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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 31, 2014 02:51 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Edwin B. Erickson |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Approved Private Schools (APS) Line Item |
| In the near future, I plan on introducing a bill that amends the school code to allow for any state allocated money that is returned by an approved private school (APS) to the Commonwealth in a previous fiscal year to be redirected to the approved private schools’ line item in the following fiscal year. This change in the school code is supported by the Special Education Funding Commission and is noted in the Commission’s final report dated December 11, 2013. The APSs are in their fourth year of level funding. Being level funded has forced some APSs to take fewer children into their programs and has prevented some schools from purchasing the necessary materials and equipment that are essential to the work they do with these children with complex needs. A reallocation will assist these school in educating the children who because of their complex needs require these specialized placements. APSs return money because of funding distribution issues caused for a variety of reasons, many of which were not anticipated when Act 70 was enacted in 2004. Smaller and independent APSs and those APSs part of larger organizations encounter fiscal challenges that result in money being returned particularly in times of level funding. These returned dollars should not lapse into the General Fund; rather these funds should go back to the approved private schools the next fiscal year. The advantage is that these are not new dollars being requested but money being recycled for the purpose for which they were originally established. There are 31 approved private schools throughout the Commonwealth; they provide special education programs and services to over 4,000 students with severe and complex disabilities. The approved private schools were created by an act of legislation in the early 1960’s. This legislation formed a unique private-public partnership and made the approved private schools an integral part of the Commonwealth’s continuum of special education programs and services, which is mandated by federal and state law to ensure that all eligible students receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). |
Introduced as SB1264