BILL NUMBER: AJR 31 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 41
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JUNE 28, 2010
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR JUNE 28, 2010
ADOPTED IN SENATE JUNE 24, 2010
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 8, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Buchanan
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Nestande)
(Coauthor: Senator Liu)
FEBRUARY 4, 2010
Relative to special education funding.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 31, Buchanan. Special education funding.
This measure would respectfully memorialize the Congress and the
President of the United States to enact one of the bills pending
before Congress that would fully fund the federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act.
WHEREAS, The federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act of
1975 (1975 Act) was enacted by Congress and signed into law by the
President as Public Law 94-142 to address the failure of states to
meet the educational needs of children with disabilities. This Act,
known as the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA) since 1990 with the enactment of Public Law 101-476, remains
as the cornerstone of federal statutory mandates governing special
education; and
WHEREAS, The purpose of the 1975 Act, as declared by Congress, was
to assure that all children with disabilities have available to
them, within specified time periods, "a free appropriate public
education which emphasizes special education and related services
designed to meet their unique needs, to assure that the rights of
children with disabilities and their parents or guardians are
protected, to assist States and localities to provide for the
education of all children with disabilities, and to assess and assure
the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities";
and
WHEREAS, The 1975 Act authorized a maximum state funding
entitlement of 40 per cent, for the fiscal year ending September 30,
1982, and for each fiscal year thereafter, of the average per pupil
expenditure in public elementary and secondary schools in the United
States; and
WHEREAS, Since 1975, including in the most recent amendments to
the IDEA, Public Law 108-446, the federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, Congress has
maintained the funding authorization at "40 percent of the average
per-pupil expenditure in public elementary schools and secondary
schools in the United States"; and
WHEREAS, The federal government has never paid its promised 40
percent share of the IDEA mandate. For many years, Congress paid less
than 8 percent of the excess cost of educating children with
disabilities which forced the states and local educational agencies
to cover the remaining costs. The California student population
requiring special education and related services continues to grow
each year. As of December 1, 2009, California's special education
pupils number more than 677,000; and
WHEREAS, School, disability, and parent groups have been trying
for years to bring IDEA appropriations up to the authorized 40
percent of average per-pupil expenditures, the maximum any state can
receive per student with disability. This effort has come to be known
as "full funding," but the effort has never succeeded; and
WHEREAS, The California Legislature, since the early 1990s, has
approved a number of joint resolutions memorializing the President
and the U.S. Congress to provide the full federal share of funding
for special education programs to the states so that this state and
other states will not be required to take funding from other vital
state and local programs to fund this underfunded federal mandate;
and
WHEREAS, The current federal appropriations for Part B of the IDEA
are only $11.5 billion, not counting funds under the federal
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). That
appropriation is about 17 percent of the average per-pupil
expenditure, according to congressional sources. With ARRA, the
federal funding share for Part B of IDEA amounted to approximately
33.4 percent of the 40 percent authorized level, a temporary infusion
of stimulus funds; and
WHEREAS, On December 16, 2009, the President signed the Fiscal
Year 2010 omnibus appropriations bill, Public Law 111-117, that
funded IDEA Part B Grants to states at its Fiscal Year 2009 level of
$11.5 billion. IDEA Part C special education grants for infants and
families and Section 610 special education grants for preschools were
also funded at last year's allocations of $439 million and $374
million, respectively; and
WHEREAS, Funding at the 40 percent authorized level would be
approximately $30,247,123,000, and would provide California special
education programs over $3 billion annually; and
WHEREAS, Four bills are currently pending in the United States
House of Representatives and Senate to fully fund IDEA at the
authorized 40 percent funding level; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature respectfully memorializes
the Congress and the President of the United States to enact one of
the bills pending before Congress that would fully fund IDEA; and be
it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative
from California in the Congress of the United States.