Special Education Update

On Wednesday the House Education Committee approved HB704. More on that below. If you are wondering why special education is important, read "What will happen to Harold?," by Steve Volk in the March 2009 issue of Philadelphia Magazine. The boy in the article faces a number of obstacles. If he doesn't overcome at least some of them his path is set. He may or may not be one of the kids who would be served by special education, but if so the money spent now is far less than what we will spend in the juvenile justice system a few years from now and the criminal justice system further down the road.

There are kids from stable homes in good neighborhoods who don't quite fit the mold of traditional education, or maybe they just need a little fine tuning or to learn some educational coping skills. Early intervention, like an ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure. Identifying dyslexia, Asperger's Syndrome, attention deficit disorder, other learning disabilities or issues, and developing strategies for dealing with them, can allow those kids to succeed in school educationally and socially. There will always be those few who overcome all odds on their own, but they are few.

From Wednesday's inbox:

State Reps. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster; Barbara McIlvaine Smith, D-Chester; James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia; and Keith McCall (D-Carbon) were among the 65 co-sponsors of legislation approved today making the state’s special education funding formula more equitable and strengthening accountability for effective investment of new funding.

Representatives Roebuck and McIlvaine Smith were among the 22 Education Committee members approving the legislation. House Bill 704 aims to close the state’s share of the $380 million adequacy gap over a period of six years and to base state funding to school districts on a district's five-year average of actual students enrolled in special education.

“I am proud to see the House Education Committee today approve House Bill 704," Rep. Sturla said. "We are one step closer to providing comprehensive accountability and equitable funding for all special education students."

The bill also provides increased funding to districts that do well including students with disabilities in their neighborhood schools and general education classrooms. In addition, the bill considers a school district's level of poverty and whether a school district's current tax effort demonstrates a commitment to adequately funding its educational programming.

The legislation is based on the results of a 2009 report on the adequacy of state funding for special education in Pennsylvania which found that 391 school districts out of 500 have inadequate levels of spending for special education, and that $380 million in new funding is needed annually to achieve adequate funding.

In addition to achieving funding adequacy, the proposed legislation would establish new accountability requirements by requiring a district's special education plan to explicitly include a budget and benchmarks for investing special education dollars in programs and services aimed at improving student outcomes.

The legislation would also direct the PA Department of Education to measure a school district's performance against published performance indicators, and it would authorize PDE to provide enhanced monitoring and technical assistance to school districts.

More than 35 special education advocacy groups throughout the state support the legislation. For more information on the advocacy groups and to see the full state funding report go the Web site: reformspecialedfunding.org.