[Music] all right good afternoon members here we are um in our part one of Education policy meeting today um our first order of business will be to approve the minutes from our last meeting which was uh Tuesday March 12th and representative Berg have you had a moment to review the minutes and would you motion for the approval yes Madam chair I was just looking them over and I move the approval of the minutes thank you any discussion on the minutes from um March 12th all right hearing none all in
favor of approving the minutes please say I I opposed right the minutes are approved thank you um well we have uh a number of bills that we'll be hearing today and discussing uh there's the bills that we heard the testimony from yesterday and that we're going to continue the discussion of but I think we'll start with the new bills right now and then at the end of this session return to the bills um from yesterday for discussion and we have uh first up 36 house file 3682 representative katisa Wu
n as our as our chief author of this bill um you're not currently a member of this committee though you have been in the past representative katun so caun so um I think I will have um if uh representative Berg if you would um move also uh house file 3682 to be before us thank you madam chair I move house for 3682 to be before the committee thank you representative B and I believe there's also an author's Amendment correct M chair right so it's the A4 Amendment um and um just just briefly um woul
d you describe um how this A4 Amendment changes the bill certainly thank you madam chair so the the A4 Amendment um gets the bill into the shape I would like after um some additional feedback from the Department of Education and the min youth Council thank you representative um representative Berg would you also um motion the A4 amendment be4 US uh for approval I'm sorry madam chair I move the A4 for approval thank you all right any discussion to the A4 Amendment uh before we discuss the bill al
l right all in favor of the A4 Amendment please say I I opposed thank you members all right the uh 3682 as amended with the A4 so representative Katia Wun please introduce your bill thank you madam chair and members um I'm proud to be carrying house file 3682 a bill that would standardize health education across our state I would like to give a just a a brief introduction of the bill and then I will ask um house councel to walk through the specifics of the language um but members as we know in t
oday's changing World our children have more exposure to technology and all the things that come with um than ever before so this access and exposure can create a variety of challenges for them as they grow and learn house file 3682 will standardize health education across the state which is a crucial step in ensuring that all students regardless of their location receive a consistent education related not only to their own health but also the well-being of their family friends and their Communi
ty this bill utilizes the rul making process allowing for any and all interested parties to engage the Department of Education in this process currently health education is the only required subject matter in Minnesota that is not standardized rul making allows for a transparent process that will require the input and buyin of a variety of stakeholders these stakeholders are then um compiled into a standards committee which participates in this process this includes parents of school AG children
teachers and faculty throughout the state uh Schoolboard members members of our tribal Nations and now um students with input from the Minnesota Youth Council after this standards committee completes their recommendations there is ample opportunity for a public comment and consideration Minnesota statute related to this matter specifically stipulates that the standards created are clear and objective and do not require a certain teaching methodology simply put the process of rulle making and cr
afting this bill and carrying it toward eventual implementation is a process that's objective and relies on important checks and balances while being open to the public at Key junctures um so Madam chair if uh Miss par would walk through uh the specifics of the bill and then we can move to testimony thank you representative cun Miss Perry uh Madam chair and members um Christina perah from house research um the bill um the first several sections of the bill um uh modify the language related to st
andards generally um adding Health to the list of state standards and removing it from well it's currently um the only local standard um so for example in section one um number two of the uh list is struck there and Heth is added to the state standards um in section two um line 2.4 um it's also striking um the locally developed um uh requirement for health standards um section and but there's a paragraph there um at the end of the section adding that the locally developed standards would continu
e to apply um until uh either at the end of the 25 26 school year or until the commissioner adopts the Statewide rules implementing the State Health standards whichever occurs later um section three again adding um health to the list of the state standards um that's the section that um talks about the um the the groups that the commissioner considers advice from and in the amendment that you have before you um there is an added line a new number seven at the end of that list um that would requir
e the commissioner to seek input from current students um and the Minnesota Youth Council uh section four is the rul making statute uh the ru making provision and this would require the commissioner to adopt Statewide rules for the State uh for the health standards section five um this uh is this is the provision that says that the standards are all reviewed on a 10-year cycle so it's adding the health standards to that 10e cycle in the new paragraph h on line 512 uh section six um this uh secti
on of Statute um lists the credits that students need to require from need to um need to complete to graduate from high school um and so you'll see there for example they need three credits of math Etc um this adds credits sufficient to satisfy the health standards so it doesn't enumerate how many credits would be necessary it says um sufficient to satisfy the standards um which is similar to what is in the um requirements for physical education and number six section seven um so this in the ame
ndment that's before you this section is deleted and is instead excuse me replaced by a codified um uh section um so that's what's in the amendment before you starting on line 1.7 uh the health education standards um and subdivision one requires the commissioner to begin the rul making process to adopt the standards and then requires the Comm the rules to include at least the expectations for student learning that are in subdivision 2 and then may include the expectation in subdivision 3 so to g
o through those in subdivision 2 these are requirements that are currently in statute uh for example um uh CPR and uh automatic external defibrillator education um that's currently in 120b 236 so that's uh instruction that districts are currently required to provide um so number one through five um those are all currently in statute number five uh is mental health education that's current ly an encouragement and statute but in this uh bill it is in the required uh subject areas and then subdivis
ion three are subject areas that the commissioner may include in the standards and these are all um uh the current statutes encourage districts to provide that instruction for example um character development education or child sexual abuse prevention education um then section eight of the the bill um is a blank appropriation to the department to complete the ru making and uh Madam chair members that's the Bill thank you thank you M for walking us through that we appreciate that it's it's compli
cated it is thank you um and I believe now we have testifiers um and um that they're all in person and I have first up Janette HZ um an intern with the women's Foundation of Minnesota and then also after that it will be POI Del Rosario um from Minnesota Coalition against sexual assault so if you can be ready you can introduce yourself and begin with your testimony honorable members of the committee um for the record my name is Janet jenez and I a fellow and program manager at the women's Foundat
ion of Minnesota uh thank you for the chance to testify today in support for house file um 3682 which will represent a pivotal step forward towards ensuring students across the state of Minnesota to get an opportunity to learn what they need to grow up safe healthy and confident um as mentioned the current health standard health education standards are not set across the state level um which means that depending on where you live in Minnesota this will determine what students learn about a essen
tial topics such as violence prevention substance abuse mental health and reproductive Health the essence of house file 3682 lies in the commitments of the well-being of of young people and providing them with the ne necessary tools to make informed decisions with positive impacts in their lives and the lives of their peers the knowledge shared in classrooms has value for their lives along long after after school is over by passing this bill we will not only Safeguard the well-being of young peo
ple but also Foster Society Foster a society um that values all people it is imperative to recognize that young people are at risk um of continued health hazards such as disease psychological stressors uh substance misuse violence and more without these standards a holistic health education approach is essential to preventing harm and Catering safer more Equitable and thriving communities across the state uh the repercussions of in inaction are far reaching and can perpetuate cycles of U poor di
et habits within students lack of exercise awareness unawareness of common mental common mental health conditions such as anxiety depression and stress and coping mechanisms to combat these things Health disparities um also are a a big impact within um the approach of the health standards because not everyone has access to a health education within um their homes and it would be easier if they can get access to this in schools um as a part of my role at the foundation I work with a youth group a
nd focus on policies that relate to their everyday lives um and from these youth I have also learned that there is a need for a Statewide held to support for their ability to grow and learn with healthy lives um as a representative of the people you you have the obligation the moral obligation to ensure that every individual in the state of Minnesota is has access to proper health and helps them uh which will help them live a healthy life um a more safe life and a confident life um we urge you t
o pass this proposal to ensure students in Minnesota to have access to education in the health in on health subjects and will allow them to live a fully and healthy fully and healthy lives thank you for your time and your consideration thank you for your testimony next up we have from the Minnesota Coalition Coalition against sexual assault POI Del Rosario if you can introduce yourself and proceed good afternoon chair prior and members of the committee my name is pogi Del Rosario and I'm one of
the prevention program coordinators at the Minnesota Coalition against sexual assault or manasa manasa's vision is that of a world free of sexual violence in which all human beings are treated with dignity and respect and communities are transformed through safety healing and Partnerships our vision is directly in line with the contents of this bill and today we are demonstrating support for house file 3682 we want youth across the state of Minnesota to have access to education that provides the
Knowledge and Skills to make informed decisions that will positive impact them throughout their lifespan manasa has convened over 100 motans committed to this cause the health and well-being education standards workg group is comprised of Advocates Health Educators students parents Comm and community members this Coalition of motans seeks to take actionable steps toward ensuring that all young people are equipped with the means to attain their highest levels of Health this work group includes b
oth Health experts and those who would be most impacted by those standards students it is imperative to listen to and uplift these voices and their experiences masasa is dedicated to the primary prevention of violence primary prevention is taking steps to stop violence before it can occur the implementation of such Health standards would build foundational skills in effective communication character development and teachings of consent these core strategies of primary prevention aim to eliminate
risk factors and promote protective factors from insot this bill would facilitate collective Community efforts to prevent harm and Center positive Health outcomes to fulfill a vision of a world free from sexual violence transformative change is necessary house file 3682 provides the opportunity to make crucial Health improvements for all motans a holistic approach to health education is essential for preventing harm and creating safer and thriv thriving communities across the state thank you th
ank you for your testimony um I have Dr Sheldon burkowitz from children's Minnesota and after that I have from Minnesota Youth councelor um Isa AA better that will be on Tech please proceed Dr britz Madame chair and members thank you for allowing me to speak today my name is Dr Sheldon burkowitz I'm a retired pediatrician and and am the iMed Med at past president of the Minnesota chapter the American Academy of Pediatrics our chapter represents over 1,000 pediatricians in the state many of whom
are in the chamber today for pediatricians day at the capital we advocate for the health safety and well-being of our patients Minnesota's children I'm here to testify in favor of house file 3682 this bill aims to improve the academic standards for Minnesota students to include elements necessary for a well-rounded health education we are not doing a good job at preparing our children to live healthy thriving lives kids today are facing multiple challenges to their mental and physical health and
the earlier we can teach them about how to take care of their own health the better in my over 35 years working as a pediatrician with the last 20 at Children's Minnesota I've seen increased rates of mental health concerns such as depr depression and anxiety among adolescents higher rates of Eating Disorders childhood obesity and diseases such as type 2 diabetes among school-aged children and increased rates of emotional and sexual abuse among youth of all ages additionally Minnesota's kids nee
d to be educated about how to live a healthy life in the year 2024 and Beyond in a world filled with access to vaping and cannabis products marketed towards children where every kid has multiple social media accounts and where any child who is old enough to type can expose themselves to all the information and open communication of the internet we need to conscientiously do better by our kids this bill would help ensure Children and Families from every corner of the state will receive consistent
education related to their own health and that of their family and communities on behalf of the state's pediatricians I am grateful to representative coisa Wun for bringing this bill forward and I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you thank you all right uh we have our testifier from the Minnesota Youth Council if you can step forward um actually I think we have two testifiers if the second can be on T you can introduce yourself to and first seed thank you chair and members of the commit
tee my name is AA macki brud and I am a representative on the Minnesota Youth Council as well as an 11th grader at Twin Cities Academy High School I'm here to speak on behalf of myself and all young people across Minnesota who are relying on our school system to educate us and prepare us for our futures the purpose of quality education is to prepare young people for becoming active and successful members of society as well as teaching skills for everyday life and wellness School prepares us by t
eaching college preparatory skills and career skills and by teaching us mathematics and reading and the sciences and yet many young people have no idea how to take care of their own minds and bodies because curriculums lack fundamental health education currently our schools are not meeting their purpose of supporting students in this way educating students about mental health gives them the power to identify when they need help and gives them the knowledge and resources to know how to address it
and where to go many young people including some teenagers that I am close with have already had to talk several of their peers out of committing suicide these situations demonstrate a significant problem in our system of Education children should not be responsible for saving lives schools have an obligation to teach us what to do in a crisis and more importantly how to prevent the crisis from ever happening many young people do not have an understanding of how to get help if they are struggli
ng with their mental health most of my peers have never known how to access therapy or counseling and many of them don't know about the suicide hotline or how to use it sex education is not a mandatory class in many schools and Drug education is mandatory in even fewer without Statewide education standards not all of Minnesota's students have access to equal support in these areas Statewide Health standards allow all students across the state to have equal access to curriculums and prevent any d
isparities making mental health a part of school curriculums forces people to talk about it and Des stigmatizes honest conversations surrounding mental illness suicide and self harm required health curriculums will provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to have happier healthier Futures and so I urge you all to please vote in support of house file 3682 thank you thank you for your testimony and also from the Minnesota Youth Council adona night maybe not appreciate that um usual
ly you don't see this many pediatricians in one room thank you for being with us today I think we'll have to recognize you there um I did not have an appointment today I really feel like I missed out so you don't live in Menon in PR okay that's all right um thank you thank you for being here and and U for witnessing all right um we have no more testifiers on our list um and we'll turn to member discussion representative keer thank you chair I just can't help myself sometimes to ask some question
s I love this bill um two questions I have um we're starting on line 712 we talk about mental health and I agree we absolutely need to talk about it can you just walk me through if that would include talking about the 988 access I know that we put that on all of our student IDs one of the things that I've learned as I've been in high schools is we're not actually talking about that resource very well in schools can you tell us if the mental health concept of this would include access to 988 and
how to utilize that represent thank you Madam chair and thank you representative Keeler for bringing that up I I did U make a note of that when our student testifier um shared her concerns specifically about suicide um we so um in the amendment um I just want to point out that we did shift um as as Miss Pera had mentioned earlier shift mental health from the encourage um section of the standards that are currently in statute into the required for discussion so we were saying mental health must b
e included in whatever is put forth through the throughout the rul making process we don't have um the the 988 number specifically um included in that at this point in time um but I open to to adding that um potentially in a parenthesis or or something um but I know that as as throughout the rul making process um that we're including that on on student IDs and just making sure awareness is um is growing um across the state I'm sure that that would be something that um the experts um would would
probably want to be included and as we heard the description of the as you describe the ru making process there is you know the stakeholders coming and being brought intentionally forward to do a draft and then the public comment and so we we know that it's all up to all of us to watch the standards as they unfold and make sure that you know that crucial crucial piece of information would be added to it even if it's not um you know listed specifically as part of the statute then introduces the r
u making for for health standards it doesn't mean that somehow we're going to leave I mean I don't think that's possible to leave it out but I but that would be my opinion but and then not an expert uh representative keer thanks continueing to plug that we have 998 I guess is where it's at on record legislative intent to make sure that we continue to talk about that with our kids my next question um I'm not really sure where it lands with the amendment but is around the sexual abuse and violence
prevention I just want to add that as we do the student breakdowns um one of the elements that I I would hope that we would continue to talk about is sex and human trafficking signs of this we're seeing that the student report is in increasing is increasing in yes responses to have they engaged or interacted in um this in their communities and actually the highest percent of yes is Northwest Minnesota um so just another legislative intent as we move forward in this conversation I think talking
about violence and sexual assault is really important but adding the human trafficking piece on top of that so for whatever that's worth I really like the bill good work I just would like those two things noted in in the record thank you thank you representative keer representative bber uh thank you madam chair uh thank you representa Wun it's a mouthful you got it right um uh I have a little different perspective on this bill um you know I think as as we sit and we listen to discussion testimon
y um I if I was if I wasn't in a school you know often I would think well there's nothing being done in our schools around these different topics and and nothing could be further from the truth there is a ton of work around all of the topics outlined in the bill that that school districts are are working really hard on and and I think the disconnect for me in this bill really centers around local control because the the process of identifying how to address the different topics it has really bee
n worked on hard at the individual District level with with student input from that School District Parent input from that school district um and as I as I go through the bill I I just have concerns about removing that local Authority and that local autonomy so uh line um line 1.11 you know we we strike the provision for um locally adopted expectations for learning Health moving through 2.6 same thing um you know and then going into going into the standards and and effective dates like if we did
n't learn anything in last session we should learn that we have to be very cautious of our effective dates uh and the implementation of things because that that ties the hands of our districts um I would agree uh with rep Keeler about trafficking and and human trafficking about having conversations and and warning signs we need to have those conversations with our kids 988 in my building it's on the back of every kid's ID it's in their student planner um we ordered fancy little stickers to do th
at so districts are are figuring this stuff out based off of the legislation that we passed that best fit their local communities and um and I think as I went through and it might be my numbers might be off with the de but I counted seven times that it says must in this bill and and I've said it before I'm going to continue to say it when we say must what school districts hear is this is a mandate and we at this table are telling our local school districts how to do this topic uh and it's touchy
I if if if if you would like to come and spend a day with a principal um or be involved in a a conversation with a teacher who um you know maybe didn't communicate the way that they should have or a principal didn't communicate it's not fun and what we are doing right now is saying local school board you have no say in this we're going to develop this at the state level and we're going to get input but the locally elected officials don't have a say and I think the the letter from from the schoo
l board from msba and the different groups they really outline it well about what happens at the local level Community engagement number one that Fosters trust in the local community the people that are elected to our local school boards they're local community members diverse local needs there are different needs and through the process those needs are heard those needs are valued and when you hear that it builds trust and then it's accountability and responsibility if if the Local District get
s something wrong they are locally accountable if if someone from you know duth Minnesota I don't think anyone's from duth here has an issue um you know the the constituents of duth don't have a voice over this bill at this committee table obviously through the process they do but not at this committee table and so for that reason I um we need to continue to support our our local districts local autonomy to be able to meet the needs um so thank you uh and I just respectfully can't support this u
h chair y King thank you um thank you chair prior and thank you representative Kisa Wun for bringing this bill forward um sometimes I know exactly what we're doing and sometimes I get confused when other people talk so I just want to clear things up are is there anything in this bill that prohibits a local um local school board to add on to something on top of the standards I know the standards process is a lengthy one it can take up to two years we actually part of the standards is having um te
achers and local electeds at the table or representatives from those groups um and the business Community it looks like in our underlying standards development process it's parents of school age I'm looking at subdivision 2 on lines 3.11 parents of school age children must be part of the standards development um teachers administrators members of local school boards and Charter School boards throughout the state faculty teaching core um T neck which is important business business Community cuz y
ou know we educate the future Workforce totally get that I'm glad that you're adding the Minnesota Youth Council because I think that's what's been missing in some of the standards process until the last few years so those folks are at the table with our experts because as elected officials I'd be worried about me telling people what they should learn in health and they're going to develop that base standard for the graduation requirement we already have in place is there anything in here that s
ays the school district can't add on top of that requirement representative CA with uh Madam chair and um chair Yim no districts certainly could go above and beyond um what would be included um at the end of the rule making um process um and the standardizing a a specific subject matter doesn't require certain teaching methodologies or um Styles um local units would still be responsible for determining how their students do reach like the destination of learning about mental health and and I thi
nk that you know as we continue moving forward in the Insight that we've heard from pediatricians and um and the students who came to the table um one of the one of the great things I think about including the Minnesota Youth Council in this process is that the Minnesota Youth Council um you know contains students from each legis uh congressional district excuse me across the state and so the the um variety of insights that we're going to get from Greater Minnesota and the suburbs and the metro
area um but then of course local districts would still able to um to to go beyond um what is established just one quick follow chair prior is that okay and it's more of a comment or question do you want comments later or just now I think I think we'll discussion good got it so I just want to say so for so for folks no so folks know this it's been a long day already tonight's going to be rough um that we already require a half a credit in to graduate in health we have many other graduation requir
ements every single one of the other graduation requirements have standards set by the state and then the district gets to pick the curriculum to teach to those standards this is the last graduation requirement we have that is not set at the state level and I understand that every Community is unique just like every one of our students are unique and our unique students across the state have been asking to have something that is more concise and comprehensive just at just a baseline so when kids
move from one District to another they know what to expect to graduate and this is just a Baseline and we're setting it through the rul making process and making sure that we have a base of standardized requirements for health some kids in one school district might be getting the CPR some kids in other school district might not be some kids in one school district are getting taught about mental health even though it's in our statute doesn't mean it's getting taught there and the standards proce
ss around graduation requirements are important so we have that Baseline that we can expect when those kids get that diploma we have an idea of what they've learned so I just want to thank you for putting this in because health is huge health is a huge part of everybody's life it sets you up for success or failure depending on how early you learn about all those things I would just had the um Kidney Foundation was in a few like last week already and they were going through all the um things that
you need to do when you're younger so that your kidneys can stay healthy longer and most of that I had never heard of part of that I was like o I think I already screwed that up but it's just important for our kids to have all the information beginning to have a healthy a healthy living later on in fact one last thing really funny my husband listened to an amazing podcast by a doctor about I think the book was called outlive he I couldn't stop him he bought one copy for each of our kids cuz it'
s all about setting up your life to be successful healthy wise physical activity wise longevity wise and it starts when you're young so this is really important so thank you representative thank you madam chair I'll start with a question if I could representative Kaa Wun um just a quick question so currently for we have all these areas the standards are required to cover CPR vaping cannabis and so on the list here are there currently supports offered at the state level such as model policy toolk
its guidance State assistance for these areas do we know I don't mean by law if I can interject are those there I don't if anybody from the Departments here that um Madam chair representative Bennett there are some State resource the mental health um statute for example has um I believe it's the Department of Education or perhaps Health Gathering some resources um for districts um and I believe the Department of Health has some vaping um prevention uh materials the Cannabis uh bill from last yea
r required the Department of Education to develop a model program for substance use prevention um so th those are the ones that come to mind but there may be others thank you thanks Madam chair I should have I should have asked the knowledgeable person you're knowledgeable too and say but with the laws thank you so much I love having those two experts over there don't you um so my thought is and I'll just add some some comments we're we're constantly and it seems like more and more mandating a s
tate one siiz fitall standards models whatever they are onto our schools since we already have guidance toolkits model policy why not beef those up give these general areas that need to be taught which some of them already must be taught and then let schools use that as a buffet of saying okay what best fits our community because as soon as we start to say Everybody Must meet it this way this standard and especially in this area where there are we merge into Moral Moral beliefs religious beliefs
and all kinds of things like that that are different throughout our state little bit different than teaching math and whether we do you know addition subtraction algebra and all those things this is an area that especially should be local control where our parents our school boards and that local process dictates how they want to see these fleshed out in their own communities and it concerns me great L because we are going to set up our schools and like this in communities and start a lot of um
just a lot of struggles and stress that we don't need in our schools right now so I understand the need for saying know we need to teach in these areas but I don't understand the need for one siiz fits-all these standards must be developed and quite honestly with the rulle making process that was spoken about here I'm not sure if I trust that process anymore I used to think it was pretty unbiased and standardized but the more I see what happened with the social studies standards in particular w
here pretty much half the state was left out and it's a group of um as far as I know mostly appointed people and yes they're experts but it's more and more being used to in my mind kind of weaponized for political purposes or political things into our curriculum and should not happen here so I I have issues with rul making process especially in areas like this that are very sensitive locally this should be local control so thank you thank you and I uh will turn to you uh representative CA with t
une if you want comment specifically or just uh begin your closing remarks wonderful thank you madam chair and um I so appreciate everybody's Insight here today I mean I think that the the start of this conversation is so important because um as as some of our colleagues have mentioned um we we know that we're not the experts right and um and um we have a principal here at the table I've I've um started having discussions with a variety of the different associations um certainly I've met with yo
uth prize and the Minnesota Youth Council directly I've met with the admin uh Association of school administrators and the elementary school and Secondary School principles we're still looking to schedule additional um conversations just to gain Insight particularly um from the local level and and how how um our districts are handling um the large amount of um information that came at them in in the last session and um in terms of timeline I think that you know some of those conversations that w
e had we know um what while it's in the language as after the end of the 25 26 school year or once the um rul making process is is ended whichever is later so I think making sure that our districts do have time to adjust um to what they're instituting now currently um but then going forward and that we continue to engage them um in these conversations so um I I think that we we do recognize that the students all across Minnesota no matter where they live no matter where their classroom is um tha
t health education enables them to understand and make well-informed decisions not only about their own life but how to support others around them um and adding Heth to the as the last one the list of subject matters required to graduate for Statewide standards can help us accomplish this and thank you thank you um and with that members um we will now um vote to move um house file 40 40 got to go back am I right yeah I got up on the wrong one 3682 um with that representative Berg renews her moti
on to re-refer house file 3682 as amended to the education finance committee all those in favor please say I I oppos no no all right thank you the motion carries and house file 3682 as amended is on its way to education Finance thank you representative CA withun thank you madam chair and members for the discussion today all right and then we do have uh representative Hassan is the next bill and I 4363 thank you audience members well representative Assan we started the discussion I think of of th
e the gist of what your bill is and um we'll see how this kind of works into our other discussion of Health standards um so our next bill members is house file 4363 and it's Our intention to hear the bill and lay it over for further consideration and possible inclusion in a policy bill um and representative Fraser can you please motion um house file 4363 to be before us so move Madam chair thank you and no Amendment all right um all right uh so we have the before us if you could uh thank you rep
resentative Hassan for returning to your committee and and please proceed with your testimony thank you madam chair and members uh this is a very simple Bill I'm going to say that and I hope you guys don't make it complicated um it is a bill requiring um it's a bill requiring mental health education to be included in the health education curriculum uh statue 120 B-21 uh states that school districts and charter schools are encouraged to provide mental health instructions for students in grades 4
through 12 aligned with the local Health standards and integrated into existing program curriculum or the general School environment of a district or charter school and the only thing that we're changing is we're saying instead of encourage uh mental health education must be included and why do we need a bill like this I'll give you some data uh 42% of high school students in 2022 reported feeling sad or hopeless for at least two consecutive weeks in the previous year that they stopped engaging
in their usual activities up that's up from 26% in 2019 girls and uh the lgbtq plus young uh young people particularly reported feeling that those um reported feeling those feelings more than others thoughts of suicide suicide attempts ual suicide among young people have also risen in that period with black children nearly two times more likely um then their white peers to die by Suicide according to the uh us Center for Disease Control and preventions by annual youth risk behavior survey and CD
C stats depression and anxiety are among um young people are among very what am I doing depression and anxiety sorry guys I've been presenting bills all depression and anxiety among young people by some measures doubled since covid um and still those numbers are lingering uh the American psychology Association reported that we're facing uh we're facing National men of Health crisis in our schools that could yield serious health and social consequences for years to come um and that Madame chair i
s why we have this bill and this bill comes from a Yang intern who was uh working with me over the summer came to me and and said that um I see this problem she is I believe she is a high school in high school or high school graduate I think there's a video that we'll watch um and she said I'm I'm really worried about my peers uh there's a lot of talks about anxiety and depression more than uh you know what's common and I at least know folks who you know are talking about suicide or you know I h
ear about people who have attempted suicide or committed SU side so um what is our healthy standards when it comes to mental health and I said I don't know let's look it together and we look at it and we we saw that it's encourag the word encourag doesn't mean that people have to do it it just that whoever wants to do it can do it whoever doesn't do it there's no uh you know law that that requires them to do that so that is where this bill comes from and uh I think it's befitting that we're just
talking about health education uh standards I figur this will go well with uh including that in in the health education reviews and I believe I don't know if I'm if we have a video from oh watch the video and we'll stand for question helloa Ibrahim I'm a senior at Egan high school and I'm an intern under representative Onan I am testifying in support of house file 4363 of Bill mental heal education in the state of Minesota why is mental health important is a question that many people like to as
k as a student juggling School employment and extracurricular activities can be a very hard task mental health is similar to physical health and that you need to know how to take care of yourself school is the place that youth like me spend most hello my name is Aisha ibraim yeah hello my name is Aisha Ibrahim I'm a senior at Egan high school and I'm an intern under representative odam Hassan I am testifying in support of house file 4363 a bill mandating mental health education in the state of M
innesota why is mental health important is a question that many people like to ask as a student juggling School employment and extracurricular activities can be a very hard task mental health is similar to physical health in that you need to know how to take care of yourself school is the place that youth like me spend most of their day in it's a place where we deserve to feel as though we are supported not only in our academics but also mentally many mental illnesses are left untreated because
people are not only uneducated about signs of mental illness but there is a huge stigma surrounding mental health in our society students are suffering in silence because they don't know how to deal with their mental health issues or how to seek help this bill mandating mental health education will allow for students to learn more about common mental health illnesses and increase the much needed conversation about mental health it will allow for teachers to better support students and will furth
er make youth feel as though they are in a more supportive inclusive environment legislators I urge you to support HF 4363 thank you thank you representative I think now we will turn to member discussion and questions repres Bak just one quick question uh thank you for bringing the bill is there um and and forgive me if I if I missed it but is there a amount of time that a school district has to provide this struction this instruction so is it embedded into the health class is it you know an ass
embly is it embedded into advisory class like how do you see this instruction happening representative Madam chair representative I believe that it will be embedded in uh health class education and it currently um if it's embedded in the current standards for health class um if there were Statewide Health standards then it would be embedded in those standards but um the beginning date is the 26 27 that it's required just one comment representative bigb so I think whenever we we mandate new class
es so if a district isn't doing something now it's going to there's only so many hours in the day so then whether it's an elective or another requirement is going to be taken away from students so I I think student or school districts should be doing mental health instruction but just you know and we had um we've had different testifiers talk about the impact of of mandating these things it does impact elective options for students so representative H son any comment um well I I believe this is
important if mental health was wasn't important if we didn't know that mental health was important Co hit and we realized that our students are suffering I remember I was vice chair of Ed policy during covid um and the folks that were in in in Ed Finance Ed policy with me remember this we had Educators crying in our Zoom um you know meetings saying that we're overwhelmed we're tired we need help and our students need help so we really need to rethink the way that we think about mental health um
and I think there's a a a whole lot of stigma and shame around mental health that's why people don't talk about it that's why people don't want a mental health diagnosis but just like any physical ailment mental illnesses are also another ailment it except it doesn't happen to our body it happens to our mind and if we teach our kids young age that it's okay when you feel depressed to go talk to somebody it's okay you can you can you know have sad days and good days and bad days if that's the way
that we're raising our kids and and you know intertwining that with their education and embedding that in their life they will know how to deal with stress when they grow up instead of you know having a society that all depends on medication because we don't know how to deal with stress representative keer thank you chair um thank you representative love it I talked about it the last time addressing mental health is actually something we really need to do mine is more just a clarifying question
so in the last bill um when we talked about grades we say like elementary middle school high school and I know that that's been brought to my attention in some bills in this bill it says specifically grades 4 through 12 so I'm just wondering like how not every school kind of has those same grade splits from elementary to middle school I know like for fourth grade fifth grade that's still Elementary for some schools so can I'm it's more of just like a standardized question when we do these requi
rements do we break them down typically by grade like this or do we typically break them down by like Elementary Middle School High School standards which I don't know if that's a question for you I'm just seeing it show up in different ways and I'm wondering how that plays out in our school systems Miss per um thank you madam chair representative killer it I would say it varies um for so yes so this has grades 4 through 12 I believe the CPR statute also has specific grades and the standards the
y are in bands um so for example all the high school ones I believe are just like a block High School um so it it varies both in the statutes that have specific requirements and in in the standards only made me more confused um the current I mean add on the current statue so 120 B-21 does say currently this is the way that it's written I don't know who who decided to defy this grades the way that they are but if we need to maybe review it and say that this doesn't work for school District I mean
I'm I'm open to the idea but the our current statue is written like this that's what I'm not a change in not in change in statutes in that part of it just just in the back the date I understand okay thank you that was when it was a suggestion not a must and so that's why I'm trying to like verify like if we make this something that schools need to do is it easier to implement in practice if the breakdown is Middle Middle School and High School versus that grade four that's the only thing I'm as
king and it's more just for implementation practical purposes moving forward with it so that's interesting good a good good point to raise and something we should consider and I will make a point of dealing with that representative Bennett thank you madam chair and thank you representative hassana it is an important subject I'm just curious if you have heard of something and I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist I will just say that right up front had a little of Education as a teacher in Psych
ology but there's something called the prevalence inflation hypothesis and I just want to bring this out for you to look into as you're looking at this the only reason I'm aware of it is I was looking into some mental health um counseling and issues for a friend and and learned about this that when when we focus too much on mental health issues there's a balance there's increased awareness efforts and then but there with that becomes improved re I'm going to get this improved recognition and ove
r interpretation what happens is we focus on it so much and especially with young people that they start recognizing small mental health things that we all deal with daily and hopefully we have fairly stable mental health um brains here but it becomes it over inflates these things and turns them into mental health problems and I I just would encourage you to look into that because from my little understanding that I have on this there is a point where when we focus on Mental Health it becomes ac
tually counterproductive and I heard that from a therapist who said we only recommend this amount of time per week for therapy because an increasing amount of data is showing that it becomes counterproductive and makes things worse so I'm just throwing that out there not a CR criticism of your bill at all but I will Echo the um just another mandate issue there are so many important things mental health is one no no argument there but honestly um Madam chair I think we're going to need to have a
bill to increase the number of hours we have in the school day because at some point schools aren't going to have enough time and maybe they're just going to need to have beds there and I'm being sarcastic here but kind of serious too and just keep the kids overnight because at one point at what point are we forcing so much on schools that there's no longer time to teach everything and it it's just it's really hard I remember that as a teacher trying to cram things into the day so I think we we
have very important subjects but we have to figure out how how that balance works thank you uh closing comments from Madam chair and members I'll say on the record I am a m clinici so um I don't think if you ask me I don't think we focus menal Health enough uh and if we did Focus menal Health enough we wouldn't have the problems that we have with our young people not understanding how to deal with simple stress and how to differentiate when they're you know depressed versus when when they're sad
versus when when they need uh a clinically to be seen by somebody um thank you for for the Lively discussion um I do I extremely believe that menal health is important because you can learn all the math in the world that you want if you're not if you're not emotionally Health that math and and Science and Technology won't get you anywhere so we got to raise children uh who are emotionally physically and spiritually healthy and if we're going to do that we need to increase mental health awarenes
s uh we health is one of the subjects that's you know in our school curriculum and focusing you know a little bit and and in intertwining a little bit of mental health and saying that hey let's talk about depression let's talk about you know um anxiety let's talk about you know one to seek Services want to talk to somebody doesn't take away from um math or science or technology or history or social studies with that Madam chair I know the bill is being laid over and I'm open to suggestions on ho
w to make it better uh thank you for for your time and thank you for the discussion I hope you can support thank you for being with us and bringing forward your bill and with that represent representative Fier renews his motion to lay over house file 4363 for further consideration and possible conclu conclusion and a policy Bill thank you representative tan for being with us all right we move on and we have representative Hitt and house file 4008 we just always like to have you back representati
ve H well thank you madam chair and I apologize to the committee up front this is a controversial Bill we'll be spending a lot of time on it today so we'll move quickly through it hopefully so we have um house file 40 40 08 um and it's Our intention to re-refer this bill to the education finance committee that's because of is that right am I on the one to finance there's a cost there is a cost so yeah to re-refer it to the education finance committee um and representative Lee um can you a motion
house file 48 before the committee to be refer re-referred that is my motion thank you representative Lee right I think there's Amendment the bill before us and we also have an A1 Amendment um and any just it's just bring it in the is it the the the A1 Amendment it sounds like it just brings in the athletic trainers that are really important okay all right thank you representative who so if we can have a motion for the A1 amendment I move for adoption of the A1 Amendment thank you representativ
e Lee all right um discussion of the A1 amendment to um get the bill in the shape the author would like it seeing no discussion all in favor of the A1 Amendment please say I I opposed all right the A1 amendment is adopted um and please begin your presentation hu thank you madam chair and thank you committee members uh real quickly we'll go through this that almost a half a million people a year I'm sorry almost 356,000 people a year uh have cardiac arrests outside a hospital 90% of them are fata
l um what this bill basically does is talk about our schools and what we want to do in our schools to change that um as an as an official as a athletic official and as somebody that hangs out a lot with the high school athlet uh this is getting to be an ongoing problem 23,000 children a year um under the age of 18 experience uh cardiac arrest and uh most 40% of them are athletic related um the serp which is the uh a plan that we're presenting today that basically will require schools to come up
with a cardiac response plan um why we don't have these yet is surprising because um you go into a school and there is a plan for for the fire extinguisher and I got a principal looking at me right now saying yeah there's a plan for everything um this is getting to be just as just as important as that fire extinguisher and I think we got to move forward and come up with plans in our district and this kind of lays that out for us um I'm going to turn it over to the testifier here real quick and u
h he can uh kind of go into it a little bit more in detail if that's okay Madam chair all right um thank you if you could uh introduce yourself and begin with your testimony thank you chair prior members of the House Education policy committee and Paul W state government relations director for the American Heart Association here in Minnesota I appreciate the opportunity to express the American Heart association's support for house file 4008 legislation that will require school districts and char
ter schools to develop a cardiac emergency response plan sudden Cardiac Arrest is the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes and most commonly occurs during or just after after physical exertion while engaged in practic sessions organized competition and other sports activities with only seconds to react in every minute crucial having an appropriate plan in place during a sudden cardiac emergency can make a difference in survival the American Heart Association is working to turn bystand
ers into Life Savers so that in the time of cardiac emergency anyone anywhere is prepared and empowered to become a vital Link in the chain of survival and provide CPR that means ensuring that every school and athletic of event and facility has a Sur plan in place and is working directly with local emergency service providers and others to integrate The Sur plant into the community's uh EMS responder protocols the establishment of this plan will Empower and train School personel and providing li
fe-saving care between the time when the victim collapses and Emergency Services arrive each minute following the sudden Cardiac Arrest survival decreases however when treated with defibrillation within 3 to 5 minutes Survivor rates increase 50 to 70% with thousands of students enrolled in Minnesota's public schools and charter school systems plus thousands of numerous staff it's important for school facilities to have a plan in place to address Cardiac Arrest these plans not only benefit the st
udents and staff with the number of community members parents and supporters that come to school for events or other meetings uh we want to thank representive huitt for sponsoring this legislation thank you to the committee for hearing this bill uh uh chair p would like to if I can um ask my uh my colleague uh Mr Dale wakasugi to kind of share his personal experience with this and support for the Bill thank you please settle in introduce yourself again and proceed with your testimony referee goo
d afternoon uh chair prior and members of the Minnesota State uh Minnesota House Education policy committee uh I am Dale wakasugi a heart attack cardiac arrest and stroke survivor resident of Woodbury Minnesota a community advocate on behalf of the American Association and owner of my AED and CPR Solutions I'm pleased to be here today to offer my support for house file 40008 legislation that would require school districts and charter schools to create a cardiac emergency response plans and I suf
fered a heart attack in 1986 when I was 36 years old I was a very active non Drinker non-smoker and played college baseball in 2007 I was while refereeing a high school basketball game uh at Fridley High School I suffered a cardiac arrest one of my heroes that day was Lindsay Paradise an 11th grader who knew how to perform CPR and used an AED from learning about it in her health class just a few weeks prior to that evening when Cardiac Arrest occurs outside of the hospital survival more than dou
bles when people nearby uh Act by dialing 911 starting CPR and using publicly accessible aeds compared to waiting for emergency responders to arrive I support house file 40008 because we need to ensure that all schools have cardiac emergency response plans in place and practice so anyone who suffers a cardiac arrest whether it be a student teacher School administrator or members of the community can receive the life-saving treatment they need so I want to thank representative huitt for author au
thor authoring this important legislation and thank you chair prior and members of the committee for your consideration of this Bill thank you turn to member discussion representative Muer thank you chair thank you Rosen oft see you a lot in committee so here we are um I love this bill I think this bill is really important um as a person with a congenital heart defect I know how important is for us to have uh to have uh people who know what they're doing when a cardiac emergency happens and it j
ust so happened in Austin that we had a young man who actually died from a cardiac event because um we didn't know and it was right after football practice and all the things and so um I know this was something that I was noodling in my head and couldn't quite figure out what to do next and how to do it and so love love that you beat me to it as this is something that I'd like to do um and so you know it's a when we talk about uh putting things that are um in place for our schools to be successf
ul this is one of those things so thank you and um thank you for your support and uh we're just so appreciative that uh you made it through all their things and your able to be here to support the Bill thank you so much well I think we should close with that but prenative PE I'm really sick of our colleagues across the table stealing my closings because they've done it a couple times this year but you're welcome representative Mueller done a great job I I can't say much more than representative
Mueller did and I do have to say to my colleague sitting next to me and he is truly one of my colleagues he was a referee first thing I do when I go to a game to ref it is where is the AED I'm 58 years old that thing could be used on me so um seriously this is really important I like that the committee heard it I look forward to going over to uh chair 's Vision so thank you chair thank you any more any more comment I I don't want to take I'm not going to take away from that but I'm just going to
say I'm thankful that we have another 10center here you made the 10% Mr Withers here four years ago had a cardiac arrest and he's with us today so but there are 90% that don't make it so important thank you thank you well we we feel that very much um this personal testimony thank you thank you for bringing the bill before us and um um I now we'll take a vote get the voted out all right and with that representative Lee renews her motion to re-refer house file 48 as amended to the education finan
ce committee all those in favor please say I I opposed motion carries and house file um 408 as amended is on its way to education Finance thank you madam CH thank you for being here right um we will now return to a bill that we started um yesterday that was just yesterday um and we heard some great testimony but I think that we had did not have time to really understand the bill so that is um house file 3372 representative Clardy if you can come down again um and we can begin them with our quest
ions and discussion I guess what I need to do is uh bring house file 3372 before us again um for discussion and then it it's aent um after discussion to re-refer the bill to education finance will be the motion and it was originally representative Fraser's a motion so I think um the bill is before us again and um if you I think that if representative Clardy if if you could just give us maybe a couple bullet points of the highlights of the bill um we can start um members can bring us forward for
discussion um the the main elements of the bill that um we heard testimony on yesterday all righty so what we're looking at is that El the students are the fastest growing um geographical growing population um the things that we're looking at is to establish micr credentialing pathway for existing licensed teachers and administrators to grow their competency in serving eel students um we are also looking at um students additional support in the ALCS uh because there's a lack there and then also
establishing a task force at mde to inform the legislature of what resources would be needed to fully um fund elll learner programs in like the elc's and what the best practices are thank you for thank you for that summary and I um I'm going to ask a question at this point um can we I I guess I I don't have a clear picture of what microc credentialing is and I think that that's an important aspect of the of the bill and and perhaps if we can go on a discussion or a brief description of what that
means and and how this bill would advance that uh Madam chair yes you can identify yourself yes of course proceed uh my name is Lewa Dr John Peterson and I am the senior policy fellow with the Minnesota education Equity partnership great to be back here with you all today uh micro credentialing takes different forms depending on the state I think California was one of the first states to adopt micr credentialing um essentially what it is is it's providing licensed teachers in areas other than E
SL with an opportunity to learn more about the best practices and promising practices for working with English Learners and so a case example would be the southeast service Cooperative uh in Southeastern Minnesota received a Federal grant about a year and a half ago to provide for uh training for teachers who are not ESL teachers to do exactly that some of the best practices promising practices how to provide um co-taught and co-planned instruction in ways that better serve English Learners um a
nd so that would be kind of just the the nuts and bolts of of the micr credentialing piece I will say it's not a proxy for a license and we're not intending that it' be be a proxy for a license in any way um in terms of the bill language the microc credentialing actually goes two different directions one it provides for microc credentialing for for Content Area Teachers in the area of uh ESL but it also provides for micr credentialing in the uh in the area for ESL teachers in in content area cou
rses so like for example if I were an ESL teacher I'd have an opportunity to earn a micro credential and Broadfield social studies the basis of that and I'll I'll wrap this up is so that when we c-plan and co- te together maybe you're the social studies teacher and I'm the ESL teacher we both speak the same language I speak a little bit of Broadfield social studies you speak a little bit of ESL and we can better serve English Learners and all students in the classroom and our we are having a lit
tle discussion that we don't have the amendments in our packets right now it's not yeah and if we had it yesterday and then it was not put in again if you saved it you have it um and we can I think that the the gist of is we don't all have access to te you madam chair I think it's it is still posted too but just if people need so if so so members if you would like to look at the am the um the bill was amended um and so it is the bill as amended that we're discussing right now um and it's probabl
y there's not a new copy or there was yesterday but there's not a copy in the packet again today but it is posted if you have any specific questions you can um we can get access to it that way so thank you and thank you for the description of micr credential and and if I can follow up with that too is that is it currently we do not have any micr credentialing and so this would be um a beginning of a new um or kind of a creation of of a um a new kind of credentialing I guess is what we be disc th
at that no that does not currently exist and I'm I'm seeing a a noding of yes Madam chair members of the committee yes we do not have micr credentialing as an option here in Minnesota um I want to stress that this would be a voluntary micr credential it is not a mandate um and so it would be an opportunity for teachers who are interested in participating in a program like project momentum to earn a micro credential that would be then hopefully transcripted onto their license that identifies them
as having you know an additional 8 9 10 12 credits in ESL or Broadfield social studies or science or math area to uh be a more effective teacher in working with English Learners thank you there member questions and discussions Cher y thank you chair prior and um thank you for explaining the micr credentialing I'm very excited about that personally um our son's getting a M's in literacy and I was trying to get him to do a M's in e but would be something that is that option for teachers to go get
that extra micr credential so they can better serve their students so thank you represent Bennett all right um appreciate for this discussion um that we've had on this bill um and with that we will oops sorry we renew the motion to re-refer house file 3546 as amended to um to education Finance all in favor the it's 3372 excuse me 3372 sorry there's a lot of bills today um house file 3372 as a member amended to be re-referred to education Finance all in favor please say I I opposed right guys ha
ve it and 3372 as amended is on its way to education Finance thanks for returning today and continuing that um clarification and discussion we we do appreciate that all right all right so I think that we do have time to um continue on and um bring up again another bill that we started yesterday if you give me a moment to [Music] re orientate myself so it's house file 4611 and I'll have representative H take over for 4611 I can show you what it the well as you get settled uh chair prior our next
bill for consideration was also introduced with testimony yesterday at his house file 4611 members It's Our intention to discuss the bill uh before laying it over for further consideration or possible inclusion in a policy Bill uh representative prior chair prior can you please remotion uh house file 4611 before us to lay it over for further consideration or possible inclusion in the policy bill so moved wonderful uh would you like to uh help revisit thank you all right so uh house file 4611 was
uh brought to us from the Metropolitan Library Service Agency which is more commonly known as melsa not I don't people use that e and I have not heard of it before um but this organization is one of 12 Regional Library systems in Minnesota and like other Regional Library systems melsa provides training education and programming for the metro library regions however unlike the other Regional Library systems melsa does not administer libraries that responsibility is Left To Each Metro County and
their Library directors because of this key difference the executive leadership of the melsa melsa requires a different skill set melsa is currently working to hire a new executive director and is committed to recruiting a talented and diverse pool of candidates however the hiring requirements and state rules require that all Regional Library Executives hold in um an MLs degree as the Melo director does not run libraries melso requests to be Exempted from this rule in order to attract a large an
d diverse pool of applicants to the position um so essentially that's what we're asking is the exemption of that Master Level in library science um to be able to hold this position um and as members remember yesterday um there there is opposition to it so it is a bill that is under discussion right now um um and we're trying to navigate you know what's the if it's something that should be included in a final policy bill or not um but I think it is part of this General discussion of whether or no
t um you know what's the appropriate level of education for any position and if we should be dictating that in statute and if this is a situation where um just as the the governor um at one point had said that um positions that before had required a college degree they realize now can be um filled by people with um associate degrees and other backgrounds experience and that we no longer require college degrees for many jobs that we did in the past um because also of the difference between the ex
e being the executive position of this particular organization versus um having a similar position at a County Library um that uh masters of um the uh of Library science um is not the same level of requirement and need as other um skills are so that was um the idea of bringing this forward love to hear member comments and maybe not so much questions I can get back uh with answers um but comments and perspectives on that thank you chair prior we'll open it up for discussion uh chair Yim um thank
thank you chair um maybe just a question you can bring back to the stakeholders as you talk about this I know that MD he had made some comments about a Federal grant being able to come in unless there's a licensed library and while there are still at each of these melsa libraries the executive you know the executive director just runs it as an umbrella organization so that was confusing to me plus I think um folks have been asking for that uh specific notation to be pointed to in in statute and
no one can seem to do that so maybe just bring that back um to um mde when you talk to them about okay you you say it says this but where would be nice thank you chair y AE response J Brier I I think that's a really interesting question I was uh it was I would be interested in the answer too so I think that should be part of the ongoing discussion about um the further consideration that taking this bill as representative Bennett thank you Mr chair um I did have a question but I'll I'll pose it a
s more of a thought to bring back and I appreciate the ongoing dis discussion way that this is being handled to try to make sure that we get full understanding before it becomes law but so my first thought when I saw this was um why would we be carving out one Library System why not just the whole state because to be a master degree is either valuable for this or not but it sounds like there are some intricacies I'm hearing that repu aim and maybe you had said to so I'm I'm just throwing that ou
t you don't even need to to answer it I guess unless you know the answer as to what's different from this and why not just the whole state or not the whole state I I'm not going to argue I don't know whether a master's degree is really important for this or not so right so we um thinking about that and processing it is you know finding out that we as an education policy committee and education Finance are responsible for libraries and we need to learn more about them and I think that's an you kn
ow an excellent um thought of and I I think part of the discussion was along the lines that you're thinking now and that I was also thinking when the first the bill was first brought to me is that what's the difference between this particular position um within this particular or organization and that it's that the master degree is not as essential to um you know it's valuable but it's not as essential and not um necessarily disqualifying um lack of would not be disqualifying for this organizati
on versus the other ways that um other levels or organizations for library system so um and whether or not the Masters Degree um so I think that's the case that has to be made is that um in the further discussion that I will take back to the people that I'm talking with and working with to decide on this and the feasibility of it so a very very good um Avenue to pursue and to have completely clarified before we know that this is the the right way forward any followup lead minute and representati
ve Lee did you have a question I thought we saw a signal there yeah uh I guess question and and maybe also thoughts and bringing things back I I did also um want to just just add color to this that um the language hair is is permissive and so you know folks with master's degrees can still apply but um the way I understand it is um we also have a Workforce shortage amongst Librarians and so um understand the need for you know skilled Librarians to get people the information they need but um a lot
of people have also been exiting the library profession which is not great and so understand why um in in this piece and I also don't want to confuse folks because this position is I think my understanding a little bit more clerical and administrative and not directly serving libraries um so don't want to confuse folks about that but I think part of what's driving this is probably also just um this Workforce issue thank you thank you for that comment thank you closing comments chair prior no th
is is uh still uh work you can tell by the bill number 46 4611 um that it's it's a new bill that's been introduced um and there's definitely some work that needs to be done on further clarification before deciding um whether or not this is something that we should be putting forward to statute thank you and with that chair prior renews her motion to lay over house file 4611 for further consideration and with the first half of our agenda complete recess we're going to go into recess we'll reconve
ne here at 6:00 [Music]
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