March 2023:
The MLO Minute: “Federal Education Budget Announcement: Good News For Students With Disabilities!” —
By Kimberly Caputo, Esq. , Senior Counsel, Special Education Philadelphia Region —
On Thursday, March 9th, 2023, President Biden released his Budget for review and consideration, and children with special needs are part of his plan!
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) is a federal law that requires public schools and some charters to follow very specific procedures and processes when a student with a disability is enrolled. This federal statute is commonly referred to as “underfunded” or an “underfunded mandate”. This characterization is the result of what many parents, advocates and even school personnel say are requirements of the law (mandates) that are coupled with insufficient funds coming to schools through allocations that the federal government makes to each of the states (including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and the District of Columbia) based on the number of students with disabilities enrolled. Although a student census is taken every year by each and every school (commonly referred to as the “December 1 child count”), often times, the dollars attached to the census are not enough.
President Biden’s budget proposal includes the following highlights specific to students with special needs:
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$16.8 billion dollars for school age (pre-k — high school) programs and services to support students with disabilities. This is a $2.1 billion dollar increase from previous amounts. There have been years when this funding has been flatlined and no increase has been proposed.
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An EXTRA $392 million dollars for Early Intervention services to support “infants and toddlers” with disabilities bringing the total requested to $932 million
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A separate $340 million dollars specifically to recruit and retain special education teachers, related service providers (speech, occupational, physical therapists, behavior supports). This is a critical area of need given the impact of COVID 19 on school staffing
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$20 million dollars dedicated to ensuring students of our military families who are often moving in and out of different school districts retain critical special education services. This proposed component will also include non-military families who are experiencing high mobility.
The education section of the proposed budget also includes important and needed funds for student mental health services (designed to increase the number of counselors, social workers in schools) as well as funds to support students for whom English is not their primary language.
These proposed budget components are welcome news and come on top of funds that were made available to states and schools as a result of COVID 19. Because the COVID funding streams are not “permanent”, following the response to the budget proposal is even more important.
The next phase involves review and discussion of the proposal in Congress. Hopefully students with disabilities and the families supporting them will remain the focus of these discussions.
Stay tuned as we will be bringing you more news on this topic. Do not hesitate to make your voice heard by contacting your representatives in the U.S. House and Senate.
We remain committed to serving families and students with disabilities and welcome the opportunity to speak with you if you have a concern about your child or a child in your care.
