Reform Special Education Funding
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Please support the bill. I have a daughter with Special Needs in the public school system in Pennsylvania.
– Robert J. Rossi, parent
Show your support. Sign our petition to help special education in Pennsylvania.
My son has autism and he is not doing well in school, not because he is not capable, but because he does not have the resources needed for him to be successful. With enough money, the resources can be secured so my son can get access to his education so he can compete in this society and not be a burden on the social security system.
– Cecelia Thompson, parent
Show your support. Sign our petition to help special education in Pennsylvania.
I have a child who has special needs. She was helped by some awesome and patient teachers. The problem now is that many of these teachers are BURNT out. They need you to pass this bill. By passing this bill, all special needs students will get the help that they need. Also all school districts will receive equitable money. Please sign this bill to help the future of not only our special needs students but also the future of Pennsylvania.
--Teresa DePaul, parent
Show your support. Sign our petition to help special education in Pennsylvania.
JUNE 1 UPDATE
More than ever, we need you and your friends to contact your state representatives this week and tell them to vote for House Bill 704. With your help, we can win this vote and have some good news for a change! See the details below, including action steps and talking points.
Please enter your name on our online petition to support House Bill 704. It takes two minutes. You can even write a short comment for others to see. Everyone can place their name on the petition, including students, parents, educators, advocates, and others. FORWARD THIS ASAP TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES SO THAT WE CAN GENERATE LOTS OF SIGNATURES.
Let us know what else we can do to help.
Hurry up and wait. An unfortunate but sometimes necessary part of human existence, supermarket lines, and political reality in Harrisburg.
HB 704, the bill on special education funding and accountability reforms, was scheduled for a vote in the whole State House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 26. The vote has been rescheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, June 8 or 9.
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE ASAP. We need your help to get calls, e-mails, or letters to every state representative. Click here for talking points and actions that you can take to help the House vote for and pass HB 704 on June 8 or 9.
Click here to see a more detailed explanation of the two-week delay and a list of amendments intended by some representatives for HB 704. If your state representative is sponsoring one of these amendments, you may want to call him or her to express your concerns – HB 704 deserves their support and a vote without amendments.
For extra help, call or e-mail Baruch Kintisch (215-238-6970 x 320) or Sandy Zelno (412-255-6414).
Additional Resources:
Summary of HB 704 (two-page summary)
Q&A on Special Education Funding Reform (4-page detailed information)
Thank you for getting involved and making good things happen for children with disabilities and all children.
HB 704, the bill on special education funding and accountability reforms, was scheduled for a vote in the whole State House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 26. The vote has been rescheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, June 8 or 9.
The biggest reason for the delay is that there is disagreement within both political parties about a tax increase bill (HB 2435). That bill, along with our special education bill, was scheduled for a vote on May 26. Due to the lack of consensus on the tax bill, no significant bills were allowed to come up for a vote – including our special education bill.
The second reason for the delay is a set of amendments announced for HB 704. Legislators must pre-announce their amendments, and several amendments were listed for consideration on HB 704. Three of these intended amendments – listed below – are not related to special education in any way, but they are being used to get attention for other controversial issues. The House leaders would prefer for these intended amendments to be withdrawn before HB 704 comes up for debate and a vote on the floor of the House. Whether our organizations agree or disagree with the subject matter of these three amendments, we do not want them to stand in the way of the interests of students with disabilities. HB 704 deserves a fair vote on June 8 or 9 without unrelated amendments and without further delay.
Amendment 7143. Announced by Representative Saylor (R-York County). This amendment would stop the new high-stakes graduation tests being implemented by the state.
Amendment 7144. Announced by Representative Clymer (R-Bucks County). This amendment would make changes to pre-kindergarten, Head Start, and other early learning programs.
Amendment 7149. Announced by Representative Miller (R-York County). This amendment would renew and modify state rules for how school districts can ask the Department of Education for waivers from contracting mandates and other legal requirements.
There are also a few additional amendments announced for consideration when HB 704 is debated on June 8 or 9. The following amendments are related to special education funding and accountability. The sponsors of HB 704 are talking to the legislators offering these amendments to reach consensus on the issues or perhaps withdraw the amendments.
Amendments 7145 and 7148. Announced by Representative O’Neill (R-Bucks County). This amendment would remove from HB 704 some of the improvements in the Contingency Fund, which provides resources for districts to help students with very expensive disabilities. The amendment would treat all districts equally, regardless of poverty or best practices.
Amendment 7146. Announced by Representative Rapp (R-Forrest & Warren Counties). This amendment would remove from HB 704 a performance variable that would give school districts additional funding for meeting both inclusion and achievement targets for students with disabilities. (About 110 districts would meet these targets in the first year and on average would each receive a total of about $60,000 as an incentive to continue their improved performance. This modest factor in the new formula would not change IDEA law or the authority of IEP teams for the placement of students.)
Amendment 7147. Announced by Representative Tallman (R-Adams & York Counties). This amendment would remove from HB 704 the entire section on accountability. (The accountability provisions are intended to ensure that state funding for special education is invested by local schools for the benefit of students with disabilities. This part of the bill strengthens the existing three-year plans that districts are already required to file with the state. The General Assembly adopted similar accountability rules for basic education in 2008.)
Amendment 7172. Announced by Rep. Maher (R-Allegheny & Washington Counties). This amendment would remove from HB 704 the three-variable formula for distributing state funding for special education and replace it with a twelve-variable formula. The amendment would give a different funding weight to each kind of disability. (The three-variable formula in HB 704 is designed to accurately distribute state funding based on student and district needs, while protecting against incentives for schools to over-identify children or manipulate the system.)
If your state representative is sponsoring one of these amendments, you may want to call him or her to express your concerns – HB 704 deserves their support and a vote without amendments. Click here for talking points and actions that you can take to help the House vote for and pass HB 704 on June 8 or 9.
For extra help, call or e-mail Baruch Kintisch (215-238-6970 x 320) or Sandy Zelno (412-255-6414).
Additional Resources:
Summary of HB 704 (two-page summary)
Q&A on Special Education Funding Reform (4-page detailed information)
Thank you for getting involved and making good things happen for children with disabilities and all children.
Jeff Hawkes’ piece in today’s Lancaster Intelligencer Journal made a great case for fixing PA’s broken special education funding system.
Here’s the link:
Special education funding formula inequity in action
Here’s an excerpt:
Pennsylvania for too long has stacked the deck against taxpayers in Columbia, Lancaster and other high-poverty communities where schools are burdened by greater than average numbers of students who require special education.
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. Continue reading »
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.
Representative Mike Sturla (Majority Policy Chair) will introduce our funding reform bill during the last week in April. He is currently seeking co-sponsors, and issued a recent memo to his colleagues for this purpose. Representatives James Roebuck (Education Committee Chair) and Barbara McIlvaine Smith (Special Education Subcommittee Chair) are also sponsors and will hold Education Committee hearings in early May.
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.
