BILL NUMBER: AB 719	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Block and Lara
   (Coauthor: Assembly Member Fletcher)
   (Coauthors: Senators Padilla and Vargas)

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2011

   An act relating to special education.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 719, as introduced, Block. Special education: funding.
   Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
make prescribed computations each fiscal year to determine the amount
of funding to be apportioned to each special education local plan
area.
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would update the severity service multiplier that
will be used in the special disabilities adjustment formula and that
this change use data from the special education incidence study
results that the State Department of Education will submit to the
Legislature on or before April 1, 2011.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Since the establishment of the Poochigian and Davis Special
Education Reform Act (Ch. 854, Stats. 1997 (A.B. 602), which changed
California's special education funding structure from a
resource-based to a primarily census-based approach, the state has
always set aside sufficient funds to account for differing incidences
of pupils with severe disabilities across special education local
plan areas.
   (b) The Legislature continues to recognize the importance of
distributing special education funding with a formula that takes into
account the differing incidences of severe disabilities. For this
reason, it has been, and remains, the intent of the Legislature to
provide a severity service concentration factor to each special
education local plan area in order to mitigate the extraordinary
costs for schools with particularly high concentrations of pupils
with severe and high cost disabilities.
   (c) The Legislature is committed to ensuring that the severity
service concentration factor is based on sound data. To this end, it
is the intent of the Legislature that the severity service
concentration factor for each special education local plan area be
updated using data from the special education incidence study results
that the State Department of Education will submit to the
Legislature on or before April 1, 2011.
  SEC. 2.  It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation
that would update the severity service multiplier that will be used
in the special disabilities adjustment formula starting on July 1,
2011. It is further the intent of the Legislature that this change
use data from the special education incidence study results that the
State Department of Education will submit to the Legislature on or
before April 1, 2011.