School districts are required by federal law to provide Special Education supports for all students that need them. However, Washington State caps the amount it will pay for these services, and so Washington school districts are being shorted about $400,000,000 per year for these costs. This shortfall has a big impact on the budget of SPS.
The legislature is in session, and bill HB 1436 was supposed to eliminate the cap on special education funding. Apparently a substitute bill has been introduced that pushes out fully funding special education for 5 years. Please contact your legislators and ask them to remove the funding cap on Special Education now, not later.
