Health and Fitness

Senator Kirk: Let’s Keep Our Promise to Children with Disabilities


Committee passes bipartisan Kirk amendment to increase special education funds, offset by reducing duplicative grants; provides $115 more per special needs child to local school districts this year

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WASHINGTON, D.C. –(ENEWSPF)–July 11, 2013.  U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today offered an amendment to increase funding for special education through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by slowing the growth of the duplicative grant program Promise Neighborhoods. The Appropriations Committee approved Senator Kirk’s amendment by a vote of 18-12 in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014.

“My amendment means an extra $115 will support every special education student in Illinois and across the country,” Senator Kirk said. “Congress promised to pay for 40 percent of the extra cost of education for special needs kids. We have fallen behind on this promise, and this amendment gives us the opportunity to honor it. I am glad to have the bipartisan support of the Committee.”

Audio of Senator Kirk’s comments at the Committee can be found here, and the text of his amendment can be found here.

Background

The amendment increases IDEA funding by $43.246 million for FY 2014 and is offset by slowing the growth of the Promise Neighborhoods program at the FY2013 amount. Promise Neighborhood grants fund programs that already exist in the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Transportation.

When Congress enacted IDEA in 1975, the statute called for the federal government to cover 40 percent of the additional cost of education for children with special needs. A 1982 Supreme Court ruling set the guidelines for these additional services. To date, the additional cost of education services for special needs children has never been fully funded at the 40 percent commitment. The Kirk amendment increases the federal government’s funding to further reach that goal.

Source: kirk.senate.gov

 


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