Attention education advocates!
Bills propose big increases for special education services. But will we lose our momentum for inclusionary practices?
These bills have been heard, but you can still send your state legislators a comment:
- Comment on SB 5307 (Comprehensive bill, plus inclusion)
- Comment on SB 5263 (Comprehensive bill; no inclusion). Scheduled for committee action January 30 in the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee.
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These bills are being heard by the House Appropriations committee at 4 pm, Thursday, January 30:
HB 1310 (House version of 5307). Comprehensive bill, plus inclusion
HB 1267. Phases out cap on funding, only
HB 1357. Re-links multipliers for early supports for infants and toddlers and preschool special education services. Would create a new inclusionary schools pilot program.
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The Washington state legislature is considering several bills that make BIG investments in special education services for students with disabilities. You might like to use this chart as a guide.
All of them include funding changes that advocates have asked for, but only some affirm the importance of inclusionary practices.
At The Arc of King County we would like to see legislation that:
- Affirms the importance of inclusion and the need to offer technical support on disproportionality, inclusive practices, and helping families and schools create effective IEPs
- Ends the cap and stops penalizing small, rural, and less-wealthy schools
- Increases the multipliers (and funding) for all schools
- Fixes a technical problem that penalizes districts placing students in inclusive settings
- Fixes an oversight that left early supports for infants and toddlers (ESIT) underfunded
- Increases access to the safety net for smaller, less-wealthy school districts
Both SB 5307 / HB 1310 and SB 5263 end the cap on funded enrollment, increase the multipliers for preschool and K-12 special education services, and work to make the safety net more accessible. The safety net is available to cover IEPs that are exceptionally expensive.
(IEP = Individualized Education Program)
HB 1310 / SB 5307 also allows quarterly safety net payments in certain situations, while SB 5263 decreases the eligibility threshold for the safety net. We would like to see both approaches, so that the students who need these intensive services can access them more equitably.
HB 1310 / SB 5307 also includes a technical fix so that schools shifting to inclusion aren't penalized and includes a funding mechanism to support the Inclusionary Practices Technical Network, address disproportionality or over-identification, and work on a statewide tool for IEPs, something that if done right with plain language and translations could be a HUGE help for families trying to understand what their child's rights are and how these services are supposed to work.
Currently, none of the comprehensive bills includes language to re-link the multipliers for ESIT and preschool special education services. We strongly support re-linking them to stabilize funding for our youngest learners.
INCLUSION MATTERS - HOW DOES FUNDING SUPPORT IT?
In our experience, adequate funding, while critical, is not the only issue undermining quality, inclusive, and accessible education for students with disabilities. How members of IEP teams (including parents) are supported is a BIG part of it, as are biases and assumptions about what kids with cognitive disabilities or extensive support needs can do, or where they should learn. We could use a good tool and state technical support to do right by our youth.
HB 1310/SB 5307 affirms through state policy what federal
law requires and science supports: Students with disabilities have the right to
equal access in integrated settings, and an equal opportunity to benefit. Special education is a service, and not a place. Special education services are designed to be mobile, flexible, and not linked to a specific location, classroom, or building schedule.
(Source: Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II; Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. There are also US Supreme Court cases that come
into play, namely Olmstead v LC for the ADA, and Endrew F. v. Douglas
for the IDEA.)
LEARN MORE ABOUT INCLUSIVE PRACTICES & FUNDING:
The state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) recently finished a performance audit of special education service delivery and access and special education funding formulas and spending.
Our takeaways from JLARC reports:
- ACCESS & OPPORTUNITY: Experts identify 6 strategies to support inclusive and accessible learning. While some of the strategies are used in some Washington schools, there is no statewide coordination, and there is no statewide policy prioritizing inclusive practices.
- THE CAP FALLACY: The enrollment cap on funded special
education services disproportionately affects small, rural, and less wealthy
districts. There is no research or evidence that enrollment caps improve
appropriate identification of students to receive special education. Instead, research suggests enrollment caps penalize districts who have more students in need of services.
Inclusion is about practice
The state’s Inclusive Practices Technical Network (IPTN), a project of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), continues to do great work creating and distributing resources to support best practices. But most students are not yet benefiting, especially Black/African American students and students with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
We aren’t suggesting funding is not important. But funding WITHOUT inclusionary practices could perpetuate harm, like placing more Black/African American youth in segregated settings and not giving kids with cognitive disabilities or more extensive support needs access to the general education curriculum and school community.
Research does not support segregation. Some students require more intensive services, but that support does not need to happen in a segregated setting.
Research supports changing the school environment (for everyone) to be more flexible and responsive, and implementing practices to better support diverse children, with and without disabilities.
Two resources we recommend (Share with your IEP team!)
OSPI's special education team says this is their most downloaded resource.
- Comprehensive Inclusive Education in Washington, created by OSPIs’ special education team and the TIES Center.
This is a great tool for ALL families and IEP teams, but especially if your school is talking about inclusion and you aren’t sure what that means for you child, or if you are trying to secure an inclusive placement and the rest of the IEP team is resistant.
It is exciting to see resources that support inclusive learning for ALL of our students, and it is a relief to see funding proposals to address inadequate funding for services. In the end, we hope whatever passes the state legislature elevates and centers on inclusive practices.
- Ramona Hattendorf, Director of Public Policy & Civic Engagement, The Arc of King County
