BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 184|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 184
Author: Block (D), et al
Amended: 8/17/10 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE FLOOR : 26-1, 9/12/09 (FAIL)
AYES: Alquist, Calderon, Cedillo, Corbett, Correa,
DeSaulnier, Ducheny, Florez, Hancock, Kehoe, Leno, Liu,
Lowenthal, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla,
Pavley, Price, Romero, Simitian, Steinberg, Wiggins,
Wolk, Wright, Yee
NOES: Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Aanestad, Ashburn, Benoit, Cogdill, Cox,
Denham, Dutton, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff, Runner,
Strickland, Walters
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/11/10
AYES: Romero, Huff, Emmerson, Hancock, Liu, Simitian,
Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alquist, Price
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 11-0, 8/12/10
AYES: Kehoe, Ashburn, Alquist, Corbett, Emmerson, Leno,
Price, Walters, Wolk, Wyland, Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Special education funding
SOURCE : Author
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DIGEST : This bill continues the current special
education incidence factor formula through the 2010-11
fiscal year and makes the adjustment inoperative on July 1,
2011.
ANALYSIS : In 1997, the Legislature reformed special
education funding (AB 602 [Davis], Chapter 854, Statutes of
2007) to move from a formula based on the number of special
education pupils to one based on a school district's
overall average daily attendance (thereby removing an
incentive to identify higher numbers of pupils as needing
special education to drive an increase in funding). As
part of this reform, a funding mechanism was created to
provide additional funding to special education local plan
areas (SELPAs) having a disproportionately large number of
"high-cost" special education pupils. This funding is
based on an incidence multiplier that was developed
pursuant to a study completed in 1998 by the American
Institutes of Research (AIR).
Recognizing that these factors may change over time,
special education funding reform called for the incidence
multiplier to expire after the 2002-03 fiscal year, and
called for a new study to be completed by March 2003. AIR
completed this second study, which recommended that the
incidence multiplier be updated at least every five years,
if not annually, and that the state gradually phase-out
SELPAs that have been receiving adjustment funds for the
five years prior to the release of the report, and provide
full and immediate funding to SELPAs identified as
responsible for a disproportionate number of high cost
students.
The Legislature has passed six bills to extend the
calculation of the special disabilities adjustment, each
for an additional fiscal year, with the latest extending
this calculation to the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Existing law adjusts funding for individuals with
exceptional needs based on an incidence multiplier, as
defined, for each SELPA.
Current law requires the Superintendent of Public
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Instruction to annually calculate the special disabilities
adjustment for each SELPA based on the incidence multiplier
established pursuant to the 1998 American Institutes for
Research report.
Specifically, this bill:
1.Continues the current special education incidence factor
formula through the 2010-11 fiscal year.
2.Requires that the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) to calculate the special disabilities adjustment of
each SELPA for the incidence of disabilities for the
2010-11 fiscal year.
3.Specifies that the special disabilities adjustment for
the 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years is to be excluded
from the SELPA's base special education funding (per unit
of average daily attendance).
4.Requires the SPI to calculate the special disabilities
adjustment for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years and
adjust this funding for each SELPA regardless of when
this bill becomes operative.
5.Becomes inoperative on July 1, 2011, and as of January 1,
2012, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
becomes operative on or before January 1, 2012, deletes
or extends the dates.
6.Includes and urgency clause.
Comments
The CDE has annually calculated and allocated the special
disabilities adjustment, beginning with the 1998-99 fiscal
year. This funding is sent to SELPAs as part of the
overall special education funding, and is made in monthly
payments. CDE began sending monthly payments to SELPAs for
the 2009-10 fiscal year in February 2010 (as part of the
First Principal Apportionment, also knows as P1), under the
assumption that the special disabilities adjustment would
continue to be included in the overall special education
funding (for those SELPAs that are eligible for the special
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disabilities adjustment). However, while the 2009 Budget
Act included an appropriation for the special disabilities
adjustment (as part of overall special education funding),
statutory authority to allocate those funds for the 2009-10
fiscal year was not included in the budget trailer bill
language, as had been the case in prior years. As part of
the P1 notification to SELPAs, CDE included a link to the
calculations used to determine the 2009-10 PI, which
specifically states that authority to use the special
disabilities adjustment in the calculation of overall
special education funding was not extended to the 2009-10
fiscal year and that CDE will not include multipliers or
special disabilities adjustment funding in its Second
Principal Apportionment (P2) calculation if the statute is
not extended. At the point of the P2 calculation (June
2010), school districts within SELPAs that received these
funds had already included the special disabilities
adjustment funding in their budgets and expended some of
those funds.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12
2012-13 Fund
Special Disabilities Prevents reversion of $69.9
million in General*
Adjustment funds appropriated in the
2009-10
Budget Act.
*Counts toward meeting the Proposition 98 minimum funding
guarantee
SUPPORT : (Unable to verify at time of writing)
San Diego Unified School District
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
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the state budget last year included funds for the 2009-10
special disabilities adjustment and the California
Department of Education (CDE) has been sending school
districts their special disabilities adjustment funding
this past year. In June 2010, CDE announced that it did
not have the authority for its distribution in the 2009-10
fiscal year and without emergency legislation it would
alert the State Controller to offset 2010-11 special
education apportionments for school districts that received
and spent 2009-10 special disabilities adjustment funds.
CPM:cm 8/17/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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