The House and Senate approved HB# 1405 this week. The bill allows parents to record individual educational program meeting with school employees. An IEP meeting is held with parents of disabled children to compose an educational program as required under federal law. The bill also includes a section that states:
"SECTION 4. (1) The Legislature recognizes the necessity of school districts to provide reasonable accommodations to students and licensed employees of a school district who are diagnosed with debilitating illnesses or disabilities, including, but not limited to, diabetes and epilepsy.
(2)The school board of any school district shall authorize the use, in all district facilities and property, of service or assistance dogs which have been specifically trained to alert people of symptoms or conditions resulting from a debilitating illness or disability that threaten their health." Copy of bill
The bill also mandates the user of the dog must prepare a written 504 plan and an additional plan for educating students about the "appropriate behavior" around a dog and how children allergic to the dog should handle it.
The bill was passed after the Scott County School Board refused to let a teacher, Christina McCurdy, bring her service dog to school. Jinx is a boxer specially trained to detect changes in blood sugar. As the blood sugar levels change, the skin secretes a smell (experts have told me it smells like fruit.). The dog detects the new scent and quietly starts tapping the leg of the diabetic. Ms. McCurdy's dog cost $25,000. Ms. McCurdy has been a type I diabetic since she was four years old.
Representative Earl Banks authored a bill that would have allowed the use of such dogs in public schools. Representatives Banks and Tom Miles pushed the bill in the House. It passed unanimously but died in the Senate Education Committee.
A big thanks goes to Senators Gray Tollison and Will Longwitz. Frankly, the bill's death snuck by me as I was at the House Education Committee vote on charter schools while the immigration and fetal heartbeat bills were dealt with on the same day in committee. In other words, it got lost in the shuffle. I found out the next day and contacted Senator Longwitz. I'll be damned if a redneck school board is going to treat someone I've known for over ten years so badly because of their medical ignorance so I went to war. I've seen Ms. McCurdy hospitalized numerous times because of her diabetes. The dog has made a huge difference in her life as it detects the changes before she can. Having the dog allows her to live independently as she would have to live with her parents if it was not available.
I explained the need for the bill to Senator Longwitz and that it passed the House unanimously. He spoke to Senator Tollison, who examined the bill and found another bill where the language could be inserted. I emailed the Lieutenant Governor's staff and explained the need for the bill to them as well. Senator Tollison did the heavy lifting, checked with other legislators, and inserted the language in the conference committee. The bill was approved by both houses and is now awaiting the Governor's signature. This wasn't a Democrat or Republican issue, it was an issue of helping someone who wanted to help herself but was blocked by a school system. If anyone deserves full credit, it is Senator Gray Tollison.
Note: The Scott County School Board finally approved the use of her dog two weeks ago and directed the school to meet with her about a plan. The principal finally allowed her to bring the dog to school.. last week, right before the end of the school year. However, this bill will allow teachers and students such as Ms. McCurdy to escape the whims of similar school boards.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Diabetic Dog bill passes
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10 comments:
Good work, Kingfish.
GO Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi!!!
Now, if you can get your school board to agree to a 504 plan or that one is needed....
Nice Job! Thanks Will and all involved to finally figure out the right thing to do.
Oh really? And where exactly was the Diabetes Foundation in all this? No where. Period. They did nothing to lobby for this bill in its original House version. I know, I was there at the legislature. There were no emails, no letters, no nothing. There was nothing this time around. In other words, they want your money but didn't do anything to change anything or help those who need diabetic dogs.
But I bet they throw good fund-raisers on Thursday nights that look good in VIP Magazine.
Kingfish, are you sure that DFM didn't have anything to do with this law passing? I'm chairman-elect and I spent a good bit of time on it. I also see some words I wrote in the part of the bill dealing with alert dogs.
If you would like to discuss this, call me. The DFM office can give you my number.
Al Sage
You know, I was going to be nice but after Ms McCurdy called me at 6:00 AM this morning and told me she had gotten four emails from you people since I made that comment last night, I've had it and I'm done being nice.
She had NOTHING to do with that comment whatsoever. Nothing. For those of you in Scott County that means nada. Y'all are out of bounds harassing her.
The truth is Al, the bill died in committee because NO ONE KNEW ABOUT IT. They all told me they just plain forgot about it. Period. Now as a lobbyist, that is something that YOU should have been doing. Something that should not have happened. At least they could've said it didn't come up on the calendar, they had more important stuff etc. Nope didn't happen. What happened was no one told them about the bill so they could bring it up. I at least admitted I forgot about it as I was chasing other bills or else I would have notified them. When I spoke to the Lt. Governor's staff, and that means more than one, none of them knew about it either. Want to know why? Because you or none of your people bothered to tell them about it.
As I said, you and your assn sent out no emails, no bulletins, no website updates. At least take lessons from Nancy Loome. In fact, Ms. McCurdy got more emails from them in the last 24 hours then they sent out promoting the bill during the entire session.
Then you stuck your nose in somewhere late in the game and want to claim credit. Sorry, doesn't work that way. I stayed on top of this one behind the scenes. They would've forgotten about it if I hadn't brought it up and stayed in constant contact with them and I have the phone logs and emails to prove it. Frankly, when you say you spent a good bit of time on it, I don't believe you because those efforts were a well-kept secret if they happened.
yes, I've gone too far in this comment but when I hear about this crap this morning, I'm throwing out the yardstick and worrying about if I go too far or not. The fact is, y'all let this teacher down, nothing was done, and only when someone got in there and started pushing for it AFTER it died did anything happen.
But by all means claim credit.
and as I said, she has had nothing to do with any of this. She is just a simple schoolteacher trying to live with her condition and teach her kids.
And yes, this should've been handled in a phone call or email but when y'all decided to come in here and make public comments, I'm responding in the same fashion.
As the 990s you've posted over the years attest too many foundations and non-profits in Jackson are little more than glorified employment agencies where too much of the fundraising goes only to help pay whacked out salaries that are way, way above market versus similar jobs demanding far more in the way of results found in the private sector.
Interesting story that is all too familiar to those who have experience with the leigislative process, as I do.
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