The Legislature’s pace ebbs and flows, and this week was a bit calmer on the committee front. The first committee deadline is behind us, and the emphasis is on chamber floor sessions so bills can move to the second chamber with enough time to meet the next deadline.
It was an opportunity to take stock of where we are on one of our top priorities: special education funding.
We are working as part of a broad coalition of education partners and disability rights advocates to secure a meaningful investment in our special education service array. The package has four components:
- Increasing support for Regional Inclusive Services (a $52 million budget request, with Senate Bill 868 to improve the funding calculation going forward).
- Increasing support for Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (a $24 million budget request with House Bill 2682 to improve the funding calculation going forward).
- Lifting the special education cap (HB 2953).
- Increasing high-cost disability grants (HB 2448).
The conversations at the Capitol started early and have been positive. There was a period during which you weren’t hearing as much about these bills from us, but that doesn’t mean the work stopped. Rather, like a duck on water, there is a lot happening under the surface.
SB 868 directs the Oregon Department of Education to develop a formula to calculate Regional Inclusive Services costs and to provide the governor and Legislature with a biennial report identifying discrepancies between the amount needed and the amount allocated and explaining the amount needed for the following biennium. It was the first of these bills to see action this session, with a public hearing Jan. 27. It moved out of committee and passed the Senate in March. SB 868 had a public hearing Wednesday, April 16, in the House Education Committee.
HB 2682 directs ODE to convene an advisory committee to review and make recommendations for modernizing the way that adequate service levels are calculated for EI/ECSE. The bill first had a public hearing Feb. 17 in House Education. Chair Courtney Neron made sure the three House bills in the package were heard on Presidents Day when many educators would be able to travel to Salem. The bill quickly moved out of committee and passed the Senate in early March. This bill had a public hearing Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.
HB 2953, as it currently stands, would lift the cap on special education weights entirely. It would also require ODE to produce a report comparing district-level special education funding before and after passage of the bill (to show the difference made). The bill was part of the Feb. 17 hearings in House Education. From there, it moved to the House Revenue Committee, which as a matter of practice considers all bills that adjust the State School Fund distribution. The bill had a positive public hearing March 13. It hasn’t been scheduled for another hearing, but the revenue committees are not bound by policy committee deadlines.
HB 2448 would add an additional $200 million to the High Cost Disabilities Account for reimbursement to schools, increasing the annual amount available by $100 million. The bill has followed the same path as HB 2953.
Both HB 2953 and HB 2448 will need to move from Revenue to the Joint Ways and Means Committee and then pass both chambers. It has been likely from the outset that somewhere along the line HB 2953 will be amended to include a new, higher cap on special education weights rather than removing the cap entirely. It will depend on how much the Legislature chooses to invest.
The budget aspect of each item will ultimately be sorted out in Ways and Means. Bills won’t start moving through Ways and Means in earnest for another few weeks. We are all eagerly awaiting the next Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast on May 14, which will be the basis for the Legislature’s spending decisions.
With the recent market volatility and tariff disputes, the forecast may not be as robust as we would have hoped a few months ago. Any drop in available state revenue could affect special education investments.
We are making the case with legislators that our special education funding requests are about an immediate and critical need regardless of the amount of money the Legislature has to spend.
– Stacy Michaelson
OSBA Government Relations and Communications Director
