Listen to an audio file of this article.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly referred to as the economic stimulus bill, passed the U.S. Congress and was signed into law by the President in February 2009. The Act includes $115 billion of new money for education—beyond the 2009 federal education appropriation of $62.6 billion. (See Figure 1)

Special education, by way of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), received a one-time appropriation of $12.2 billion as part of the ARRA. The breakdown of special education funding is:

• $11.4 billion for IDEA grants to states for school-aged students (Part B);
• $400 million for IDEA’s Preschool Program (Part B, Section 619); and
• $500 million for IDEA’s Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities Program (Part C).

These additional funds will be distributed to states and, through the states, to school districts (local educational agencies) in two parts. The first part—50 percent—was made available to states by the end of March 2009. The remaining 50 percent will be made available to states by October 1, 2009.

According to guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (USED), these funds must be used consistently with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the IDEA. Those requirements stipulate that federal funds supporting IDEA must be only for the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities, except where the IDEA specially provides otherwise. The USED guidance provides some possible uses for these one-time appropriations provided in the ARRA. These include:

• Obtain state-of-the art assistive technology devices and provide training in their use to enhance access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities.
• Provide intensive district-wide professional development for special education and regular education teachers that focuses on scaling-up, through replication, proven and innovative evidence-based, school-wide strategies in reading, math, writing, and science and positive behavioral supports to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.
• Develop or expand the capacity to collect and use data to improve teaching and learning.
• Expand the availability and range of inclusive placement options for preschoolers with disabilities by developing the capacity of public and private preschool programs to serve these children.
• Hire transition coordinators to work with employers in the community to develop job placements for youths with disabilities.

Local school districts have been directed to obligate the majority of   IDEA funds that flow from the ARRA during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years and any remaining funds during the 2010-2011 school year. All IDEA funds that flow from the ARRA must be obligated by September 30, 2011.

So what does this mean for parents of students with disabilities? Parents should expect to see the IDEA ARRA funds spent in a way that results in improved services for students with disabilities. In particular, states and local districts should be guided by the activities that are funded by IDEA ARRA funds by the rating received by the USED on the Annual Performance Report (APR). The APR is an annual report of each states’ progress on their State Performance Plan (SPP)—a new requirement of IDEA 2004. Think of it as your state’s IEP. There are indicators (both outcome and compliance) and there are goals for all indicators. Indicators include such important issues as graduation rate, dropout rate, rate of proficiency and participation on state assessments, parent involvement, suspension and expulsion, and many others.

Parents, in an effort to ensure that the activities funded by IDEA ARRA monies align with the needs of student with disabilities identified in the state’s APR, should become familiar with their state’s latest APR and the rating that USED has assigned to the APR.

Most recent ratings (states get a rating of “meets requirements,” “needs assistance,” “needs intervention,” or “needs substantial intervention”) indicate that only 15 percent of the nation’s students receiving special education services are educated in states that earn a “meets requirements” rating. Most are educated in states that have earned a “needs assistance” rating. These ratings, and the reports from which they emanate, provide important information for parents. Both the SPP (a five-year IEP for your state) and the APRs for each year are available on your state’s department of education Web site.

Under IDEA current law, school districts are allowed to reduce local expenditures for special education by up to 50 percent of an increase in non-local funds over the previous year. However, IDEA also directs each state as it determines that a local district is not meeting the requirements of its SPP—including the targets for each indicator—to prohibit the school district from reducing its local expenditures. This provision ensures that school districts with poor performance, as measured by the SPP, must use the IDEA ARRA funds for improvement activities.

Parents of students with disabilities are urged to get involved in the use of the IDEA ARRA funds, ensuring that this significant one-time investment results in significantly improved results for students.

______________

Candace Cortiella is Director of The Advocacy Institute (www.AdvocacyInstitute.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of products, projects and services that work to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The mother of a young adult with learning disabilities and a disability rights advocate for over 17 years, she lives in the Washington, D.C. area.