HB5836: SUMMARY OF DISCHARGED BILL (Date Completed: 12-17-20) - RESOURCES; DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN

CONTENT

The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:

-- Require the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), by August 31, 2022, to develop a resource for parents or guardians of children who were deaf or hard of hearing and age five or under to monitor the child's expressive and receptive language acquisition and development states toward English literacy.

-- Prescribe requirements that the resource would have to meet.

-- Require the MDE to adopt existing tools or assessment to be used by local school districts, intermediate school districts (ISDs), public school academies (PSAs), and the Michigan School for the Deaf, to assess the language and literacy development of applicable children and specify criteria that the tools or assessments would have to meet.

-- Require the MDE to provide the developed resource to parents and guardians and the adopted tools and assessments to ISDs, PSAs, and the Michigan School for the Deaf, to be used in the development and modifications of individualized family service plans (IFSPs) or individualized education programs (IEPs).

-- Require school districts, ISDs, PSAs, and the Michigan School for the Deaf to implement the tools and assessments developed by the MDE by September 1, 2022.

-- Require a school district, ISD, PSA, or the Michigan School for the Deaf to administer the tools and assessments developed by the MDE, or any other assessment used to assess the development of children with disabilities as required by Federal law.

-- Require a child who was deaf or hard of hearing to be provided a learning environment that used the family's choice for the child's language.

-- Specify a time schedule for the development of the resource for parents and guardians of applicable children.

-- Require the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), on January 1, 2022, to appoint 15 volunteer members to an advisory committee within the MDE, and prescribe the committee's duties.

-- Specify that the advisory committee would be dissolved and cease operations by December 31, 2022.

-- Require the MDE to produce an annual report, using certain existing data, and make the report available on its website by July 1, 2023, and by July 1 of each year thereafter.

-- Require the MDE's activities with respect to implementation of the bill to be consist with Federal law regarding the education of children with disabilities.

-- Specify that the provisions of the bill would apply only to children who were age five or younger and were deaf or hard of hearing.

-- Require the Legislature to appropriate sufficient funding for the bill's purposes.

Proposed MCL 380.1705 Legislative Analyst: Dana Adams

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on the Department of Education, Michigan School for the Deaf and local school districts, ISDs, and PSAs.

The Department would experience additional administrative costs over the next three years. These would include costs related to the advisory committee. Although the final cost is unknown, advisory committees generally require between $100,000 and $400,000 annually depending on the amount of research and support needed to fulfill their duties. The Department also would experience costs to adopt the tools and assessments and to publish and provide training to local units; these costs could be greater than current appropriations. Finally, the Department would experience minor costs to report on the language and literacy development of children each year. These costs likely would be significant and greater than current appropriations in the Office of Special Education.

The Michigan School for the Deaf would experience increased costs to implement the tools and assessments adopted by the Department. Those costs could be greater than current appropriations. The Michigan School for the Deaf is supported with State appropriations of local service fees and State restricted revenue.

Local ISDs, school districts, and PSAs would experience additional costs to provide local schools with the tools and assessment that the Department adopted. They also would experience costs to implement the tools and assessment and to provide training. These costs would depend on how much more costly and different the new tools and assessments were from those used currently. If these costs were beyond the scope of the current Federal requirements, the schools would be unable to use Federal dollars to cover the costs and would have to use State or local funding.

Finally, local schools with children who fell behind the milestones established by child's individualized family service plan would see increased administrative costs to provide explanations and recommended changes to the individualized family service plan. These costs would depend on the number of children who fell behind the milestones of their individual plan.

Date Completed: 12-17-20 Fiscal Analyst: Cory Savino

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.