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The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. It is published every other week while Congress is in session.
Article from the July 19, 2002 edition of the CHN Human Needs Report: Up for reauthorization this year, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA PL 94-142) has been the subject of recent hearings in the House and Senate. At the heart of the debate over IDEA reauthorization is how to fund the program. Despite the law's guarantee of a 40 percent reimbursement to states for the average cost of per-pupil special education, the federal government currently reimburses states for only 16.7 percent of costs. Many Senate Democrats are pushing to make IDEA funding an entitlement, but President Bush and his Commission on Excellence in Special Education oppose mandatory IDEA funding.
Debate over IDEA funding in the Senate carried over into the FY 03 appropriations process. On Thursday, July 18, the Senate Appropriations Committee increased discretionary state grants for special education by $1 billion, the same amount that Bush requested, but likely not enough to reach the 40 percent mark originally guaranteed to states by IDEA. The battle over IDEA and its funding is expected to continue through the rest of the session as Congress attempts to rewrite the 1975 law.
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