FEBRUARY 13, 1998..................................................................... NUMBER 79
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE INCLUDE:
There is no greater gift than Love. Happy Valentine's Day...NPND
BUDGET UPDATE:
A Different Task Parents Watch the Money!!!
Parents and parent advocates, on July 1, 1998 the state allocation of funds for Part B, Grants to States, will become available to your state. Within these funds there will be 2 parts: the grant itself (that's the big money) and a new "sliver grant".
Estimated total amounts to individual states range from California: $375,378,230 to Vermont: $7,958,215. The estimated basic grant amounts are based on the best available child counts data. The "sliver grants" are new. This new funding mechanism is a result of a new provision in the reauthorized IDEA which limits the state set aside and requires additional funds to go to LEAs for specified purposes.
"Sliver grants" are allocated to the states to make grants to local education agencies (LEAs). Friday Fax has not received the specific amounts of these smaller grants yet. But, it is important for advocates to know about these grants since they are for use in various specific areas at the local level. Friday Fax will publish the amounts of these grants when the information is available. In order to give you usable information, we took the chart of allocations provided by OSEP, and figured out the approximate amount of each state's increase from the current year.
Remember, your states increase will likely be somewhat less than the amount of increase last year. In the two years of increases, Special Education has received more than a 50% increase. This is a lot of money--approximately $1.5 Billion. We want parents and advocates to be aware of these increases. Check with your state and local leaders to see how these funds are serving your students. Are the funds reaching the local level? What is happening in your state?
Last year we worked with many members of Congress. Members from both the House and the Senate worked with advocates to achieve increases in funding. Our champion in the House of Representatives was Chairman Bill Goodling, Chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. He urged states to use these funds wisely and to make sure that the support was for the students with disabilities and to support the costs of their education. Many parent leaders are on their state advisory or other state bodies that review plans for special education. This is an opportunity that every parent leader can take to influence and monitor the new monies that come into their state.
Friday Fax would love to hear of the successful ways in which funds are helping kids. If you find out that the funds are not being used as they should be, we want to know that, too. Please send information to the address below. Complete information on Part B Grants to States, Preschool Grants, and Grants for Infants and Families will be available soon on the NPND website. The information will be located under the "IDEA" section. The following figures represent the approximate amount of the increase available July 1, 1998 for each State and Territory in "millions" of dollars.
SPECIAL EDUCATION GRANTS TO STATES
Alabama 11.5
Alaska 2.1
Arizona 9.5
Arkansas 6.5
California 68.6
Colorado 8.4
Connecticut 9.5
Delaware 1.9
Florida 37.9
Georgia 16.6
Hawaii 2
Idaho 2.9
Illinois 31.4
Indiana 16.2
Iowa 8
Kansas 6.5
Kentucky 10
Louisiana 10.9
Maine 3.8
Maryland 12.3
Massachusetts 18.7
Michigan 22.7
Minnesota 11.9
Mississippi 7.7
Missouri 14.8
Montana 2.2
Nebraska 5.9
Nevada 1.5
New Hampshire 3.1
New Jersey 23.8
New Mexico 5.7
New York 48.5
North Carolina 18.1
N. Dakota 1.5
Ohio 26.6
Oklahoma 8.7
Oregon 8.2
Pennsylvania 25.3
Rhode Island 3
S. Carolina 10.7
South Dakota 1.7
Tennessee 14.7
Texas 54.3
Utah 6.4
Vermont 1.4
Virginia 17.2
Washington 12.5
W. Virginia 5.3
Wisconsin 13
Wyoming 1.5
District of Columbia .7
Puerto Rico 5.5
American Samoa .8
Northern Marianas .5
Guam 1.9
Virgin Islands 1.4
Palau -.204
Pacific Basin competition 0
Department of Interior 8.6
Studies and evaluations 4.9
HCFA UPDATE
The HCFA sponsored Regional conferences on Implementation of the State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP) continue. The next Regional conference, Region III, will be held in Baltimore on February 23rd. Fifteen states have submitted proposals to HCFA for their SCHIP. The law requires public participation in the development of the plan. If your state submitted a plan and there was no public participation, contact Debbie Chang, Director of the Office of Legislation at HCFA, 200 Independence Ave, Wash. DC 20201.
OOPS...CORRECTION
In the article entitled "The Budget Process Begins" in last week's issue of the Friday Fax some information was printed incorrectly. The mistake occurred in the paragraph beginning with "The bad news" and specifically is located in the sentence which begins "When the funding of the Part B...". Below is a corrected version of this sentence. "When the funding of the Part B "section" of the law increases by "$1B", the formula for funding provides more help for LEA's. That is why so many advocates...Our intention for this year is to advocate funding to reach the "$1B" mark." We apologize for any heart palpitations this information may have caused.