Gregg Amendment to Increase Special Ed. Funding
By Kim Forrest
WASHINGTON–Keene schools’ special-education director praised Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) on Tuesday as Gregg continued his push for increased federal funds for special education that would add to the increases New Hampshire has seen during the past seven years.
“I’m glad something passed,” Bruce Thielen, School Administrative Unit 29’s director of special education said. “We’ve been short on [federal] money for a couple of dozen years.”
The Senate has approved an amendment to the fiscal year 2004 Senate budget resolution sponsored by Gregg that would increase federal funds for special education by $3.29 billion over the next six years. The vote last Friday was 89-10.
These funds would be allocated under Part B of the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which gives states money to provide special-education services to preschool and school-age children with special needs.
While the Senate Budget Resolution had already incorporated a $1 billion IDEA increase through Fiscal Year 2009, the Gregg Amendment would increase IDEA grants to more than $11 billion for 2004 and more than $13.5 billion for 2005.
“Passage of the Budget Resolution clearly demonstrates that the Senate puts a high priority on meeting the needs of special education, and doing so in a fiscally responsible way.” Gregg said in a statement.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act authorized the federal government to provide 40 percent of the cost of special education. But Congress has never come close to appropriating funds to meet that promise. The Gregg amendment would increase the federal share to 26 percent, but Gregg, in a news release, said it would also put the federal spending on a “direct glide path” toward 40 percent in six years. IDEA is up for reauthorization by Congress this year.
The money for the Gregg Amendment would come from a commensurate cutback in the overall budget.
New Hampshire has seen a major increase in money for special education since 1996, when it received just over $10.1 million. This year, it expects to get almost $36 million.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2000-01 school year, 30,077 New Hampshire students ages 3-21 were in special-education programs, about 14.4 percent of the state’s 208,461 students. In Keene’s School Administrative Unit 29, there are approximately 905 students in special-education programs, the district’s Thielen said.
He said that each school district uses the IDEA money for whatever special-education purposes it chooses, so long as it fits the federal government’s basic guidelines. For School Administrative Unit 29, he said, the funds would allow the unit to hire additional teachers at the preschool level, institute special-education programs related to speech pathology, bring in academic evaluators and help with staff development.
Thielen added that the extra money would help meet the increase in special-education students, so that administrators can “convert time and energy over to the kids.”
New Hampshire’s junior Senator, John Sununu (R-NH), expressed praise for Gregg’s amendment, saying that he, too, hopes for the full promised 40 percent of special- education costs in the near future.
“I commend Senator Gregg’s leadership in helping to bring additional special-education resources to local school districts in New Hampshire and across the nation,” he said in a statement. “The resources will go directly to local school districts for their immediate education priorities.”
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
