Funding provided by state, federal government

By DANIELLE LYNCH

In Chester County, special education allocations have increased in total by approximately 74 percent over the past five years. Back in the 2003-2004 school year, the total special allocation of all 12 school districts was $86.8 million. The total special education allocation at the beginning of this school year was $151.4 million.
Pennsylvania Department of Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said expenditures are unique to each particular school district depending on the needs being served. He said it’s no surprise that there’s an increase in special education allocations because of the mandates that come from the federal level.
When the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 was enacted, now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal government said it would provide 40 percent of funding for special education, according to Zahorchak. But he said the federal government has never reached that level.
The state of Pennsylvania has said it would pay double the money than what the federal government funds, and then school districts make up the rest, according to Zahorchak.
“We’re interested in one child at a time and want to provide appropriate support to make sure progress is continued,” Zahorchak said.
Special education enrollment has increased in Chester County and statewide.
There were 11,454 students enrolled in eligible exceptionality in Chester County back in the 2001-2002 school year, according to a report by the Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Special Education. Five years later, in the 2006-2007 school year, the special education enrollments for eligible exceptionality increased in Chester County to 12,332.
Statewide, of 1.8 million school-aged children in Pennsylvania in the 2006-2007 school year, about 14.9 percent were enrolled in special education, or approximately 271,000, according to Zahorchak.
Special education law is “mostly nebulous,” said Zahorchak, who was formerly a superintendent, principal, teacher and coach before working for the state’s Department of Education. “It’s very complex so there’s always the possibility of dispute,” he said.
In the 2007-2008 school year, there were approximately 822 due process requests, and only 181 went to a hearing officer, Zahorchak said. Before due process, there’s a process called mediation. In 2007-2008 there were 322 requested mediation cases and 181 that actually occurred, he said.
On the federal level, the primary sources of Department of Education funding for special education are the Special Education-Grants to States program and the Special Education-Preschool Grants program and are funded under IDEA, said United States Department of Education spokesman David Thomas in a written statement. For the fiscal year 2008, Congress appropriated $10.9 billion for the Grants to the States program and $374 million for the Preschool Grants program for a total of $11.3 billion, Thomas said.
When the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, the precursor for IDEA, was enacted in 1975, “it included a maximum funding level for each state under the Grants to the States program of 40 percent of the National Average Per Pupil Expenditure for all children, times the number of children served in the state,” Thomas said, adding that the current IDEA has the same provision.
“At the time the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was enacted many people regarded (and still do regard) the 40 percent level as a promised level of support from the federal government,” Thomas said. “No president has ever requested, and no Congress enacted, funding at that level. Funding at the ‘40 percent’ level would have required much larger appropriations.”
Thomas said that states and local educational agencies participate voluntarily under the grant programs, and states receive funds in exchange for meeting certain requirements for serving children with disabilities.
“We do not regard IDEA as an unfunded mandate,” Thomas said on behalf of the United States Department of Education. “States and local districts have the responsibility for appropriately serving children with disabilities with or without federal funding.”

To contact staff writer Danielle Lynch, send an e-mail to dlynch@dailylocal.com.