Brief⁽¹⁾

H.C.R. 5029 memorializes Congress to assume its fair share of the costs of special education services by increasing funding to a level more nearly approaching the level authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The concurrent resolution also expresses recognition that children with disabilities are endowed by the Constitution with the right to be provided a free and appropriate public education and that the Congress of the United States has enacted IDEA in order to insure that right. The resolution urges Congress to acknowledge that special education services are extremely costly and should be supported by a combination of local, state, and federal funds.

Background

H.C.R. 5029 was recommended by the 1997 interim Special Committee on Education pursuant to its study entitled "Special Education Funding and Service Delivery Matters," pages 5-7 through 5-11, Committee Reports to the 1998 Legislature, Part I--Special Committees, Kansas Legislative Research Department, December 1997.

The Special Committee noted that the federal law authorizes funding under a formula, a key variable of which is the average per pupil expenditure for general education pupils. The Act authorized Congress to appropriate a sum equal to 5 percent of this average per pupil expenditure in 1977, 10 percent in 1978, 20 percent in 1979, and 40 percent in 1980. Although the Act authorized funding according to this formula, appropriations have never approached the authorization level. They remain at less than 10 percent.

The Kansas Association of School Boards and United School Administrators presented testimony in support of H.C.R. 5029.

There were no other conferees.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.