IDEA $$ Survives Hill Final Cut, DOE Knife Is Next Test / Spec Ed Impacts

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IDEA $$ Survives Hill Final Cut, DOE Knife Is Next Test / Spec Ed Impacts

Monday, December 06, 1999

[From Special Education News http://www.specialednews.com/ ]

A 11.7 percent funding increase for the Individuals with Disabilities

Act of 1997 weathered the storm of partisan politics this fall, emerging in

an omnibus spending bill that included about $6 billion for IDEA in fiscal

year 2000. But there is a catch. The U.S. Department of Education must now

decided how to shave $112 million off the $35.591 billion allocated for all

federal education programs. The cut is part of a 0.38 percent

across-the-board budget cut that must be made in all federal spending

programs by early February to keep the 2000 budget under spending caps.

President Clinton signed into law Nov. 29 Public Law 106-113, which

includes spending plans for a half-dozen federal agencies and the District

of Columbia. The appropriations wound up in one giant budget package when

Congress and the Clinton Administration failed to reach agreement on

individual measures this fall. The Department of Education's $35.591 billion

budget is an increase of $2.07 billion, about 6.2 percent, over 1999.

Congress allocated about $700 million more for IDEA programs in 2000 than it

did for 1999. Of IDEA's $6 billion, $5 billion must go directly to the

states. Another $390 million goes for preschool grants, and $375 million

will fund grants for programs for infants and toddlers.

More On The Fiscal 2000 Funding Saga

Overall, the lawmakers budgeted $587 million more for IDEA than what

the President requested. That could prove a significant political victory

for Republican members of Congress, who can now return to their districts

for the holidays saying they care about special education even more than the

President does. On top of that, the excess funds beyond what the Clinton

initially requested are prime candidates for the Department of Education's

cutting knife as it looks for programs that can be trimmed to meet salary

cap requirements.

The Department of Education has the authority to decide how to

distribute the $112 million cut across its programs, according to the

Council for Exceptional Children, but no program can be cut by more than 15

percent. The cuts must be determined by the time Clinton releases his budget

for 2001 in early February, the CEC said. " Although no specifics are known

about what will be cut, it is generally thought that the Department will

avoid cutting anything that it fought for this year, " such as funding for

new teachers, the CEC said.

Class size reduction, which proved one of the major sticking points of

the debate between Congressional Republicans and the Administration, will

also ultimately benefit special education programs. As reported, the number

of special education teachers, as well as math and science teachers, has

been found to be woefully short of current classroom needs. The shortages in

those areas are expected to continue over the next five years.

Congress earmarked $1.3 billion for class size reduction efforts under

title VI of ESEA, putting emphasis on the early grades, where school

districts are to employ " highly qualified teachers to improve educational

achievement for regular and special needs children. " However, much of the

spending under this provision can be for various programs at the discretion

of the states and their local education agencies, marking a victory for

Republicans, who argued for less federal government control over education

funds.

Congress did put some controls on the use of those funds, however. The

funds must be used for recruiting hiring, and training fully qualified

regular and special education teachers, the new law states. Such recruiting

efforts may include the use of signing bonuses and other financial

incentives, and solving teacher shortages in some schools may involve hiring

special education teachers to team-teach with regular teachers in classrooms

that contain both children with disabilities and non-disabled children, the

law states. Teachers of special-needs children must be certified within the

state, either through universities or " local alternative routes, " and must

have a baccalaureate degree in their content areas.

Class size reduction funds are already starting to make a difference in

the nation's largest urban public school districts, according to the Council

of the Great City Schools. The organization's recent survey showed that,

among 40 districts responding, more than 3,500 new teachers have been hired

with federal class size reduction funds, and 90 percent of those hired were

fully certified. In addition, more than 22,000 new and current teachers are

participating in professional development programs supported by those funds,

the council said.

Special ed. programs will also get a small boost from the Elementary

and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Of the $910.5 million Congress

allocated for the ESEA's title VIII Impact Aid programs, $50 million must be

spent on services for children with disabilities. That is the same amount

allocated for such spending in 1999.

* * *

Spending Package Has More Special Ed. Impacts

Though a funding increase for the Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act marks the biggest success for special education in the federal

government's fiscal 2000 spending package, provisions of several other

appropriations measures also hold increased funds for related causes.

Local Programs

A few programs in specific states get special consideration in the

education funding law, possibly the result of lawmakers attaching

last-minute provisions to the bill as both houses were nearing agreement on

major provisions. For example, $1 million of the IDEA funds are designated

to provide training, technical support, services and equipment for the Early

Childhood Development Project of the National Easter Seal Society for the

Mississippi Delta Region. The Center for Literacy and Assessment at the

University of Southern Mississippi will get $1 million from the IDEA budget

for research dissemination and teacher and parent training. In New York

City, meanwhile, Congress awarded $100,000 to Innovative Directions, an

IDEA-based Educational Alliance housed by the City Island School in the

Bronx.

Competitive athletes with disabilities also get a boost from this

year's spending package. Congress allocated $1.5 million from the IDEA funds

for the Organizing Committee for the 2001 Special Olympics World Winter

Games, to be held March 3 through 10 in Anchorage, Alaska. Another $1

million of the IDEA funds will go to the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee

for the VIII Paralympic Winter Games.

District of Columbia Attorney Spending Cap

The spending package left intact the D.C. budget provision added by

Sen. Kay Hutchison (R-Texas) to increase the federal spending cap for

publicly funded attorneys in the District of Columbia by 20 percent. As

reported, that provision drew criticism from some disability advocates, who

argued the caps are still too low to enable parents to find quality

representation for complaints filed under IDEA.

Though Congress did not buy the argument of the Texas Fiesta Educativa

Project and other groups that increasing funds for litigation will force

D.C. to improve its special education system, the legislators did note the

overall poor quality of special ed. services in the district. " The District

of Columbia public schools system faces serious challenges in correcting

chronic problems, particularly long-standing deficiencies in providing

special education services to the 1 in 10 District students needing program

benefits, including backlogged assessments, and repeated failure to meet a

compliance agreement on special education reached with the Department of

Education, " the bill states.

More School Counselors

The new budget law also contains $20 million for the Elementary School

Counseling Demonstration Act. The Act, which provides schools with funds to

hire qualified school counselors, was last allocated $2 million in fiscal

year 1995, the American Counseling Association says. The ACA proclaimed the

900 percent increase in funding " a huge victory for the counseling

profession. "

Funds for the Elementary School Counseling Demonstration Act will be

disbursed by the Department of Education, which is expected to issue a

notice seeking grant applicants sometime early next year, the ACA says.

____________________________________________________________

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