WASHINGTON UPDATENANCY REDER

DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NASDSE

Idaho Special EducationConference

March 4, 2013

WHAT THIS PRESENTATION WILL COVER Impact of election Washington update

WHAT IMPACT DID THE ELECTION HAVE ON EDUCATION?

IMPACT OF THE ELECTION New ranking member of Senate HELP

Committee 8 fewer Republicans in the House All the bills have to be reintroduced

=

ISSUES Sequestration/Budget/Appropriations ESEA reauthorization What’s new with IDEA implementation? Other education issues

Seclusion and restraint Office of Civil Rights document on extra-curriciular

activities Equity and Excellence Cmmission

Common Core issues Implementation issues Assessment issues

Virtual schools/online learning Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

STILL MORE ISSUES Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment

Act School choice (charter schools and vouchers) Early childhood Child welfare and students with disabilities

OVERALL ANALYSIS OF THE 112TH CONGRESS

Nothin

gNADABUBKYS

NIENTE

ZIP ZERO

NAUGHTZILCH

NOW TO THE DICEY STUFF….. SEQUESTRATION

SO WHAT’S THE FISCAL CLIFF?

DEFICIT REDUCTION SINCE 2010 $1.5 T primarily from discretionary funding $.6 T in increased revenues $.03T in interest savings

=$2.3 T in total deficit reduction Remainder needed to stabilize the debt:

$1.4 T ($1.2 T savings + $0.2 T in interest savings

WHAT CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT SEQUESTRATION? Where did it come from?

Why is the deficit so big and why does it matter? Projected deficits would rise to more than 100% of GDP in 2027

Budget Control Act of 2011 (August, 2011) Established Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Established two separate mechanisms: (1) Sequestration and (2)

spending caps imposed on annual appropriations through FY 2021.

Sequestration is supposed to reduce spending already provided for in FY 2013 (more about FY appropriations in a minute)

Was supposed to kick in October 1 with 8.2% cut Modified by American Taxpayer Release Act (January 2, 2013) –

pushed sequestration to March 1st and reduced cut to approximately 5.1%

Cuts are uniform across-the-board and leave little room for adjustments

Projected cuts to IDEA -- $596 M $725 M in Title I cuts

MORE ON SEQUESTRATION So to figure amount of cuts, look at FY 13

funding levels and take 5.1% off that amount BUT….on March 27th, the Continuing

Resolution for FY 13 ends – if not extended, means there is NO funding for federal government at all.

What’s the impact of the spending caps? Don’t know yet. The aggregate funding for FY 2013 cannot exceed spending caps put into place by the Budget Control Act (of course, caps could be waived, increased, cut – but there is discretion on where to make cuts

WHEN DO CUTS KICK IN FOR IDEA? IDEA is forward funded – cuts don’t kick in

until July 1.

Are the sequestration warnings real? Go to: www.cef.org

LOCAL

Scenario One Scenario

Two

Cut staff& services Increase

LocalSpending

FAPE notmet

Due Process

&Lawsuits

Staff, Service& programsmaintained

MDEProblems

STATE

Scenario One

Scenario Two

$ for Services

Legislature Cut state

programs & services

Programs &Servicescontinue

MSFS

Programs &Services not

provided

FAPE not met for some

Progresshalted

Oversight diminished

State Determination

Problems

SolutionDon’t HaveSequestration

Impact of Sequestration

WHAT PROGRAMS ARE EXEMPT? Short list (not exhaustive)

Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Some Pell grantsMedicaidSNAP (food stamps)Supplemental Security Income ProgramTANF

GOOD RESOURCES ON SEQUESTRATION White House fact sheets:

www.whitehouse.gov Dept of Education website:

www.education.gov AASA survey on sequestration:

http://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Policy_and_Advocacy/files/AASA%20Sequestration%20July%202012.pdf

NEA fact sheet: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Disastrous_Impact_of_Sequestration_on_Education.pdf

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: www.cbpp.org

Report from Senator Harkin (www.senate.gov)

BUDGET/APPROPRIATIONS – HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO WORK President submits budget to Congress House passes budget resolution Senate passes budget resolution House and Senate pass 12 appropriations

bills Conference committees iron out differences House and Senate vote on conference

reports President signs into law

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF President’s budget for FY 14 supposed to

come out March 25th

House Rs to introduce new CR March 11 – will keep basic funding levels (separate bill for Defense)

In the Senate -- Mikulski to introduce all 12 bills in a straight CR (same week)

ESEA REAUTHORIZATION – NEWS FLASH: GLACIERS MOVING BUT ESEA IS NOT

ESEA REAUTHORIZATION Last Congress, Education and Workforce

Committee introduced five ESEA bills – one passed (charter school bill)

Senate HELP Committee passed a bill – never made it to the Senate floor

Anticipate that Rep. Kline will introduce same five bills

Anticipate that Sen. Harkin will introduce comprehensive bill

ESEA CRITICAL ISSUES Impact of waivers on reauthorization Highly effective teachers vs. highly qualified

teachers What to replace AYP with? Use of PBIS/RtI/multi-tiered interventions/UDL Transferability of funds Graduation rate calculations Title I/IDEA working group recommendations

– paper available at www.nasdse.org

LET’S TALK ABOUT HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS OR HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEACHERS What does the current law say? ED’s position permeates all policies

Race to the Top Waivers Regulations

How did the CR change the definition of HQT?Those in alt cert programs are considered

highly qualified; CR asked for data collection on this

What will a new ESEA bill do? How to reconcile with language in IDEA? No

one seems to be thinking about this

ESEA FLEXIBILITY 35 states have been granted waivers (ID approved

on 10/18/12) 47 states have requested waivers: TX, PA and WY

recently applied for waivers States not applying for waivers: MT, NE, VT CA wants a do-it-yourself model; Documents posted at

http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility Waiver is good for two years – could be an

extension Local district flexibility? Question: how will states move from waivers to

new ESEA (if there ever is one)?

WHAT’S NEW WITH IDEA IMPLEMENTATION Results-Driven Accountability (RDA)

Shift focus to improving outcomes and reduce emphasis on compliance

Part B Medicaid regulation Full funding legislation

Going absolutely nowhere

Still not talking about IDEA reauthorization

OTHER EDUCATION ISSUES Seclusion and restraint

Office of Civil Rights – Announcement about extra-curricular activities and students with disabilities: http://www.education.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-clarifies-schools-obligation-provide-equal-opportunity-s

New PROMISE grants: http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/promise/index.html (input due March 17)

OTHER EDUCATION ISSUES (CONTINUED) Equity and Excellence Commission – new

report

Here’s a link to the report: http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/02/equity-and-excellence-commission-delivers-report-to-secretary-duncan/

COMMON CORE ISSUES Implementation issues

Training on how to deliver Common Core to students with disabilities

Assessments Accommodations (go to www.nasdse.org to see

our letters) Broadband accessibility

VIRTUAL SCHOOLS/ONLINE LEARNING

NASDSE’s Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities

Issues: access for students with disabilities Delivering related services

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING (UDL) NASDSE participates in UDL Task Force and

works closely with CAST Is NOT a special education issue We want language in ESEA

Best resource is CAST’s National Center for Universal Design for Learning: www.udlcenter.org/

WHAT MOVES SLOWER THAN ESEA REAUTHORIZATION?

REAUTHORIZATION OF WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT WIA to be marked up this week in the House

Education and Workforce Committee (same bill as last Congress) Probably won’t make it to the House floor Dems have their own bill – not going anywhere

Possibility that Vocational Rehabilitation will be pulled out into a separate bill

SCHOOL CHOICE (CHARTER SCHOOLS AND VOUCHERS) Release last June of GAO report on charter

schools and students with disabilities Charter School ‘Summit’ at the Dept of Ed

held last September Critical issues

Enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools

Capacity of charter schools to serve students with disabilities

Training for charter school authorizers and operators

Vouchers more active at state level

EARLY CHILDHOOD

EARLY CHILDHOOD President’s initiative for pre-school for all

For information, go to: www.whitehouse.gov and

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ecd/news/what-the-presidents-early-learning-initiative-means-for-acf-programs

Funding??

Connection to Part C and Section 619?

CHILD WELFARE AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIESTwo key pieces of legislation: Fostering Connections Act

Critical issue: who makes decisions about school placements for students in foster care – the IEP team of the child welfare worker who has responsibility under the Fostering Connections Act to keep child in home school or as close to home school as possible

Uninterrupted Scholars Act (passed at the very end of the last Congress It amends FERPA to give child welfare workers

access to school records Good fact sheet at:

http://www.fostercareandeducation.org/portals/0/dmx/2013/02/file_20130211_145758_xjnFqt_0.pdf

WHERE TO GO FOR MORE INFORMATION Alliance for Excellent Education:

www.all4ed.org Center on Education Policy: www.cep-dc.org

(materials on waivers) Common core standards:

www.corestandards.org Center for American Progress:

www.americanprogress.org