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Senate committee backs study request on reading and math proficiency for students with disabilities
Summary
Senate Concurrent Resolution 4,019 would direct legislative management to study reading and mathematics proficiency among students with disabilities, including whether current policies, programs and resource allocations produce disparities and how to improve outcomes; parents and disability advocates urged the study as timely and necessary.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 4,019, offered as a study request, would ask legislative management to examine reading and mathematics proficiency rates among students with disabilities in North Dakota and evaluate the effectiveness of current policies, programs and resource allocation.
Senator Josh Baucher, sponsor (District 44), told the Senate Education Committee that the proposal would convene the Department of Public Instruction, educators, parents and other stakeholders to identify best practices and recommendations to improve proficiency rates. Baucher noted the 50th anniversary of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA) and said recent federal policy changes make a study timely.
Parents and disability advocates testified in favor. Teresa Olafson, a Fargo parent, described her son’s experience: despite an early individualized education program (IEP), she said he left third grade with reading and math proficiencies far below benchmarks. Olafson told the committee statewide proficiency rates for students with disabilities have fallen over the last decade: she said reading proficiency declined from more than 50% in 2012 to 12.3% in 2022, and math proficiency to 9.05% in the same period. Olafson and other witnesses argued resources had not translated into outcomes and urged study of how funds and programs are used, including whether spending reaches specially designed instruction.
Advocacy groups urged the study to include students who take statewide alternate assessments and to consider the least‑restrictive environment for learning. Roxanne Romanik of Designer Jeans of North Dakota, an organization that supports individuals with Down syndrome, told the committee that high expectations, qualified professionals, and appropriate instructional strategies are crucial and said the study should ensure it examines the state’s most vulnerable learners.
Committee members discussed small technical edits to the resolution’s historical language and a proposed change to remove a phrase that might imply current funding is insufficient; sponsors said they will prepare drafting amendments and that a similar study request exists in the other chamber. No committee vote was recorded at the hearing; senators signaled general support for the study request and planned to prepare amendments for committee consideration.
