Huffman presses Congress for special education funding

A new bill to approve full federal funding for special education advanced by Marin Rep. Jared Huffman would help children in the county with special needs and free up school districts’ budgets for other programs, the county’s top education official said this week.

“The historic underfunding of the IDEA has a major impact on local educational agency budgets,” said John Carroll, Marin superintendent of schools, referring to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, first passed by Congress in 1975.

“This in turn impacts the ability to provide educational programming and services to all students,” Carroll stated.

The act calls for the federal government to pay 40% of the per-pupil cost for special education programs. But since 1975, the government “has never lived up to the full promise” of IDEA, according to Huffman.

On Monday, the congressman reintroduced the bill along with Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen. The IDEA Full Funding Act bill is co-sponsored by more than 20 senators and over 60 House members.

Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat, has championed the legislation since he first came to Congress in 2013, according to a statement from his office.

In the fiscal year 2023 appropriations package, Huffman was able to secure special education funding increases for children with disabilities by providing $14.2 billion for IDEA grants to all states, an increase of $850 million, or 6% above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level.

It’s progress, but not close to full funding of IDEA, Huffman said.

“Our bill holds up Congress’ end of the bargain to fully fund special education services on a permanent basis and ensure all students have the chance to succeed,” Huffman said.

“Every single student – regardless of race, socioeconomic status, disability, you name it – deserves a full, quality education,” he said. “The chronic underfunding creates an unfair burden on students, teachers, families and schools.”

A spokesperson in Huffman’s office said federal support for IDEA nationally has never risen higher than 16% of the per-pupil cost.

Alicia Ncho-Oguie of Novato said she has struggled for years to get full services such as adaptive physical education for her daughter, who attends a special education class at Edna Maguire Elementary School in Mill Valley run by the Marin County Office of Education.

“Marin County children with disabilities continue to receive substandard education, in part as a result of the chronic underfunding of essential special education services at the federal level,” Ncho-Oguie said.

“In Marin, this underfunding means that some children don’t receive the special education services and support necessary to be educated among their peers,” she added.

Ncho-Oguie’s daughter is one of about 4,000 students in Marin who have what is called an IEP, or individualized education plan, for special education.

Carroll said Marin, which receives about $8 million annually from the federal government for special education, spent $28,069 per student in 2021-22, the last data available. In that year, the county had 3,924 students with IEPs, Carroll said.

Since each school district is obligated to spend the required amount for each student, if a school district budget doesn’t have enough to finance the special ed costs, it must pull money out of its general fund, Carroll said.

If approved, the bill proposed by Huffman would roll out over 10 years and would allow school districts to set up a new budget structure, not only for special education, but for all other programs as well.

“The impact of the additional fiscal resources would directly support students enrolled in special education — as the monies are designed for programming costs related to the services and supports identified in a student’s Individualized Education Program,” Carroll said in an email.  “However, there would also be a significant impact to students not receiving special education services.”

Carroll acknowledged that Marin and other areas of the state would still face the challenge of recruiting qualified special education teachers to hire. Since the pandemic, teacher shortages of all kinds — and particularly in specialty areas, such as special education — have been widespread.

“We have partnered with local universities to offer internships and credentialing programs as a way to build a clear path into our schools as a special educator,” Carroll said.  “These activities will continue in the future with or without an increase in federal special education funding.”

California received $1.6 billion in IDEA grants in fiscal year 2021, according to Huffman’s office. If the IDEA Full Funding Act — as Huffman’s bill is called — had been in place, the estimated grant amount for fiscal year 2021 would have been $4.1 billion — or an additional $2.52 billion for California schools.

Ncho-Oguie said the extra financing could mean that her daughter would not need to travel from Novato to Mill Valley to go to school every day.

“My hope would be that with full funding, my daughter — and kids like her — would no longer be sent to schools outside of their home district,” she said in an email.

“The dream would be for parents of students with disabilities to simply be able to enroll their students in their local school with the knowledge that their student would be provided a well-rounded education that meets their needs,” she said.

The bill, which has not yet reached the full floor of Congress, is likely to be sent to committee first, before it could be introduced on the floor.

The current session of Congress is scheduled to continue through the end of 2024. If the bill does not pass during that time, Huffman and the other co-sponsors would need to re-introduce it in the next session, according to Huffman’s office staff.