 Welcome back to Senate Education, April 30th, 325 PM. We are looking at S16, School Discipline Bill. We've asked our led council, Mr. Demeray, to take us through the differences. Senator Hooker presented this bill on the floor. And I know she's been keeping an eye on it over in the house. And it's up for action on Tuesday as is S115. So I've scheduled a walkthrough of S115 for some time next week. That was our miscellaneous education bill, which has grown a little bit. So with that, Mr. Demeray, the floor is yours. Okay. Let me put this up on the screen for you. Okay. I have to be an enabled first. Do you still there? I think probably. I am just second. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So we are here. Okay. So for the record, Jim Demer, this console, we're walking through a side by side. Of S16. As passed by the Senate. And S16 as passed by House Education. This is not reached the floor yet. It goes through House appropriations unchanged. From what House Education recommends. On the left is. As passed by the Senate. On the right is as passed by House Education. And changes or differences are in yellow. So these white parts are all the same on findings. Until you get to this. So there's a new finding. Added to the house. Education. That talks about. Students who are less being gave by, by sexual transgender queer. So this is. I'm saying I studied with that. That focuses on. Sharing safe and farming schools for all students who are. LGBTQ. Plus. And those in a face. This personally higher rates of this school discipline. Detention, suspension and expulsion. That's a finding. And then. The. Sam pass was rewritten by the House Education Committee. It's their eighth here. And the reason they did that is A. We came in and testified that the finding at seven. On the left was inaccurate. Had to be updated. So on the right. With the House Education Committee is done. Is to say. That the agency of education publishes the. Our school discipline. On school discipline. In Vermont. However. So they can be challenged and defined or understand. Be consistent with. Privacy laws and regulations. Certain data may not be publicly reportable. Due to reminds extremely small size conditions. Such as deal with very few. Or cases. The on specific instances or actions. And they are decided by student demographics. Or grade level characteristics. And see. Even when available. Even when available and reportable. Care must be taken when using data to inform. Practice in order to ensure. They are implied. Applied and coherent. And D. While the age of education and Vermont supervisor unions are currently working to improve their collection. So should report processes and infrastructure. This work is in the context of enhancing the quality. The other C and technical infrastructure to support these enhancements. So all this language here we went through. Eight places where you had in seven. Then. On the task force that changed the name. So you had had the task force on. School exclusionary discipline reform. And they have task force on equitable and inclusive school environments. Then membership. You had the secretary choosing 20 members. From various categories. This is on the left. They have identified specific. People. For the. Task force. So. 16 members. You have the. Usual suspects. Secretary. The bees here. You've got the commissioner of mental health. As well. And then. Going down to age here. You've got one member appointed by the legal aid. One member appointed by the Vermont family network. One member appointed by both the effective strategies. One member appointed by the Vermont family network. One member appointed by both the effective strategies for teaching students. Project. One member appointed by the Vermont restorative collaboration. One teacher. For the NEA. One member of the therapeutic school. Appointed by the Vermont school's association. One school counselor. By the Vermont school concerts association. Two high school students appointed by the Vermont Christmas Association. In consultation with up for. Up for. And then you've got. That was your. Diverse diverse. Racial diversity. On. These task force. Powers and duties. So they have. Added. To account the Vermont youth behavior. Vermont youth behavior. Survey. That's there in both where they've added in and relevant. The report by the age of education. In terms of specific tasks on a, the first one. They've added in review current behavioral supports. And in service services that you already have. They've added. They've added in the D. Which is to review. School. For development programs. And make recommendations to how. As you care practices. Such as positive behavioral interventions and support. Trauma informed practices. And restore practices. And they train for these practices. Can increase as you care. Awareness of students need needs and manage to reduce behaviors. The lead to possible out of school. Disparment measures. On. E. They have some different wording here. So. You've got on the left-hand side. If I best practice procedures. My fly. Of course my contacts for students. They've got identified best practices. For students facing. In school or. Discipline. That. Of course my contacts. Are trauma responsive. And maximize. Relational. Relational. And sort of actions. That support social emotional and mental health needs of these. Students. F. You've got compile. They've got. Review. So. This is about data. So this is. They have it as being review. Data. That's readily available. And processes on. Subventions and explosions and review. To inform the work of the task force. And you're using the word. Compile. So. This is about data. So this is. They have it as being review. So you're using the word compile here. So different wording on that. The rest of the space is the same. And then. I have a difference here. F you focus your F on. Recommend changes in the types of data collected and data collection processes. And later in the bow you've got. The data collection process. So you're using the word compile. So this is a different view. The report has to. Implement what they recommend. And house education. Took a different view. And don't focus on. The collection. Requiring the support. Take. Action. Instead. And G here. So you recommend how to ensure that school staff. Who collect. Process or communicate. Data. Understanding the importance of. Of the equality. And the rules of government data collection processes. Communication and public disclosure. So you have a different focus here on these. This F and G. Discomforming changes. It's all the same. They have. Two reports. They have an interim court. Interim report. Required by. By January 15th next year. And the final report. By March 15th next year. And you've got. One. To. Number 30. This year. And then they've added. End date. The task force. Here. Which is difficult. That was probably just. Emission by me. And then the appropriations changed. From 15,000. To. 6,750. Because we know. Who the members are in their bill. And we know who. Who needs to be compensated. And who does not. For. They have. Change for. Here. I mentioned this earlier. And then the appropriations changed. From 15,000 to 6,750. Because we know who the members are in their bill. And then the appropriations changed. And the appropriations changed. And then the appropriations changed. And then the appropriations changed. And the appropriations changed. It just happened once earlier. Says, I'll be forward to my one of next year, the secretary in Singapore show. Corporate, the task force data collection. And practice recommendations developed above. And they moved away from that. They have different language. Says at the first minute of the task force. Secretary. is website and available data collection that provides data on schools, suspensions and expulsions from each from our public school. Outcome analysis is the same. They've changed the statutory change on suspensions and expulsions to prohibit not just expounding students who are eight years of age or younger, but also to include, they can't be suspended. And they have changed the language on threat to say poses an inner threat as opposed to a threat. The section seven is the same. The effective date is the same. They changed the name of the bill to say and act relating to the task force on equitable and inclusive school environments to reflect the name change they have put in. So it seems like the bones are there for sure. Some changes. Jeannie, would you, are you there? Let me see if I can grab Jeannie just while I'm thinking of this. I'm here, I was doing things behind the scenes so it's okay. Would you ask JD as to join our committee on Tuesday? He was helpful in constructing the bill and we'll put S16 on the agenda at some point on Tuesday and you and I can talk about it after committee, but JD as would be great to have him in. Okay. Questions right now for Mr. Demeray. Cheryl? I think the changes specified things are more clearer as to what the intent is. I know we had talked about the composition of the task force and kind of left it general, but there being more specific makes sense. Yeah, that seems where there's a lot of change. Mr. Demeray, having followed the work, any, what would you classify as the biggest change away from our intention? Away from your intention. Our intention of the work that we were trying to do. Anything that you feel as though? I think there's very much in line with your intention. It's how I kind of read it. Okay. Senator Persley. I wondered if Jim could tell us why they wanted to change the name, which is a good name, equitable and inclusive school environments, but that seems much more broad than exclusionary discipline, which was definitely the core of the bill as it was introduced. So I didn't know what did they add that they felt like that it was much more broad than discipline? I don't think it was wrong, Brett. I think it was around just having a more positive name as opposed to one about exclusion and discipline and having more of a positive feeling about that, the name and the task force. It doesn't really change the... Go ahead, Senator Persley. Because they didn't really change what their task force was doing. They just wanted what they thought was a more positive name and... And they didn't change the name of the bill itself. They did. They did. Okay. To the same. Okay. Okay. Yeah, Senator Persley. And one just detailed question. When they put a word in there to say that the task force will cease to exist, what happens if we create task force and we say like they have to meet five times, we can't say they cease to exist. Do they not cease to exist? It seems like we do that often. Maybe it's just a new thing that the house is doing now to make sure that it's explicit that they don't exist. Usually we put that language in. So usually we put a task force to cease to exist the day after it delivers its final report. That standard of practice that we do, it was in your side as a mission, but it's been added back here. So they could, if we don't do that and we say they can meet six times, but we don't say they cease to exist, they could still meet like on their own and say, hey, we're still the task force. Even though it's the day after. I think that would really happen. I think if you don't have the cease to exist, I don't think it makes material difference, frankly, but. Okay. They use the language also in literacy, something like something similar, ceasing to exist. The console is designed to be permanent there. They would peel it after three years. Right, right. Okay. Yeah. I did wonder about changing the word compile to review only because it seems as if review looks at things that are already in existence and compile means to sort of go around and collect all of these different things that are happening, but I don't know that there's a real distinction there. Do you think, Jim? Well, I think they were worried about the task force actually going out and trying to compile lots of documents as opposed to reviewing documents that we would provide them. Okay, so it is more of looking at what is already on file to see what kind of discipline is being needed out. Yeah, okay. Yeah. I remember correctly, we changed the word from the bill that reduced to compile from something else. And I thought one of the goals collected, and I thought, and I think we had the same thing. We didn't want them to collect new data or have to work too hard. I thought there was an advantage that the bill sponsors thought of having somebody put it all in one place. Instead of saying, we reviewed it, then if you say, well, I want to review it and you have to go recreate all the different steps that they've put it. So it's actually important the bill requires AOE to collect the data that's available and to give it a task force. So it is being gathered. It's being gathered as much as it is being given and I think that was one of my questions as far as we talked about how the disciplinary structures differ from school to school and how do you know that? Well, if AOE is collecting what's happening, then we would know. Anything else at this point for Mr. Demeray? I think if senators would review this, Cheryl, you have time for Senator Hooker, take your eyes since you were the presenter and we'll be bringing in either our changes or on the committee of conference or our concurrence. If you would just, we have some time this weekend to take a careful look and I will as well and maybe we can touch base. We will have JD as come in since he helped and has been involved in these kinds of conversations. And if anybody wants to hear from anyone else sometime next week, just let me know. Does anybody want to hear from a member of the committee? Does that seem, okay. We could ask some of these then I guess it depends if we're looking to likely we're gonna concur or not. Senator Lines? I was just gonna say I'd rather wait until Senator Hooker looks it over and we have a minute to think more about it. Yep. Sounds wise. I'm saying the reporter on the bill on the house side is Bradie. So if you want somebody, it would be probably her. Okay, thank you. Okay, so committee, given that we're going back to the floor in about 10 minutes, what I've asked Jeannie to do is to work with Becky Wasserman to incend us all of the sort of summary documents, any kind of additional information to give everyone an update over the weekend on where things are at with regard to pensions, the pension bill. Again, we didn't just again, we didn't, we never had possession of the bill. It was just more of updates and things like that. And I would encourage anyone who has in particular interest to engage with them as soon as possible or certainly on the floor when it comes out. Any other questions before we adjourn? And Mr. Demere, if you don't mind sticking around, we'll just talk a little bit about a couple of things that we'll need. Okay, thanks everybody. Have a great weekend.