Latest news with #HouseBill36
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Georgia state budget signed: Here's a by-the-numbers look
Georgia will spend more state money on private school vouchers and poor students in traditional schools under a budget that lawmakers agreed to on Friday. House Bill 68 outlines the spending of $37.8 billion in state funds and $67.2 billion overall, once federal and other funds are included for the year beginning July 1. The Senate voted 54-1 to approve the budget, while the House voted 170-5. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The budget pumps more money into Georgia's troubled prison system. It funds the first year of operation of a private school and homeschooling voucher system at the same time it would spend extra money on the education of students in poverty for the first time. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday allowed lawmakers to spend an extra $50 million in state funds, saying he wanted it spent on a foster care program and a new science building at the University of North Georgia. Kemp sets the ceiling for how much state money can be spent. Here's a by-the-numbers look: $141 million Georgia will budget the maximum amount allowed by law, $141 million, on a new voucher program for private schools and home schooling. At $6,500 per voucher, the amount would provide enough for more than 21,000 vouchers, although it is not clear demand will be that high in the first year. The House had proposed spending $46 million, which would have provided only about 7,000 slots. House members have complained that the Georgia Education Savings Authority, the group created to administer the program, interpreted the law to make many more students eligible than many lawmakers had expected. The program is midway through its first application period, which runs until April 15. There are two more application periods set for the summer and fall. It is unclear how many applications will be approved. $15.3 million Georgia for the first time would provide extra money to schools that educate large numbers of poor students. 'It's a one-time pilot. We're going to watch this,' said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican, of the $15.3 million that lawmakers agreed to. That is down from the $28 million the House initially proposed. Georgia's 40-year-old K-12 school funding system provides extra money to school districts with low property wealth that can't collect much in property taxes. But Georgia is one of five states that doesn't spend extra money directly on poor students. About 36% of Georgia's public school students — 625,000 of the state's 1.75 million students — come from impoverished households, according to the Governor's Office of Student Achievement. Those who study the subject suggest schools need to spend at least $1,000 extra per student to begin seeing results. That would be $625 million statewide. $250 Parents could cut their state income taxes by up to $250 for each child they have who is younger than 6 years old beginning in 2026 under House Bill 36, which won final passage Friday. The measure would also increase how much parents can get back from Georgia's existing child care tax credit. Right now, taxpayers can get back an amount equal to 30% of the separate federal income tax credit for child care expenses. The federal ceiling is $3,000 per child, which means Georgia's ceiling is $900 per child. The plan would increase that to $1,500, or 50% of the federal ceiling. Finally, the bill creates a new subsidy for employers to help pay for child care expenses. If an employer pays for at least $1,000 in child care costs per employee, it could claim a $1,000 per employee credit from its state income taxes in the first year and $500 in following years. $0 Georgia will borrow no money for construction projects for the third year in a row. Instead the state will spend a total of $715 million out of current revenue, avoiding borrowing. The House had proposed borrowing more than $300 million to free up cash to spend in other areas. But senators and Gov. Brian Kemp both opposed selling bonds, citing the $11 billion in unallocated cash that Georgia started the year with, as well as the relatively high interest rates the state would pay if it issued new debt. row. $10 million The state will budget $10 million extra to the state Employees Retirement System, which provides pensions for state employees who aren't teachers. That should be enough to provide one-time bonus payments of around $200 per retiree. Lawmakers have been trying to shore up the pension fund so that it will be financially healthy enough to resume long-paused cost-of-living increases without extra help from the state budget. But they allocated less for the bonus payments that originally proposed. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
KY lawmakers will ban trans folks from the bathroom but won't stop real child predators
Some Kentucky legislators puffed up their chests last week because they called the cops on a transgender woman who used a restroom at the Capitol. What big men they are, so intent on keeping our children safe from predators in our midst. Except they don't actually care about keeping our children safe from predators in our midst. For the third year in a row, an omnibus bill to address teacher sexual abuse failed in the General Assembly. Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, took up the issue after the Lexington Herald-Leader found that a majority of teachers who lose their licenses do so because of sexual misconduct. Guess what? The vast majority of cases are not about gay or transgender people. Instead, they involve male teachers and teenage girls. The legislation has been tinkered with a lot over the past three years, and it has broad bipartisan and teacher organization support. House Bill 36 would stop problem teachers from being shipped from one district to another and banning nondisclosure agreements between teachers and school districts about teacher misconduct involving minors, including sexual misconduct. The bill also would increase disclosure requirements about past misconduct and improve current training. Right now, teachers get some training, but not about inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. Incredible as that sounds, they still need it. The legislature did pass two piecemeal bills: Senate Bill 120, which would make it clear that coaches have to report abuse and neglect, including sexual misconduct, and Senate Bill 181 would make it clear that students and adults can only communicate via already-approved communication means. These are good steps, but they don't do enough. Tipton told my colleague Beth Musgrave that some people were still worried about false accusations. But there is plenty of due process to deal with that. Right now there aren't enough ways to stop bad actors from floating around school districts. Tipton's bill needs to become a top priority for next session. Kudos to him for his diligence and patience on this matter. But in this session, a lot of lawmakers went after after the things they think are dangerous, such as Black history, clean water and transgender folks, who are, by the way, a tiny percent of the population just trying to live their lives. What if instead they tried to stop the verifiably bad people who traumatize and abuse our children? Once again, it is the height of hypocrisy to target a man wearing a dress in the Capitol while, as we speak, a man wearing pants somewhere is sexting with one of his students.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Eye doctors see problems with bill expanding optometry in NM
House Bill 36, would expand the scope of practice for optometrists in New Mexico and awaits action from the governor. (Photo by Leah Romero / Source NM) A proposal to allow optometrists to perform several in-office surgeries passed the Legislature and awaits the governor's possible signature, but the New Mexico Academy of Ophthalmology has raised concerns about 'serious risks' to patients. House Bill 36, sponsored by Majority Whip Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Albuquerque), would expand the Optometry Act and how the 'practice of optometry' is defined. An optometrist holds a doctorate in optometry, or primary eye care, while an ophthalmologist is a medical doctor with surgical training. Currently, certified ophthalmologists are the only eye professionals who can perform laser procedures in New Mexico. If enacted, the bill would allow licensed optometrists to perform various laser-involved procedures to treat conditions like clouding or glaucoma, and also require the state Board of Optometry to create standards for training in laser procedures before an optometrist could begin performing them on patients. An analysis of the bill notes that expanding optometrists' scope of practice could help address the shortage of healthcare providers in New Mexico qualified to care for patients with such needs. The American Academy of Ophthalmology reported that the number of ophthalmologists in the U.S. is predicted to decrease by 12% between 2020 and 2035, while demand for these medical professionals is expected to increase by 24%. The report notes that rural areas in particular do not have adequate access to ophthalmologist services. Rep. Luis Terrazas (R-Santa Clara), a co-sponsor of the bill, told Source NM he was asked by a local optometrist in his area of rural southwest New Mexico to support the expansions proposed in the bill. Terrazas said he was told that a large number of the optometrist's patients were being referred to care in Tucson due to long wait times. 'Not every family can afford to travel out of town,' Terrazas said. He told Source that he has experienced five eye surgeries himself that required trips to Phoenix. He said as long as the state continues to struggle with access to health care, the longer patients will continue looking for care elsewhere. However, an analysis by the Department of Health reported that the expansion of 'laser authority' for optometrists in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kentucky has not proven to increase access to procedures in a significant way and actually poses 'serious concerns' for the safety of patients, particularly due to a lack of standardized guidelines for training in laser surgery. The DOH report says, 'there is a risk of inconsistent preparation among providers performing these procedures. This inconsistency could lead to an increase in vision loss, blindness, and negative patient outcomes.' 'Lowering the quality of care is not a valid workforce strategy for rural New Mexico,' Rebecca Leenheer, board president of New Mexico Academy of Ophthalmologists, said in a statement. 'Every New Mexican—regardless of ZIP code—deserves the highest level of health care, including qualified, highly trained medical doctors performing delicate eye surgery.' Terrazas emphasized to Source NM that HB36 does not require optometrists to offer laser procedures, but gives them the choice for what fits best with their practice and their patients' needs. 'I'm not a doctor, but if I was, I would make sure that I had all the proper training that I feel that I need so that I can provide a good service, right, and safe for my patient,' he said. 'I would assume that most doctors are going to do that because they don't want to have any malpractice problems.' Hochman-Vigil told Source NM that if the bill is enacted, New Mexico would be the 13th state to expand the scope of practice for optometrists, and that medical malpractice insurance has not gone up in those states. She added that optometrists are ethically obligated to consult with or refer patients to ophthalmologists in more complicated cases. 'This actually frees up the ophthalmologist to be able to concentrate on those more complicated cases, so that the optometrist can kind of spend more time working on just your more typical patient care,' Hochman-Vigil said. 'I really feel like, especially for how common these types of procedures are, the argument that it's unsafe [is] just not founded because these types of procedures are performed thousands of times daily and some of them usually take no more than two or three minutes.' HB36 passed the Legislature and is waiting for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's signature, but the academy is asking the governor to veto the bill. Jodi McGinnis-Porter, a spokesperson for the governor, told Source that 'the bill will be evaluated in its entirety when it makes it up [to the governor's office] and she has until April 11 to act on the bill.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Alaska House votes to increase oversight and limit time for foster youth in psychiatric facilities
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, speaks Friday, April 26, 2024, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) Alaska foster youth are admitted to acute psychiatric facilities an average of 90 times per year, according to the state. Lawmakers want to make sure they don't have unnecessarily long stays. The Alaska House of Representatives passed House Bill 36 unanimously on Wednesday. The bill would require foster youth hospitalized in psychiatric facilities to have a court hearing within seven days, a reduction from the current requirement of 30 days. As the state is the legal guardian for foster youth, requiring the time for a court hearing to be within a week aims to prevent youth from unnecessarily long stays in psychiatric facilities – after reports of foster youth having to stay for weeks and even years. 'This is closing such a dark chapter,' said Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, who sponsored the bill, in an interview after the vote. 'And there's just so many kids that we don't even know about that were held there for too long, with no one coming to get them.' Gray said the Legislature is required to take action after an Alaska Supreme Court ruling last year, 'that we must do this, that not having any guidance in our statutes for what should happen to foster kids admitted to acute psychiatric facilities was enabling these tragic stories to happen,' Gray said. 'Where foster kids, through no fault of their own, were ending up in facilities for long periods of time with no intervention. So it was incumbent upon the Legislature to act.' The House voted 39 to 0 passing the bill, with Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, absent. The issue was the focus of a 2024 Alaska Supreme Court ruling in the case of Kwinhagak v. State. The case related to a 14-year-old girl in foster care, who was first hospitalized in Sitka and then placed in a private Anchorage youth psychiatric hospital, North Star Behavioral Health. She went 46 days before the court held a hearing on her hospitalization. Her Tribe, the Native Village of Kwinhagak filed a lawsuit against the state, and the Alaska Supreme Court agreed that the 46 days 'was far too long to satisfy due process,' according to the ruling. The bill would require interested parties to be notified within 24 hours of a child being admitted to acute psychiatric facilities. The state Office of Children's Services must notify the court, the child's parents, and any other parties involved in their foster care case, or 'child-in-need-of-aid' case. Under the bill, the court would require a court-appointed attorney for the child, and a hearing before a judge within a week — with two-way video for the child to access the hearing. At the hearing, the judge would review the need for hospitalization and consider options for placement in a less restrictive environment. It would also require a follow-up every 30 days after the initial hearing. This is huge for us, as a state. – Amanda Metivier, co-founder, Facing Foster Care in Alaska Time in acute psychiatric care is for emergencies, for someone in a mental health crisis to stabilize, and should be very short, Gray added. 'If a child needs ongoing psychiatric care, in-patient for months, then they need to be in a residential psychiatric facility,' Gray said. 'This is a very, very rare occurrence in which a child would be in this type of facility for longer than a month. But if it happens, then yes, at the 30-day mark, it has to be reevaluated.' The conditions and practices of the Alaska foster care system, including psychiatric hospitalization, have been the focus of high-profile investigative journalism, a class action lawsuit, federal investigation of North Star Behavioral Health System, and a civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice, in recent years. 'This is huge for us, as a state,' said Amanda Metivier in an interview after the vote. She is the co-founder of the advocacy nonprofit Facing Foster Care in Alaska, a social worker, foster parent, and former foster youth herself. She said former foster youth, some with their own experiences of being hospitalized for long stays, were watching Wednesday and cheered the House vote. 'So a win for them, too,' she said. 'To be able to give back to those youth that come next, who don't have to have those same experiences of being in an acute psych hospital.' Metivier said the state has a history of overreliance on hospitals and out-of-state facilities for care of foster youth, and work has been done to improve community-based, behavioral health care. But there is also a significant lack of foster home options. 'Today there are youth who are sleeping in hotels for lack of foster homes, with security guards, or who are sleeping in offices for lack of foster homes,' she said. 'And so if a young person lands in an acute psych hospital, I think for the caseworker, there's probably this initial sense of relief, right, in that they're safe right now, but are easily forgotten.' Metivier said that OCS caseworkers, courts, tribes, family attorneys, parents and guardians can all be involved already in a foster case, and acting in the interest of the child, and so the seven-day timeline should be appropriate. 'It shouldn't be burdensome for the state, because it offers an opportunity to create this sense of urgency for everyone to start thinking about what happens next,' she said. It can reduce days of hospitalization, which has the effect of 'compounding trauma, to be in a facility, you know, for a young person, where they don't need to be. And it's more cost effective for the state too,' she said. She said the state's estimate of foster youth being hospitalized 90 times each year is high, and a reason to have protocols in place to assess youth for ongoing care, or a supportive foster placement. Metivier emphasized that reducing time in psychiatric hospitals can also limit further psychological harms. 'They're witnessing physical and chemical restraints, or maybe experiencing those themselves, or put in isolation,' she said. 'So there is a lot they see and experience around them that can be to the detriment of their own mental health too, definitely.' The bill now moves to the Alaska Senate. While the court system notified the Legislature that more frequent hearings would not incur any additional costs, OCS submitted a fiscal note estimating that the cost for the department would be $18,700 annually. Gray, who is also a parent and adopted a former foster youth, became emotional talking about the legacy of children left in psychiatric facilities with no intervention. 'They were the state's responsibility. They were the Legislature's responsibility,' he said. 'So the fact that we didn't act on this sooner kills me inside, and there's no way we can ever make it up to those kids who suffered profound harm. It's our fault. I'm grateful that nothing like that will happen again, if this bill makes it through both bodies and gets signed by the governor.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fayette teachers' aide arrested on child pornography charges, placed on leave
A Fayette County Public Schools instructional assistant was arrested Friday on child pornography charges, according to court records. William Adam Lyle, 42, was listed on the district website as working in special education at Lexington's Northern Elementary school. 'He was a paraeducator with FCPS and was placed on immediate administrative leave, ' district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith told the Herald-Leader Friday. She did not provide information about where Lyle worked. Lyle's arrest citation -- shared with the Herald-Leader by WKYT --said he had been charged with possessing matter portraying sexual performance of a child under 12. Lyle admitted to previously possessing known sexual assault images and videos that he acquired online and had saved to a hard drive and uploaded to an electronic service based cloud belonging to him, according to the citation. The reported images depicted children under the age of 12 in various poses and acts of sexual performance. Lyle admitted to having deleted the images and videos after receiving a warning email shutting down his accounts, the citation said. The Fayette County Detention Center website said Lyle remained there Friday night. A September 2022 investigation by the Herald-Leader highlighted the problem of teacher sexual misconduct in Kentucky. The newspaper obtained 194 cases of teachers who voluntarily surrendered or had their license revoked or suspended from 2016 to 2021. Of those, 118 — 61% — lost their license due to sexual misconduct. The Kentucky General Assembly in 2023 and 2024 failed to pass a bill that would that would strengthen a school's ability to prevent child sexual abuse by adult staff. With two days left in the 2025 session, similar legislation, House Bill 36 sponsored by Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, has not passed.
