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ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL NO. 2441
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C 086 L 90
State of Washington 51st Legislature 1990 Regular Session
By Representatives Jacobsen, Miller, Rector, Van Luven, Dellwo, Spanel, Anderson, Pruitt, Wood, Doty and Ferguson
Read first time 1/12/90 and referred to Committees on Higher Education/Appropriations.
AN ACT Relating to disabled students in higher education; creating a new section; making an appropriation; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The governor's committee on disability issues and employment shall convene a task force on students in higher education with disabilities. The task force shall be composed of up to nine members representing disabled students, institutions of higher education, and state agencies. The task force may convene technical advisory committees as needed to assist and advise the task force.
(2) The task force shall:
(a) Recommend the separate roles of state agencies, institutions of higher education, and disabled students in ensuring that students with disabilities have an opportunity to obtain a higher education;
(b) Identify barriers to the admission and retention in higher education of students with disabilities;
(c) Recommend optional methods of providing centralized and decentralized assistance to disabled students and to the institutions of higher education where those students are enrolled;
(d) Provide a list of publishers who are willing to provide their textbooks on computer disks or on tape for use by students with disabilities, and provide the list to institutions of higher education;
(e) Recommend ways that the legislature and institutions of higher education can encourage publishers to provide textbooks in a format accessible by students with disabilities;
(f) Review available funding sources for assisting disabled students to obtain a higher education, including job training;
(g) Recommend methods to coordinate those funding sources in order to maximize a disabled student's opportunity to use them;
(h) Identify additional fiscal needs of both disabled students and the institutions of higher education serving them; and
(i) Recommend job descriptions for coordinators of disabled student services.
(3) The task force shall make a preliminary report to the office of financial management by October 1, 1990. The task force shall report its findings and recommendations to the governor and the legislature by December 1, 1990.
(4) The governor's committee on disability issues and employment may pay travel expenses and per diem to members of the task force and the technical advisory committees, as provided for in RCW 43.03.050, 43.03.060, and 43.03.220.
(5) The department of services for the blind, the higher education coordinating board, the state board for community college education, the state board for vocational education, the office of the superintendent of education, the council of presidents, the division of vocational rehabilitation of the department of social and health services, the state library, and institutions of higher education shall assist and advise the task force and the technical advisory committees upon request.
(6) This section shall expire June 30, 1991.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The sum of twelve thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1991, from the general fund to the governor's committee on disability issues and employment for the purposes of this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.