State funding for special education was not cut for 2010-11. Every school district will get the same state funding it received in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Your advocacy on House Bill 704 deserves credit for protecting [...]]]> The state budget was finalized on time, much faster than anyone expected. Click here to read ELC’s budget analysis.

State funding for special education was not cut for 2010-11. Every school district will get the same state funding it received in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Your advocacy on House Bill 704 deserves credit for protecting this line item in the budget, which avoided the cuts absorbed by most other programs. Of course, you are well aware that the high inflation rate for many special education services and programs threatens the needs of children even with “flat” funding.

The quick resolution of the budget means that there was not enough time for the sponsors of House Bill 704 to negotiate with the Senate about approving the special education reforms. We will work over the summer so that the Senate can promptly hold hearings and vote on HB 704 in September.

Thank you for hanging in there for a couple of extra months. With your help, we should see our legislation signed into law while the flowers are still blooming in September and before the leaves start falling from the trees.

Check back here for updates during July and August. Click on the links in the right margin to read the summary of the changes made in HB 704 as the House voted to approve the bill in June.

Let us know what else we can do to support your work.

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 [...]]]> State funding for special education was not cut for 2009-10.

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.

A coalition of groups is now sending the message that it’s time for the General Assembly to approach [...]]]>

Nearly 400 school districts are underfunding special education

In 2008, Pennsylvania adopted a landmark funding formula for basic education, putting more dollars into the neediest schools and implementing rigorous accountability measures for school districts. However, special education students have been left out of the equation.

A coalition of groups is now sending the message that it’s time for the General Assembly to approach special education funding with the same sharp eye its members approached basic education funding in 2008.

House Bill 704 and Senate Bill 940 have strong bipartisan support and are ready to be adopted.

Go to the About page to read the campaign’s  Core Principles.

Special education was a hot topic of discussion at the hearings.  Several Representatives and Senators expressed their opinions that the current state formula [...]]]>

Pennsylvania's funding system for special education is broken and must be fixed this year.

On March 2 and 3, 2009, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees held their annual hearings on the education  budget.  Disability advocates attended the hearings, along with many other education lobby groups.

Special education was a hot topic of discussion at the hearings.  Several Representatives and Senators expressed their opinions that the current state formula (or lack of one) for special education does not provide the resources needed by their local schools.  Legislators asked Secretary Zahorchak for his opinion on this issue.  He responded by making the following kinds of statements:

(1) The issue of special education funding needs to be studied before the Department can make a recommendation for changing the system.  The Department does not have the data it needs.

(2) State investments in early childhood education and core elementary school improvements may lower the demand for special education resources without changing the formula.

Disability advocates and others disagreed with the Secretary’s responses.  Pennsylvania’s funding system for special education is broken and must be fixed this year, using a needs-based formula that counts students and considers the resources required for a quality education.