Every school district will receive the same state funding for special education as in 2008-09.  See a detailed spreadsheet here.  This is a major victory, as nearly all other education line items were cut.
In addition, every school district is receiving lots of new federal stimulus funding for special education services and programs. Your efforts over the last 14 months helped to protect special education resources.

Together, we advocated for a new state system for special education funding and accountability.  Our voices were heard and cuts were avoided, even in this historically tough budget year.  Thank you for helping to make this happen.

In a normal year, our bills for funding reform would have been adopted in the School Code Bill along with the annual budget.  This year’s School Code Bill, House Bill 11, contains Representative Sturla’s version of our reform legislation (HB 704).  Even though the General Assembly has not finished acting on the School Code Bill, we expect it to be adopted — and to contain our special education reforms in HB 704 — by the end of 2009.  The legislature just had too much trouble agreeing on the budget to be able to handle the School Code Bill at the same time.

Bottom line — special education funding was not cut and we remain on track to adopt HB 704 by the end of the year.  Note that our Senate companion bill, Senator Dinniman’s SB 940, also remains ready for action.  Together, these two bills have attracted 80 bi-partisan co-sponsors.  We even succeeded in negotiating with the Rendell Administration to get their support for making improvements to these bills.

Going forward, we must continue to work closely together and advocate aggressively in order to achieve the reforms we have sought.  There are some in the legislature who may still resist fixing the state system for special education funding and accountability.

Also:

• See a summary of the current contents of our reform legislation.
• See ELC’s summary analysis of the 2009-10 state budget adopted last week.

When: Wednesday, August 19 (Pittsburgh);  Thursday, August 20 (Southeast PA); Wednesday, September 2 (Lancaster).
DETAILS BELOW.

The Arc of PA, the Disability Rights Network of PA, the Education Law Center, and Good Schools PA are hosting three regional special education funding reform briefings and planning meetings.  Please mark the dates on your calendar and plan to be part of these interactive sessions.

UPDATE.  The news is very good, thanks to your hard work and dedication.  HB 704 is Representative Sturla’s bill — “our” bill — for special education funding and accountability reforms.  The bill has made it all of the way into the annual School Code Bill (HB 11) that is usually adopted with the state budget.  The House Education Committee has now voted twice to support HB 704.  Governor Rendell also recently decided to support HB 704.  If the legislative leaders can wrap up their negotiations for the budget, HB 11 (including HB 704) should be adopted in the next few weeks.

We hope you will join us to discuss these developments and our crucial next steps on August 19, August 20, and September 2.

The agenda will be the same at all three locations across the state.  It is as follows:

(1)     Looking back and evaluating our efforts in 2008-09;
(2)     Planning our next steps for advocacy in 2009-10;
(3)     Discussing other related issues, such as inclusion and over-identification; and
(4)     Figuring out how to strengthen our advocacy work and our coalition.

Please share this email with other advocates and organizations who may like to attend and participate in the meeting.

It would be very helpful if you could RSVP your attendance to SZelno@elc-pa.org (Pittsburgh); kwoii@aol.com (SE PA); and ellenrbb@dejazzd.com (Lancaster).

We look forward to seeing you.
As always, call or email with any questions. Thank you in advance.

PA Special Education Funding History

UPDATE: In the past the week the campaign has made great strides, getting HB 704 introduced with nearly 60 co-sponsors and receiving press coverage on the bill in newspapers throughout the state. The hearing on May 6, however, is crucial for the future of the bill.  Members of the Arc of Pennsylvania, the Disabilities Rights Network, the Education Law Center, and Good Schools Pennsylvania will testify, along with bill sponsor Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster) and education officials, on the importance of a new special education funding and accountability formula.

MAY 6 HEARING: A strong showing of support by families, advocates,  and organizations is important at this stage of the campaign. Please notify your contacts. The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. in Room 50 (ground floor) of the Irvis Office Building (attached to the rear east corner of the Capitol). If you are able to attend and need more information please contact the Education Law Center’s Baruch Kintisch at bkintisch@elc-pa.org, (215) 238-6970 ext. 320 or Sandy Zelno at szelno@elc-pa.org, (412) 255-6414. Following the hearing there will be a strategy session on the next steps for our work.

CO-SPONSORS STILL NEEDED: In addition to a strong showing at the hearing, we need to push the number of bill co-sponsors as close to 100 as possible, so please check the current list of sponsors — here — and if you’re local representative has not signed on yet, urge them to do so immediately.

STORIES NEEDED: Finally, as part of our ongoing media outreach we’re looking for parents, educators, even students to tell their stories of how underfunding special education has affected them and how a new funding and accountability formula can help.  If you, or someone you know, would like to share your experience, please contact the Education Law Center’s Brett Schaeffer at bschaeffer@elc-pa.org or (215) 238-6970 ext. 334

CONFERENCE CALLS: We will hold two optional conference calls if you would like a chance to talk by phone, get updates, and prepare for this advocacy work — 4 p.m., Monday, May 4 and 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 5.  The dial-in number is (866) 244-1716 and the code is 5555-604-083 followed by #.
* Continue to check this site for updates and materials on the campaign. You can also subscribe to the site’s RSS feed: http://reformspecialedfunding.org/feed/

HOW CAN YOU HELP TO GET THIS BILL PASSED?

Your immediate help is needed in two ways:

1.  Schedule a meeting for yourself in the district office of one or two key legislators.  Ask them to be champions for special education funding reform.

2.  Issue a strong alert throughout your entire network for all individuals to call or e-mail their own state representative, asking the legislator to call Representative Sturla’s office ASAP and co-sponsor the special education bill.
You can use the following talking points:

Talking Points

(Put this in your own words and give personal examples.)

• Please support reform of the state funding system for special education.

• The current funding system is broken, is unfair, and does not provide enough resources for special education in the right places. It sets the number of students eligible for state funding for special education at 16% regardless of whether the district has fewer or more students receiving special education. It also does not focus the funding on strategies that have a track record for improving student performance.

• I have personal experience with how this broken system hurts children with disabilities and all students.

• Please take action before June to adopt a bill fixing this problem, based on the November 2007 Costing-out Study that was used to fix the regular education funding formula. The Study was updated for special education in February 2009.

• I know many families and educators who feel the same way. We will be doing our part to support your leadership on this issue.

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