Dept. of Education rule enforcement

A bill that would fundamentally change the way the Department of Education interacts with school districts received committee approval.

HF3596, sponsored by Rep. Tim Faust (DFL-Mora), would prohibit the education commissioner from enforcing unadopted rules.

Approved March 6 by the House E-12 Education Committee, the bill goes to the House Governmental Operations, Reform, Technology and Elections Committee.

Under this bill, department pronouncements would be treated as rules, and would be unenforceable. The commissioner would need to notify districts when issuing these pronouncements that they are not enforceable.

Faust said the bill would deal with rules that add confusion and cost, especially in the special education arena.

Daryl Miller, president of Minnesota Administrators for Special Education, said in the Robbinsdale Area School District, a parent filed a complaint on behalf of a child who was going to be attending a transitional program for students ages 18-21.

“We did not understand how we could be out of compliance, because our program was modeled after some of the exemplary programs in the state,” he said. After that, the district had two requests for due process hearings which led to between $50,000 and $60,000 in additional costs.

Elisabeth Lodge Rogers, director of student services for the St. Cloud Area School District, said the district was served with a complaint regarding extracurricular activity paraprofessional support. A child’s mother stated if the student had a paraprofessional during the school day, they should have one during an extracurricular activity.

She said if the district were required to do this, it would amount to $580,000 additional every year.

“I do feel like it’s a machine gun trying to kill a mouse,” said Education Commissioner Alice Seagren. She has had some concerns because of special education requirements that are set on the federal level.

“We need to have, I think, some kind of agreement as to how we’re going to move forward with this,” she said.

A companion bill, SF3317, sponsored by Sen. Kathy Saltzman (DFL-Woodbury), awaits action by the Senate Education Committee.