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SPONSOR: |
Townsend |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
708/aHAFC/aSEC |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Distance Learning for Disabled Persons |
SB |
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ANALYST: |
L. Baca |
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APPROPRIATION
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Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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See Narrative |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates to: HB 197, Distance Education for
Teacher Programs
SB 95, NMSU Teacher Distance Education
Responses
Received From
State
Department of Education (SDE)
Commission
on Higher Education (CHE)
Department
of Health (DOH)
Developmental
Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC)
NM
Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NMCDHP)
Synopsis
of SEC Amendments
The amendments adopted by the Senate Education
Committee (on pages 3 through 10) strike Section 2, STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
DUTIES, and insert a new Section 2 that makes the language and provisions
applying to public schools identical to those applied to institutions of higher
education.
“[NEW
MATERIAL] DISTANCE
LEARNING AND COMPUTER-BASED COURSES. - - Public schools that offer distance
learning and computer-based courses shall provide accompanying electronic
formats that are usable by a person with a disability using assistive technology,
and those formats shall be based on the American standard code for information
interchange,
hypertext markup language and extensible language.”
Synopsis
of HAFC Amendment
The amendments adopted by the House
Appropriations and Finance Committee strike the terms “courses of study” and
“instructional materials” throughout the bill; amend the title and the bill to
require that institutions of higher education and public schools that offer
distance education learning and using computer-based courses of study will
provide accompanying course work with accessible instructional materials that
shall be based on the American standard code for information interchange,
hypertext mark-up language and extensible mark-up language (language changes
are underlined).
Synopsis
of Original Bill
House Bill 708
requires each public school and institution of higher learning that offers distance
learning and computer-based instructional materials for any course of study to
provide the course work with accessible electronic formats that are usable by
an individual with a disability using assistive technology.
Significant
Issues
The SDE analysis points out that
publishers of materials adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE)
are required to provide electronic versions of texts upon request by schools
and school districts for use by students with disabilities. Further, the SDE observes, distance learning
may require materials not or the state’s adopted textbook list, and schools may
have difficulty acquiring electronic versions of these materials.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
HB 708 has no
appropriation. However, the CHE reports,
some distance education directors estimate that each learning unit will have an
additional $3.0 to $6.0 cost.
The Commission for
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons emphasizes that, if instructional materials
include videotape, or real-time presentations, videos must be captioned or real
time presenters should have signed language interpreting to facilitate complete
access to visual communication.
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
1.
Have the potential cost implications to
school districts and institutions of higher education been studied?
2.
How many persons this bill might affect?
3.
Has a reaction to this bill be requested from either the CHE of the SDE?