Latest news with #SB112
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
It was the first bill to pass the Senate and now it's the law; DeSantis signs autism package
Sen. Gayle Harrell (L) and Senate President Ben Alblritton. (Photo by Christine Sexton/Florida Phoenix) A bill that increases early detection opportunities and educational interventions for children with autism and their families (and a top priority for Senate President Ben Albritton) was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis. 'Thank you Governor DeSantis for signing this comprehensive legislation into law. With this bill, Florida is offering new support from all angles, coordinating research and training, expanding early detection, and increasing education opportunities and other treatment that will help families navigate a diagnosis of Autism,' Ben Albritton, a Republican from Wauchula, said in a prepared statement. 'As always, parents are in control and equipped to make the best decisions to help children reach their full potential.' The bill directs the Florida Department of Health to provide Florida families with early intervention therapies and services through the Early Steps program until the child turns four. That program provides intervention services to eligible infants and toddlers. Under existing law, children age out of the program when they turn three. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The bill creates two education-related grant programs: one for specialized summer programs for children with autism and the other to support charter schools exclusively serving them. The University of Florida Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment is designated as the statewide hub for autism research, services, and best practices. The center also will be in charge of a grant program to establish charter schools for children with autism. Grants will be prioritized for schools serving rural and underserved areas, those with demonstrable success in establishing and operating a charter school exclusively for students with autism and related disorders, and programs that use existing facilities. SB 112 was the first bill to pass the Senate during the 2025 session. At the time, Albritton said the legislation was the state's response to an outcry from parents of children with autism he has met over his political career. Bill sponsor Sen. Gayle Harrell in a prepared statement called the new law a 'game changer.' 'Research is clear. Early detection and intervention services promote positive outcomes for infants, toddlers, and children with a disability or developmental delay,' Harrell said. 'This bill gives parents the opportunity to continue critical early intervention services provided through the Early Steps Program until their child turns four and begins receiving services at school. Additionally, by developing summer programs designed specifically for children with Autism, we can help parents find summer camps and other activities that can accommodate the specific needs of a child with autism, ensuring year-round continuity of care.' The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), defines autism spectrum disorder as a condition characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction and repetitive behaviors. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2020, one in 36 children aged 8 were estimated to have autism. The bill is policy-driven only. There is no appropriation in the legislation to help fund the new law. The money will have to be included in the state fiscal year 2025-26 budget, which the Legislature has yet to pass. The Legislature is at an impasse over state spending and tax relief. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alabama House passes $10 billion education budget
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, presents the proposed 2026 Education Trust Fund budget in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 24, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The budget passed the chamber on a 103-0 vote. It will next go to the Senate, which approved the budget earlier this month, for concurrence with House changes or a conference committee. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House of Representatives passed a package of education funding bills Thursday, including a nearly $10 billion 2026 Education Trust Fund budget (ETF). SB 112, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, allocates $9.9 billion for K-12 schools and higher education, a 6% increase over the current budget. The House Ways and Means Education Committee approved the budget on Tuesday. 'This was an important budget. I think the members understood it, but the work got done,' Garrett said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The budget also includes $135 million for the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program that will award students with funds to be used for education-related expenses, including private school tuition. The program was initially slated to get $100 million, but Garrett said that because of the nearly 37,000 applications there needed to be more money for qualifying students. 'We have had such an enormous response to the application process. So there were a lot of moving pieces here,' Garrett said after the House adjourned. The program is currently limited to special needs students and those making under 300% of the poverty line, about $79,950 for a family of three. The program will be open to all applicants starting in 2027, without any income limits. About two-thirds of the 37,000 applicants for the program this year are already in private school or homeschooled. The budget also includes a $99.2 million increase for the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan. There are no pay raises for education employees in the budget. Garrett said they also had to allocate funds for educator workmen's compensation and paid parental leave. 'So we had a lot of things in the budget, but the good news was we had adequate reserves. We had limited our budget growth every year for the past several years,' he said. The budget passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute. It moves to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. The Senate approved the budget on April 10. Garrett said one of his priorities in the budget is continuing to invest in public education in the state. SB 305, also sponsored by Orr, allows the Legislature to appropriate additional funds to schools based on student needs. The House added an additional $58 million to begin the transition to the new model. The bill passed 103-0. It goes to Gov. Kay Ivey to be signed into law. SB 111, also sponsored by Orr, would appropriate $375 million over three years for that transition, which aims to get more money to students with particular needs, including children in poverty and English Language Learners. 'Every district can report how many students they have that are in the poverty definition, how many are in special education, how many are English as a second language,' he said. 'And what we will do is allocate this additional pot of money to those districts based upon that weight.' Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, supported the weighted funding model. Under the legislation, Montgomery County Schools will receive $7.7 million with most coming from the 2.5% weight for poverty. 'I know students in Montgomery Public Schools are going to be better off because of this,' Ensler said. The bill passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute that added $80 million to the Education Opportunity Reserve Fund for the CHOOSE Act. It goes to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. The Senate adjourned Thursday before final approval of the budgets, so its consideration was not possible Thursday. The House also passed SB 113, also sponsored by Orr, which is the $524 million 2025 supplemental appropriation for education. It passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute that added funds for various needs. It also passed with a floor amendment from Garrett that changed language to clarify funding for dual enrollment programs. It moves to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. The House also passed SB 114, also sponsored by Orr, which is the $1.25 billion supplemental appropriation for the Advancement and Technology budget. It passed 103-0 with a House committee substitute that added a $100 million grant to create career technical programs in areas of the state that do not have one already. It moves to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. Garrett said that he hopes the creation of the programs will improve Alabama's labor participation rate. The state ranks 47th in labor participation at 57.8%, according to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee. 'These initiatives that we've undertaken, through improving education, through increasing the Career Tech opportunities and collaboration with community colleges, all of that,' he said. 'If that drives that labor participation rate up, the state is in a really good position.' House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, commended the budget committee and Garrett for their work on the budget. 'This was a great deal. Chairman Garrett did outstanding. His committee works hard, and the work showed that today,' Ledbetter said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House committee approves $10 billion education budget; floor vote expected Thursday
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, speaking to the House Ways and Means Education Committee on April 22, 2025, in the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Alabama. The committee approved the 2026 Education Trust Fund budget and other supplemental appropriations on Tuesday. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) An Alabama House committee Tuesday approved a 2026 Education Trust Fund budget with a few changes, bringing it closer to a vote in the chamber. SB 112, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, increases the current budget by $543.3 million (5.81%), but a substitute from the Alabama House Ways and Means Education Committee added an additional $17.6 million. That brings the total growth of the ETF to 6%. 'That's the maximum we were allowed to increase the budget because of our secondary cap. Next year, that number will be 5.75% under this current budget,' Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, the chair of the committee, said Tuesday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Senate approved the nearly $10 billion budget on April 10. Garrett said one of his priorities in the budget is continuing to invest in public education in the state. SB 305, also sponsored by Orr, allows the Legislature to appropriate additional funds to schools based on student needs. The House added an additional $58 million to begin the transition to the new model. SB 111, also sponsored by Orr, would appropriate $375 million over three years for that transition, which aims to get more money to students with particular needs, including children in poverty and English Language Learners. The budget also includes $135 million for the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program that will award students with funds to be used for education-related expenses, including private school tuition. The program was initially slated to get $100 million, but Orr said that demand for the program led the chairs to increase the allocation. The program is currently limited to special needs students and those making under 300% of the poverty line, about $79,950 for a family of three. The program will be open to all applicants starting in 2027, without any income limits. About two-thirds of the 37,000 applicants for the program this year are already in private school or homeschooled. 'I realize that there's different opinions about school choice,' Garrett said. 'We have the CHOOSE Act, and we're committed to that. But we are committing more than that funding into the public schools. And I think that what we're doing, especially looking at student needs, is very, very important.' There are also additional line items for workmen's compensation for educators, SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville; and paid parental leave, SB 199, sponsored by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile. Teachers will receive $1,000 for classroom supplies, and the state will allocate $100 per student for textbooks. Teachers will not get a raise this year, but Garrett said the education community wanted an increase in the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan. There is a $99.2 million increase in PEEHIP. 'What we were hearing from the education community was that they really wanted that PEEHIP increase covered, and that's almost $100 million out of the budget,' he said. The Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative will see a 31% ($32.2 million) funding increase while the Alabama Reading Initiative's (ARI) funding would grow by 6.4% ($9 million). The two programs' funds remain unchanged from what the Senate passed earlier this month. State Superintendent Eric Mackey supported the budget and hopes they pass smoothly. 'I think they've done their homework,' he said. ' They've found the right balance.' House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said the House would vote on the ETF on Thursday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alabama Senate committee approves $10 billion education budget
Senate Finance and Taxation Education committee Chair Arthur Orr leads the committee's meeting opn April 9, 2025 in Montgomery, Ala. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector) An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a nearly $10 billion education budget for 2026 that increases funding in some areas and prepares for an attempt to overhaul how state schools get money. SB 112, the main budget bill sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would increase the education budget for the fiscal year 2026, which begins October 1, by $543.3 million, or 5.81%, to $9.89 billion. 'We're still in a good place with resources for our public educational institutions, be they universities, colleges, junior colleges, and K-12, Pre-K and other elements,' Orr said, though he added that they have 'to be very mindful going forward' not only due to future economic uncertainty but also because of efforts to create a new funding formula. The budget includes $9.6 million to fund a new parental leave law for state and education employees, as well as $15.6 million for an injury compensation program for education employees awaiting legislative approval. The budget also appropriates $2.5 million for a pilot project to provide teletherapy, or mental health counseling via phone or video, in schools and increased funding for prison education by $3.7 million, or a 19.3% increase, for a total of $22.8 million. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'We know that there's a lot of mental health challenges in our schools today. Well, there are companies that do via video telecounseling, and because it's so hard, as you heard in the committee, to find school counselors, this will be an assist,' Orr said. The Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) would receive an increase of 31%, increasing it's funding by $32.2 million under the Senate committee substitute. The Alabama Reading Initiative'sfunding would increase by 6.4% percent, a $9 million increase. Transportation funding would be increased by about 9.1%, or about $40 million. The state's share that it pays for state and education employees is also increasing. PEEHIP would have to contribute $904 to each education employee's health insurance premiums, up fron $800, while SEIB would have to contribute $1,025 to their state employee's health insurance premiums. The Alabama Public Library Service would keep their funding level from the current fiscal year. The budget does not include a $100 million supplemental appropriation to transition the state's student funding formula to a hybrid model from the Education Opportunities Reserve Fund for the same fiscal year. SB 111, also sponsored by Orr, would appropriate $375 million over three years for that transition, which aims to get more money to students with particular needs, including children in poverty and English Language Learners. The committee also approved SB 113, sponsored by Orr, which appropriates an additional $524.3 million to schools in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. That includes $100 million to local school boards for new school buses and $166 million to the State Department of Education for one-time expenses, such as college and career readiness grants and providing additional school safety training and services. Orr said that higher education institutions received additional funding in the supplemental to keep the current funding ratio between K-12 and higher education due to an increase from the student funding formula changes. 'Colleges and universities usually get around 25%, 27% of whatever the K-12 world gets, so they're going to be getting additional resources in this budget because we remove $375 [million] from the savings account [and] put it towards K-12,' Orr said. SB 114, also sponsored by Orr, is another supplemental appropriation bill that would allocate $1.25 billion from the Education Trust Fund Advancement and Technology Fund for the current fiscal year, ending September 30. That supplemental also includes about $908 million for the Department of Education to be distributed to local school boards and other education state entities, such as the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind and the Board of Youth Services School Districts. The committee also approved separate funding bills for Tuskegee University, totaling $15.8 million, Talladega College with $1.33 million, and Southern Preparatory Academy, a boarding school in Camp Hill, totaling $450,000. Orr said he expects the Senate to consider the funding bills Thursday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Fox News
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Dem lawmaker responds to allegations staffer crumpled, threw out girls' letters lobbying for trans athlete ban
Nevada women and families rallied at the state capital building in Carson City on Tuesday to lobby lawmakers to pass a resolution that would keep trans athletes out of girls' sports. Currently, two bills have been proposed to the state legislature to address the issue, but the Democrat majority has not indicated it will allow a hearing on the bills. Two girls who were at the event and another witness allege that a staffer from Democratic Assemblymember Elaine Marzola's office crumpled up and threw away letters lobbying Marzola to support the bill. Marzola has denied the allegations. A Nevada middle school girl, 13-year-old daughter Ava Chavez, prepared a letter to hand to assemblymembers detailing her experience having to compete against a biological male in volleyball last year. A copy of the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, showed Ava recounting the emotions she felt having to compete against the male opponent, while pleading for the lawmakers to consider passing one of the bills, SB112. "When the ball is on the other side of the net, they have a chance to swing and we have a chance to block. This can be dangerous for us because if the blockers can't block the boy's hit, I could get dangerously hurt. This scares me because boys are naturally bigger, faster, stronger and have a higher vertical," the letter readers, later concluding with, "Please support SB112 to protect girls like me who love sports. Thank you for reading my letter!" Chavez told Fox News Digital that she saw a staffer from Marzola's office take her letter, and those from other girls, and throw them away in the trash. "When I walked in she took my paper between her fingers and she was like sliding it into the trash can," she said, adding that other girls then walked in and left their own letters on Marzola's desk. "And then when I walked out, I thought I heard rustling papers again, and I was like 'Oh she just threw out our papers again,'" she said. Ava Chavez was joined by several other girls at the event, including 17-year-old Nevada girls' athlete Kendall Lewis. Lewis has also played against a trans athlete in high school volleyball over the last two seasons, which prompted her to join the effort on Tuesday. However, Lewis also alleges she saw her letter crumpled and thrown away. "As she took them from us, she kind of crumpled them a little bit, not completely like into a ball, but just kind of threw them away and just disregarded them," Lewis told Fox News Digital. The girls who went to the state capitol were led by former University of Nevada volleyball player Sia Liilii, who has been living with the Chavez family over the last year. Liilii told Fox News Digital what she witnessed. "After hearing the rustling papers, I looked back and Kendall said 'she just threw it away,'" Liilii said. The allegations were first reported by Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks in a post on X on Tuesday. Marzola provided a statement to Fox News Digital denying the allegations and dismissing Joecks' initial report. "The allegations against my staff and I are a blatant lie perpetrated by an unserious opinion columnist who wasn't even in the legislative building. My staff and I always treat everyone with the utmost respect and dignity. Because I was in meetings all afternoon, I didn't interact with Ms. Chavez (Ava's mother Annie Chavez) or her daughter, so they must be mistaken," the statement read. On Wednesday, Joecks posted a screenshot on X of an email denying the allegations from fellow Nevada Democrat Assemblymember Steve Yeager, with a caption. "In an email, [Yeager] claims what Annie Chavez told me isn't true, but he provides no evidence to back that assertion up. I'll let you decide who's more believable: the political powerful insider or mom who sounded genuinely shocked when she told me what she saw," the caption read. Liilii has also addressed Marzola's response and denial. "She wasn't in the site of what had happened and the fact that she wants to come after the character of girls who were just there to give their letters peacefully and give her letters saying why they love sports so much and why they want it to be single-sex spaces, it's kind of questionable, especially since she gets to make decisions for how we gets to play our her sports," Liilii said. "I hope she looks into the other side as well and doesn't just come after our character." Marzola has provided a follow-up response addressing the doubt of her denial by Liilii. "As I said, the allegations are not true and both Ms. Chavez and Ms. Liilii are mistaken. Neither my staff nor I committed these actions," the statement read. Liilii became a prominent figure in the national fight to combat trans inclusion in women's sports last fall, when she led her former teammates through a widely publicized dispute with their university over whether to forfeit a game against San Jose State University and its trans player, Blaire Fleming. The Nevada players approached university administrators privately to express their desire to forfeit the match and join four other programs that refused to play SJSU. But Nevada did not honor that request and instead released a statement insisting it would play the match. Nevada also insisted its players would be allowed to skip the contest without facing discipline. The team ultimately forfeited the day before the match was scheduled to be played, due to not having enough players. However, the university has said it had discussions with the players about potential "legal issues" that would emerge if the match were not played. "University administrators met with the Nevada volleyball team and discussed scenarios of what could happen if they chose not to play. One of the scenarios that was discussed revolved around possible legal issues for violating the Nevada Constitution," read a statement that was previously provided exclusively to Fox News Digital by the University of Nevada, Reno. Nevada's constitution was revised in 2022, when Democratic lawmakers voted to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, which added gender identity to its list of diversity classifications that are protected under state law. As a result, girls athletes in the state like Chavez and Lewis have had to play against biological males in the time since then. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
