Report Title:

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

WHEREAS, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. 1400-1487, imposed various duties on the states regarding education of students with special needs; and

WHEREAS, section 611(a) of IDEA promised that the federal government would fund forty percent of the cost of special education; and

WHEREAS, the federal share of the cost of special education is currently about thirteen percent; and

WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii (State) will receive $16.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education for federal fiscal year 2000 under part B of the IDEA; and

WHEREAS, if Congress fully funded the IDEA at the forty percent level, the State would receive about $40 million per year; and

WHEREAS, the National School Boards Association has established the National Campaign to Fully Fund IDEA to request the President and Congress to fully fund the IDEA at the forty percent level; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the House requests that the President and Congress fully fund the IDEA at the level of forty percent as promised in the original legislation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States and the House and Senate of the United States.