Board: Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education
Board identification number: 043
Department: HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
Authority: AS47.80.030;14.30;AS47.020.020;47.80.090; 20 USC 1400-1482; 42 USC 1320 (a) – 5(b); 42 USC 6024; 42 USC 15000 – 15083; 34 CFR Sec 300; Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (DD Act);
Status: Active
Sunset date:
Requirements: No Legislative Confirmation or Financial Disclosure required
Prohibitions: The consumer members may not be employees of a state agency or any other agency which receives funds or provides services under the DD Act.
Term: 3 years
Chair: Council selects.
Description: 18-28 members of the council will be appointed by the Governor: 60% must be people with developmental disabilities (D.D.) or their parents or guardians (as noted in the Special Facts below), with geographic balance and variety of disabilities represented. The balance represents principal state and other agencies concerned with services to people with disabilities/special education: Higher Education Representative, Division of Insurance Representative, 1 State Legislator, 1 member of the Alaska Commission on Aging (which may also double as a State Agency representative), 1 special education teacher and other appropriate agencies. Members serve at pleasure of the Governor.
Function: The council serves as the interdepartmental planning/coordinating agency of the Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of Education and Early Development, and other departments which deliver services to people with disabilities or provide special education. It is the state planning council for purposes of federal laws relating to disabilities and special education. The council provides recommendations to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority concerning the integrated comprehensive mental health program for people with mental disabilities.
Special facts: The Council serves in a few different federal board capacities. First, the council serves as the Developmental Disability Council outlined in the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (DD Act). Second, the council serves as the Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Third, the council serves as the Interagency Coordinating Council on Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (ICC) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
The council selects its executive director. Federal funding pays for council work. Federal law requires that the state council must be comprised of at least 60% consumers: (A) 1/3 of 60% must be primary consumers – persons with D.D. which is a severe/chronic mental or physical impairment manifested before age twenty-two; (B) balance may be secondary consumers – who are parents or guardians of such D.D. persons; and (C) 1/3 of 60% consumers must be persons who are immediate relatives or guardians of persons with mentally impairing D.D. (at least one of these individuals shall be an immediate relative or guardian of an institutionalized or previously institutionalized person with a D.D., and of these 1 must be a parent or guardian of an infant or toddler – age 0-6 with development disabilities). At least 1 must be a provider of services to infants or toddlers with developmental disabilities. For Alaska, this means a minimum of 15 individuals and immediate family members with development disabilities, at least 5 of which are people with developmental disabilities.
Compensation: Standard Travel and Per Diem No additional compensation.
Meetings: Council meets 3 times per year (January in JNU, /May varies/October in ANC); in addition, committees meet monthly by teleconference.
For further information and to reach individual members, contact:
Patrick Reinhart
Acting Executive Director
550 West 7th Ave, Suite 1230
Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: 907-269-5703
Fax: (907) 269-8995
