"Alaska Safe Children's Act"

The Lower Kuskokwim School District’s itinerant social workers are a model for how curriculum and mentorship can reach even the most remote schools.

Three pieces of legislation were scheduled to receive a hearing Saturday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Only one received brief consideration, after which Committee Chairman Sen. John Coghill, a North Pole Republican, abruptly ended the hearing early. The meeting was scheduled to consider a resolution to put Alaska Permanent Fund dividends in the state constitution.…

The task force’s job is to make recommendations to the Department of Education on age-appropriate prevention curricula on sexual assault, teen dating and youth suicide.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Charisse Millett of Anchorage, says the act is a catalyst and not the end solution.

Programs funded by the grant would be required to undergo a periodic third-party evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the program.

The Alaska Legislature has passed the Alaska Safe Children’s Act nearly unanimously.

When lawmakers last saw the Alaska Safe Children’s Act, it was in a mutant form. The substitute offered by the Senate Finance Committee hewed much closer to the original bill

The bill is now in the Senate. The governor has said he’d consider including it in a potential special legislative session.

The rewritten law is unlikely to reach the governor’s desk this year, said Senate Rules Committee Chair Charlie Huggins.