AJE knows that our families care about students with disabilities no matter where they are, so we are happy to share this information from the National Coalition of Parent Centers.  

FISCAL YEAR 2020 BUDGET UPDATE

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget bill was passed in late December. Parent Training and Information Centers were level-funded at the previous year’s amount of $27.411 million. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B funding was increased by $400 million. PACER Center and others led an effort to encourage a specific goal for increased IDEA funding.

Thank you to everyone who called their Representatives and Senators asking them to support that increase! Work will begin soon on FY 2021 funding, so stay tuned on how you can help support more funding for IDEA and parent centers in the coming months.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NEWS

The Department has released a new webinar providing technical assistance on the use of restraint and seclusion and students with disabilities. This is part of a broader initiative to examine the possible inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion.

The Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES) has released a notice about upcoming research, Study of District and School Uses of Federal Education Funds. The study will collect data from a sample of schools to determine how funds from various programs (including Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Part B of IDEA) are used and coordinated to provide services to students. More information is available the Federal Register notice.

NEW FLEXIBILITY IN IDEA STATE-LEVEL ACTIVITIES

As part of the 2020 Appropriations Act, language was included that provides additional flexibility to States in how they use their state-level activities funds provided through Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Previously IDEA only allowed subgranting by State Education Agencies to districts, while funding to other entities such as Parent Centers needed to be done through contracts. With the passage of the new language (copied below), States can now make subgrants to Parent Centers. Paula Goldberg, Executive Director of PACER Center, worked with PACER’s government affairs person in DC to make this change. We hope it helps Parent Centers to receive funding from their state in a more efficient manner.

The new language states:

“Provided further, That States may use funds reserved for other State-level activities under sections 611(e)(2) and 619(f) of the IDEA to make subgrants to local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, other public agencies, and private non-profit organizations to carry out activities authorized by those sections.”