Legislative Update, April 3, 2017 Part 1
So much has happened since the last update,
including many bill hearings,
and of course Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Lobby Day!
Because we have so much to share with you,
we are dividing this update in to a two part series.
This is the first video of a two-part update
regarding the status of the bills the Commission is supporting this year:
Several weeks ago, there was a hearing on the bill to increase the Commission's funding in the
Who testified?
Several legislators said that the Commission does great work and deserves more funding.
The following week the Senate committee included funding
for the Commission in their omnibus budget bill.
The House also included the funding in
Having the funding in both the Senate and the House bills puts
the Commission in a good position as the Legislature moves into the next round of negotiations.
The bill to modernize and increase funding for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division (DHHSD)
and the Deaf Mentor Family Program
had many hearings in recent weeks.
A lot of people testified for the bill, including:
Parents of Deaf and DeafBlind children who receive intervener services
or who are part of the Deaf Mentor Family Program also testified:
He testified and suggested some changes he would like to see made to the bill.
Both the House and Senate committees have now included this funding in:
This is a good sign that the funding is likely to ultimately pass.
The bill about training for staff who care for seniors
also had multiple hearings in recent weeks.
She testified for the bill at all of the hearings.
The bill was amended to make the training optional, instead of required,
for staff at assisted living facilities and who provide home care to seniors.
The amendment also eliminated the state cost of the bill,
which makes it much easier to get it passed this session.
Once the trainings are developed and facilities see
the value of providing them to their staff, we could always come back to the legislature
in a few years to pass a bill to make the trainings required.
Both the House and Senate committees passed the bill unanimously.
The next step is to have it passed by the full House and the full Senate.
The bill to require that good acoustics and hearing loops be considered
in state funded construction had a hearing last week.
These two testified for the bill.
Several legislators said that they think that this policy proposal is very important.
The Committee did not vote on the bill.
They set it aside and may include it in the
This bill will be revealed sometime in April.
There was a hearing on the bill to require consideration
of assistive technology in IEPs and IFSPs in:
Representatives from PACER showed some of the assistive technology
that can really make a difference for children with disabilities.
He testified about the need to ensure that teachers
include captions in any video that they make for their students.
The Minnesota Association of Special Education Directors did not testify,
but did tell legislators that they were concerned that
the bill would require special education teachers to do more paperwork.
She has included a slightly different proposal in the
The bill requires the Minnesota Department of Education to do
a report on the use of assistive technology in school districts across the state.
The report must include recommendations for the legislature about ways
to encourage IEPs and IFSPs to incorporate the use of assistive technology, as appropriate.
So far we have good news about this topic.
You might remember that we had originally heard that some legislators planned
to introduce an amendment that would say that state law does not require businesses
to have accessible websites and would prevent anyone from suing a business.
The Commission has been thinking more about this proposal
and has concluded that if it is offered we have to fight against it
even against the business lobbyists who have so much power at the Capitol.
The good news is that so far legislators have not offered this amendment
and it is beginning to look like this will not be brought in this year.
Watch part 2 of this update for additional information.