if you have any questions or anything like that,
I'm available at any moment.
Thank you.
Thank You Mr. Mason.
Is there any question or final wrap-up comments before we adjourn?
The Senate – or excuse me, the Alaska Caucus – Alaska Children's Caucus will be meeting
again this session.
However, I don't have that exact details and information before me.
So we please stay abreast on basis and keep an eye out for all of our newsletters where
we do talk about these issues and share more information about the work that we are doing.
Thank you to everyone who came and joined us this evening.
We hope you have a wonderful time here in Juneau, and I'm going to pray that it isn't
With that, I adjourn to you today at 7.01 p.m.