Report Title:

Felix Consent Decree; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

WHEREAS, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) passed by the United States Congress, finds that disability is a natural part of the human experience and does not take away or minimize the right of those individuals to participate in, or contribute to, society; and

WHEREAS, Congress further found that improving educational results for disabled children is an essential part of our national policy of ensuring equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for disabled individuals; and

WHEREAS, currently there are special education students in every school in this State and with the rising cost of special education, it is a heavy burden on Hawaii's already financially challenged public education system; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Education's January 2001 Quarterly Report on the Status of the State's Progress in meeting the Requirements of the Felix v. Cayetano Consent Decree (hereinafter DOE Quarterly Report) reported a total of 22,962 students identified for special education services, 13,146 children registered for services with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD), and 1,962 children identified for zero-to-three related mental health services; and

WHEREAS, the DOE Quarterly Report further reported that of the $154,035,838 appropriated to the Department of Education for the 2000-2001 school year, $75,838,006 already was expended by December 31, 2000 and of the $102,227,071 appropriated to the Department of Health's CAMHD, $76,111,621 was already expended by December 31, 2000; and

WHEREAS, according to the Court Monitor's Felix Consent Decree Quarterly Status Report, August 2000 to November 2000, over the six-year period from 1994 to 2000, the number of children served by the Department of Education increased from 12,000 to over 22,000 while the number provided mental health services by CAMHD increased from 1,800 to 11,000; and

WHEREAS, these dramatic increases have resulted in an increase in the combined mental health and special education costs by over $150 million, prompting the Court Monitor to note that "[n]o other state or school district in the United States of America has undergone such expansion and dramatic redesign in six years"; and

WHEREAS, despite earnest efforts to control the Felix program costs, and the over $250 million combined appropriations to the Department of Education and Department of Health for the current fiscal year, the Governor has requested the 2001 Legislature to appropriate $107 million in emergency funds to address Felix program cost overruns; and

WHEREAS, Congress in Title 20, section 1411(a) of the United States Code committed to providing up to forty percent of the cost states would incur in providing special education; and

WHEREAS, in fiscal year 1999-2000 federal funding of the Department of Education special education program amounted to a meager 10% of cost and has never exceeded 14% in any given year; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Hawaii Congressional delegation is urged to coordinate efforts in the United States Congress to obtain funding for forty percent of the cost of special education and related services for children with disabilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Speaker of the

United States House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, the Vice President of the United States, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.