Legislation 2010

2010 Legislation

New Accessibility Legislation

On April 26th Governor Tim Pawlenty signed into law new legislation that amends the Minnesota Human Rights Act requires state records be accessible to people with disabilities in the three branches of state government, MNSCU, the University of Minnesota, all cities, towns, counties and school districts and political subdivisions. The law also requires that accommodations be made for people with disabilities in all continuing education and professional development courses offered by the University of Minnesota and MNSCU. Read more

EDUCATION

SF3000 – Saltzman, Gerlach
HF3404 – Mariani, Buesgens, Morgan, Swails, Slawik, Zellers, Newton, Slocum, Bly
Metro Deaf School-Minnesota North Star Academy (MDS-MNSA):
The school, the only 100% special education charter school in the state, was struggling when approximately 40% was held back because of changes in state law.
Students from MDS-MNSA received advocacy training from Cynthia Weitzel. The students attended meetings on 3/9/10 with their legislators and members of the education committees of both the House and the Senate. Hearings were held in the House on 3/23/10 and in the Senate on 3/23/10. Dyan Sherwood, MDS-MNSA administrator, Ali Porter and Matt Welstad, students from the school, and Justin Testerman of Volunteers of America did a great job with their testimony. SF2626/HF2697
PASSED and signed by the Governor! Bonding funds for the Academies:
The Minnesota Academies received $2.5 million in the state bonding bill; $2 million was for asset preservation and $500,000 for independent living housing. Click here to link to Section 5 Subdivisions 1, 2 and 3

SF2451/HF2466
PASSED and signed by the Governor! Bonding bill for the State Academies:
$100,000 proposed in the bonding bill for a technology center for the Minnesota Academies. Money was allocated last year for pre-design for a building. The money was not used. These funds allow the funds to be used for a technology center.

SF2667/HF2962
State Academies Trial Placement:
The bill allows a trial placement at the State Academies for students from other districts for 60 to 90 days. A number of conditions must be met before the placement is allowed, which includes the home district IEP process. A few other states have this in place for state schools for the deaf.
Status
The bill was heard in the House policy committee and referred to House finance.
Next Steps
The Senate needs to hear the bill in the Education and Policy Committee.

SF3163/HF3045
Policy Bill from the Department of Education:
The Department introduced legislation that would add Part B IDEA reports to the data that is tracked on students who are deaf and hard of hearing. The commission had the bill amended to include the reporting of data from Part C and the data that is being collected and the recommendations made by the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Coordinator. Why is this important? It requires the department to report the outcomes of birth through three and K-12 so we can track results from the time a baby is identified with hearing loss to the time he/she graduates from high school.
Status
The bill is included in the omnibus bill that was marked up in the House and will be included in the Senate bill.

TECHNOLOGY

SF2188/HF2557
State Webmaster position established and chief information officer required to develop standards for enhanced public access to state electronic records.
MCDHH had the bill amended to include the Section 508 and Web Content Access Guidelines that were passed last year. The state has 3700 websites- the only affordable solution for the state to comply with the new standards is to have a webmaster create standardized accessible templates that are accessible.
Status
Webmaster position deleted from the legislation because of costs. The authors are interested in introducing similar legislation next year.

EMPLOYMENT

SF2758-HF2839
Website for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses:
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development must maintain a virtual network of statewide resources for entrepreneurs. MCDHH asked for an amendment to be added that requires that the website follow WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 standards so people with disabilities can access the site.
Status
The bill has been passed in the Senate with out the accessibility amendment. We didn’t catch this bill until last week. Representative Kahn will introduce this amendment in the Ways and Means Committee next week.

VECTOR and Minnesota Employment Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing:
The House didn’t cut anything from their budgets, the Senate cut 6%. A conference committee will meet to reach a compromise between the two. VECTOR is a transition program for youth who are deaf and hard of hearing 18-21. MEC is the only specialized employment center for people who are deaf and hard of hearing in the state.
Status
The conference committee should be held within the next two weeks. MEC and VECTOR staff persons have been meeting with legislators to ensure that if cuts are made that they are small. It will be tough not to have some cuts with the deficit as big as it is.

Past Legislation

Browse past legislation and results