Report Title:

Special Education, IDEA; Americans With Disabilities Act

WHEREAS, under Title 20, section 1411(a) of the United States Code, the maximum amount of federal funds that a state may receive for special education and related services is the number of children with disabilities in the state who are receiving special education and related services multiplied by forty per cent of the average per-pupil expenditure in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States; and

WHEREAS, since the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and its subsequent amendments, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990, Congress has appropriated funds for a maximum of ten per cent of special education and related services for children with disabilities when federal law authorizes the appropriation of up to forty per cent; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Department of Education received approximately $23,500,000 in federal funds during fiscal year 1999-2000 for what was then referred to as "education of the handicapped". If this figure represented an appropriation of funds for ten per cent of special education and related services for children with disabilities, then an appropriation of forty per cent would have equaled $94,000,000; and

WHEREAS, the difference between an appropriation of forty per cent and an appropriation of ten per cent for "education of the handicapped" would amount to $70,500,000 just for the Department of Education. If the number of students receiving special education and related services equaled 22,000 during fiscal year 1999-2000, then the difference would have amounted to approximately $3,200 per student; and

WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii, through the Felix v. Cayetano consent decree, is being compelled by the federal district court to make up for more than twenty years of insufficient funding for special education and related services—funding that should have been borne substantially by Congress, which enacted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990; and

WHEREAS, special tax credits are available under the Internal Revenue Code to help smaller employers make accommodations required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically:

and

WHEREAS, tax credits are also available under the targeted jobs tax credit program for employers who hire individuals with disabilities referred by state or local vocational rehabilitation agencies, state commissions on the blind, or the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and certified by a state employment service. The tax credit may be taken for up to forty per cent of the first $6,000 of first-year wages of a new employee with a disability. This program, however, must be reauthorized each year by Congress; and

WHEREAS, the only federal assistance provided to state and local government agencies for the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act comes in the form of indirect aid. Government agencies are allowed to use federal construction funds to remove architectural or transportation barriers to renovate existing facilities. These funds, however, are not earmarked specifically for barrier removal and their use decreases the amount of funds available for construction; and

WHEREAS, if Congress is going to mandate new programs or increase the level of service under existing programs for children and adults with disabilities, and if it is going to give the courts the power to enforce these mandates through the imposition of fines and issuance of injunctions, then Congress should provide sufficient funding for special education and related services, and for states' implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the United States Congress is requested to appropriate funds for forty per cent of special education and related services for children with disabilities, and for states' implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.