good morning everyone my name is Rachel supe general counsel for the State Board of Education we're going to give everyone a few more minutes to trickle in in person and online and then we'll go ahead and get started e e
e e e good morning everyone thank you for attending today's R making hearing regarding State word rules governing school safety universal student screeners and the state adopted
Benchmark assessment residential mental health facilities and Charter Schools today is October 8th 2024 it is now 10:33 a.m. and I will call this rulemaking hearing to order my name is Rachel supe as the
general councel for the State Board of Education and their designated representative I will be presiding over today's hearing information on how to join this rulemaking hearing can be found both online um and in the agenda for today's
meeting it contains instructions for how to attend in person and online this information was also filed with the Secretary of State's office and posted to the state board's website since this hearing is being held
both electronically and in person I want to remind all attendees who are joining online to please keep yourself muted unless asked to unmute if you are attending in person I'll will also ask that you remain quiet so that online attendees can hear and be
heard any attempts to disrupt the hearing will result in removal from the hearing either electronically or in person a Redline version of the rules under consideration at this hearing are available both here in person and on the
state board's website under the link for today's meeting this hearing is also being recorded and will be provided to state board members for their review Into the rules that are subject today today's
hearing um State Board of Education will gather feedback from the public regarding the following rules school safety rule 0520 -01 d0230 universal student screeners and state
adopted Benchmark assessment rule 0520 D 01-03 D15 residential mental health facilities rules 0520 D
01- 02-02 through 0.05 and lastly Charter Schools rule 0520 D14 - 01-01 through
03 I'm sorry and 03 through 05 I will now begin with a summary of each of the proposed rule revisions the first item is school safety rule 0520 D
01-02 D30 this item proposes repealing the State Board school safety rule 0520 01-02 D30 as the requirements for those school
safety laws are already contained in statute and there's no need to duplicate them in rule the save Act passed by the Tennessee General Assembly established specific and consistent requirements for districts relating to providing a safe
School environment including the formation of district and school safety teams and the required for the development of comprehensive safety plans furthermore this rule contains requirements for districts to conduct at least two earthquake drills a year if
the district is within 100 miles of the New Madrid fault line previously state law required districts within the New Madrid Faultline Zone to conduct earthquake drills and required the State Board to promulgate Rules to effectuate This
requirement the requirement was removed from the law in 2018 and therefore stateboard rules on earthquake drills for districts within the New Madrid fault line are no longer relevant or necessary the next item is universal
student screeners and state adopted Benchmark assessment rule 0520 D 01-03 D15 this rule section outlines requirements for local education agencies and public charter schools to
manually administer approved Universal reading screeners for students in grades kindergarten through third grade in accordance with the Tennessee liter literacy success act the rule also effectuates the requirements of the
Tennessee learning loss remediation and student acceleration act regarding the use of benchmark assessments to identify priority students for summer programming and for pre- and post test requirements
however chapter 639 of the public acts of 2024 amended the Tennessee learning loss remediation and student acceleration act to remove the requirement that local education agencies and public charter schools administer a preest in summer
learning camps after school mini camps and learning loss Bridge camps as such this item updates the rule to remove references preest to align with with public chapter
639 the next item is residential mental health facilities rule 0520 d01 -20 d02 through 05 these rule sections outline
requirements for the admission of Tennessee public school students to out ofate residential mental health facilities in accordance with TCA 49-3 370 the State Board previously approved
an emergency version of these rules on July 15 20124 to align to the changes that were made by public chapter 884 of the 113th General Assembly this rule also proposes making
those Provisions permanent including removing the requirement that the residential mental health facility serve at least 15 Tennessee students per school year additionally this item makes permanent the removal of the condition that the
student have an active individualized education program or IEP at the time of the student's placement at the residential mental health facility lastly the condition that the student be enrolled in and having
attended a Tennessee public school for the full school year immediately preceding the student placement at the facility is removed and instead requires the student to be enrolled in and attending a Tennessee public school at the time of the student's admission to
the facility the last item is Charter Schools rule 0520 D1 14-01 d01 and 03 through
05 these rule sections outline various charter school and Charter authorization requirements including the approval of a charter school allocation of state and federal funds and student enrollment this item proposes multiple
revisions made to align with both public chapters 923 and 1066 of the public acts of 2024 first to align with public chapter 1066 outdated funding language regarding
the basic education program or B ke is being removed next the rule specifies funding requirements for the first year for a student who transfers to an opportunity Charter School located in an Lea other
than the one in which the student resides a definition of an at risk student and the enrollment preferences for an opportunity Charter School are added to the rule as required by law the rule also specifies specifies the
types of documentation that can be collected by the charter school to verify that a student meets the ACT risk enrollment criteria the revisions also include a requirement that the authorizer conduct an evaluation of an opportunity Charter
Schools atrisk student enrollment and next steps should an opportunity Charter School fail to meet the 75% atrisk student enrollment requirement for three consecutive years as outlined in
law additionally rule sections 05 is revised to align with public chapter 923 these revisions include a timeline for an Lea to report and publicly Post Its vacant and underutilized properties
as well as definitions of what constitutes a vacant or underutilized property which the Lea is also required to include in its annual report with those brief explanations I will now move into the public comments portion of today's
hearing please note that the rulle making hearings are an opportunity for the State Board to collect feedback and the proposed rule language uh is not meant to be a question and answer session during public comment period of
this hearing please state your name and organizational affiliation if any before making your comment each person who wishes to speak will be allowed 3 minutes we have one speaker here in person so we will start with our
in-person speakers when they are complete I will be calling on our online speakers next whenever you're ready you can state your name and your organizational affiliation and then you can begin your three minutes of comments thank you U my
name is Zoe Jamal and I'm the policy coordinator with disability rights Tennessee um DRT is the state's protection and advocacy Agency for persons with disabilities in addition to advocating for the rights of people with disabilities we conduct routine monitoring of and investigate claims of
abuse and neglect in residential facilities serving persons with disabilities our organization is amiliar with the various types of residential settings for children in our state and we are painfully aware of how those settings can become places of horror when they are devoid of services
inadequately funded and short staffed we are also aware of a trend toward unnecessarily segregating an institutionalizing youth with disabilities We Believe children including those who are at risk belong in homes with families and in schools with their peers not isolated in
facilities accordingly DRT has an interest in ensuring that residential settings are subject to appropriate departmental regulations and Licensing robust policies and meaningful oversight we note that establishing a new type of congregate setting for children who have experienced trauma of removal from their
families and communities and then cutting them off from loved ones and the public in general is dangerous for young people especially those with disabilities residential facilities for troubled youth are notorious for abuse and youth with disabilities are at higher risk of abuse in those settings
up to 85% of abuse cases go unreported in congregate care settings one of the things that prevents ongoing abuse is contact with family accordingly our comments today focus on enrollment in residential opportunity charter schools located at rule 0520
d141 d04 in the notice of rulemaking opportunity Charters are predicated on Parental Choice when it comes to enrollment in that vein we hope to see additional language from sve that prevents at risk children from being placed in these School by the state this
might look like Express language that a parent legal guardian must be the one to submit an application for enrollment um this is important when it comes to preserving parental rights because residential opportunity Charter Schools seem to offer an Avenue through which an education entity could compel out of
home placement for some students Juvenile Courts also have the authority to modify educational placements and can order youth adjudicated delinquent even for minor offenses to institutions and Facilities operated by local public authorities by specifying that only a
student's parental figures be they biological Foster or kinship relative caregivers can submit an application for enrollment SBE can ensure that the choice to enroll a student is truly the parents and that these settings do not interfere with State's responsibilities
when it comes to serving at risk youth with regard to the same subsection creating the definition of residential opportunity Charter School DRT has Grave concerns about the lack of specifications and details proposed by the rule language currently there is nothing in the notice of Ru making that
addresses how these facilities will be licensed funded or staffed and there's nothing in the rule that identifies how the special populations contemplated for residents will be served it's important to note that the type of congregate setting proposed here differs substantially from any other state-run
residential school both Tennessee school for the deaf and School for the Blind are residential yes but students maintain connection to their families and communities by returning home on the weekends and during school breaks no such maintenance of family contact or even parent participation on the board
is contemplated for residential opportunity Charter Schools Tennessee school for the deaf and School for the Blind are also staffed with one professional for every three students and they specialize in serving one particular population it doesn't appear residential opportunity Charters will be required to adopt a similar model under
the rural language furthermore the per pupil spending at those schools far exceeds what would be allocated under Tisa for residential Charters we have concerns about statements from the sponsors of the bill that established these schools that they could partner with nonprofits to provide housing while
there is a time and a place for nonprofits to step up and with adequate guidance and support provide services for youth we need only look at the problems arising in the department of children's services transitional houses to see how unlicensed residential settings can do more harm than good to
children in the absence of a robust regulatory scheme just last fall media reported about a 12-year-old with autism and intellectual disability being restrained and hog tied by private security in a nonprofit transitional house the only guidance in the rule specific to a residential opportunity
Charter School states that the residential model must include quote living arrangements that are age appropriate close quote does the SBE or doe plan on promulgating additional rules about what it means for living arrangements to be age appropriate one of the categories for atrisk students is
students who have dropped out of high school meaning they could potentially be older students and there's no Statewide requirement that youth over 18 must attend Adult School students with disabilities are eligible to receive special education services until the age of 21 so would living arrangements be
age appropriate if 21 year olds and 12y olds are living together furthermore is age the only consideration for determining whether the living whether the living arrangements in a residential facility for students who have been identified as at risk are appropriate we
think not and urge SBE to provide additional language in the rules related to what makes for appropriate living arrangements in a residential opportunity Charter School considerations that should be taken into account certainly include age but that cannot be the only Factor especially when we are talking about various
cohorts with specialized needs We Believe additional considerations must be included in the rul making language to ensure the safety well-being and academic success of Youth who may reside in Opportunity Charter Schools um and we will submit written comments with more
um details about what types of considerations we would like to see thank you for the opportunity to provide comment and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you so much since we don't have any additional commenters here in
person I'm now going to switch to online attendees so if there's any online attendees who wish to make a public comment please feel free to either unmute yourself right now to to announce your name or you can type your name into
the chat and then I will call on each of the online attendees one at a time to speak again if there's any online attendees who wish to make a comment please feel free to unmute yourself at this time and share your your name or
feel free to type it into the chat seeing no speakers online on to the next portion of our hearing just to make some final announcements about next step you may submit additional written comments regarding these rules for
consideration using the contact information noted on the agenda on our website and up on the screen if joining by phone the email address to submit comments is Danielle d n i l
lellis n s tn.gov these comments must be received by Friday October 11th at 9:00 a.m. Central Time in order to ensure consideration email is preferable as the
regular mail has been running very slow and may not arrive to our office in time it's anticipated that the board will vote on Final reading of these rules at its quarterly meeting on November 22nd 2024 specific details about that meeting
agenda and how to attend or watch the meeting online will be posted on the state board's website under the meeting's page if the board approves these rules on Final reading they will be sent to the Attorney General's office for approval they will be published on the
Secretary of State's website for 90 days and they will go before the joint government operations committee with the Tennessee House and Senate State Board of Education appreciates everyone who took time out of their day to attend today's hearing
with no further business on the agenda this hearing is now adjourned thank you