Brief⁽¹⁾

H.B. 2479 establishes the Dental Hygienists Student Loan Program, which is administered by the State Board of Regents.

Under this forgivable loan program, the Board would make loans for the payment of tuition to undergraduate students enrolled in or admitted to a school of dental hygiene and who each year enter into a written loan agreement with the Board. Funding for the program is subject to legislative appropriation.

For each separate year of receipt of a loan the student must engage in the full-time practice of dental hygiene in an appropriate service commitment area for a period of 12 months.

Loan agreements require that the recipient:

• complete the required course of instruction and apply for and obtain a license to practice dental hygiene in Kansas;



• commence the full-time practice of dental hygiene within nine months after graduation from a school of dental hygiene and licensure in a service commitment area and continue this practice for the consecutive number of months equal to the total number of months required under the agreement;



• maintain required records and make reports to the State Board of Regents.

A "service commitment area" is any community within any county except Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick, or Shawnee; any state medical care facility or institution; any medical center operated by the Veterans Administration ; or the full-time faculty of a Kansas school of dental hygiene.

A loan recipient could satisfy the service obligation by serving as a full-time faculty member of a school of dental hygiene located in Kansas and by serving two years for each one year of obligation. A recipient also could satisfy the obligation to engage in the full-time practice of dental hygiene in a service commitment area by performing at least 100 hours per month of on-site dental hygiene care at a medical facility operated by a local health department or nonprofit organization in Kansas that serves dentally indigent persons.

Failing to satisfy a service agreement requires the loan recipient to repay all loan amounts, plus 15 percent interest, in not more than 10 years.

The obligation to engage in the practice of dental hygiene in accordance with an agreement may be postponed for up to five years during any period of:

• active military service;



• service as a part of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA);



• service in the Peace Corps;



• service to the United States Public Health Service;



• any religious missionary work conducted by an organization exempt from taxation; or



• temporary medical disability during which the person obligated is unable because of such medical disability to practice dental hygiene (the five year limit does not apply in these instances).

The obligation to practice is satisfied if the person has rendered the service specified in an agreement, dies, or, because of a permanent physical disability is unable to practice dental hygiene.

Background

H.B. 2479 is a recommendation which results from 1998 legislation which called for the Kansas Dental Board, State Board of Regents, and State Board of Education to report to the 1999 Legislature on plans to increase the number of persons in the state being trained as dental hygienists. That group, the Dental Hygienist Training Committee, presented a report outlining eight recommendations to the House Committee on Health and Human Services during the 1999 Session. This measure embodies one of those recommendations.

Representatives of the Kansas Dental Hygienists' Association, Kansas Dental Association, and a co-chair of the Dental Hygiene Training Committee appeared as proponents. However, the co-chair of the Dental Hygiene Training Committee said that the Committee specifically had recommended a tuition reimbursement program rather than a loan forgiveness program.

There were no opponents.

House Committee on Education amendments were mainly technical corrections.

The fiscal note was based on the assumption that this program would be administered by the State Board of Education. Committee amendments assigned this responsibility to the State Board of Regents which administers a variety of forgivable student loan programs.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.