Directors:  At this point in time you may not have felt the full impact of the sequestration cuts. However, the coalition that National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) has joined to fight the budget cuts and is desperately seeking stories about the impact of sequestration. Here is a website that you can go to to share your stories:  http://www.nddunited.org/#!contact/ch8q

The Coalition, is a national coalition of 3,200 organizations working to stop budget cuts to core government functions, has just released a video that you can use to educate policymakers, the press, and the public about the disproportionate cuts non-defense discretionary programs –  including employment and training, research, public health, education, public safety, housing, social services, infrastructure, and environmental protection – have taken as a result of deficit reduction efforts and how these cuts will impact our daily lives.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE 3-MINUTE, NDD UNITED “NO MORE CUTS” VIDEO http://www.nddunited.org

Acting Assistant Secretary Michael Yudin has also asked NASDSE for stories about the impact of sequestration. So it would be helpful if you are posting a story to share it with me as well and I will share with them with Michael.The news on the budget/sequestration is not good – in fact it is downright depressing. We need to fight as hard as the airlines did to stop sequestration and further budget cuts. We are looking at a budget impasse for FY 2014 as we do not anticipate any agreement between the House and Senate appropriations. Wish I had better news to share.

News on the ESEA bill: Senator Harkin plans to mark up an ESEA bill (Democratic bill only as Senator Alexander and Harkin could not agree on a bill) in the first two weeks of June. This bill might make it to the Senate floor, but no sign yet of a markup in the House. (This is the closest to good news that I can get.)

Office for Civil Rights

Today, the Office for Civil Rights has released guidance to remind school districts, postsecondary institutions, and other Federal funding recipients of the legal prohibition against retaliation with regard to civil rights complaints and to describe OCR’s methods of enforcement. The DCL does not contain any new policy or new interpretations of law and is supported by well-established caselaw. However, OCR has never before issued any public guidance describing its enforcement of recipients’ non-retaliation obligations.
Please take a moment to read this important guidance at:

•   http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201304.html
•   http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201304.pdf

If you have any questions, requests for technical assistance, or outreach opportunities where OCR can play a role please contact one of our regional offices. You can always find our list of offices and the regions they support at https://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/OCR/contactus.cfm.

Arizona’s Grant for IDEA Part B (611)

Arizona received the state allocation tables for IDEA Part B this past week. The short and sweet of it is that our allocation was reduced by 5.6% due to sequestration. Which is about what we thought the reduction would be based on earlier communication from USDoE. However, what was a surprise was that the LEA allocations were reduced by 6.6% or about $11 million dollars. The reduction was taken in the “population and poverty” portion of the allocation formula. Individual LEA allocation reduction may vary due to increases and decreases to the overall student enrollment and number of students living in poverty as reported to the ADE through October enrollment and SAIS during the current fiscal year.

State Administration and State Set-Aside funding had a very slight increase of 2.2%. These set-aside funds cover grants to LEAs for Capacity Building, IDEA and Preschool Emergency, High Cost Child, Secure Care, ESS sponsored professional development activities, program and fiscal monitoring activities overseen by the ESS section.
Arizona’s grant for IDEA Preschool (619) was reduced by 6.6% due to sequestration. In the case of 619 funds, the poverty and population portion of the formula was not funded at all. LEA allocations will be reduced by just less than 3% or $115,568.
Below are links to the Fiscal Year Allocation for Grants to States IDEA Part B Sections 611 and 619.

• FY 2013 Allocations for Grants to States – IDEA, Part B, Section 611 – Table I
• FY 2013 Allocations for Preschool Grants – IDEA – Part B, Section 619 – Table II

Based on the March 1, 2013 OMB sequester report, CEF prepared the attached table showing the discretionary funding levels for Department of Education programs plus related education programs in other agencies. The total cut to ED discretionary funds = $2.271 billion.  In addition, mandatory programs are cut by $207 million for a total Education Department cut of $2.478 billion.

The specific funding levels on CEF’s table are based on OMB’s cut of 5.0% for nondefense discretionary programs.  This 5% cut is taken from the FY 13 CR level, which equals the FY 12 appropriation level increased by the 0.612% across-the-board (ATB) increase. However, for four ED programs with advanced appropriations (Title I, ESEA Title II, IDEA Part B state grants and Career/Technical Education state grants), the 5% sequester cut is calculated from the advanced appropriation levels for FY 13 provided in the FY 12 omnibus appropriations bill, which are not subject to the ATB increase, plus the FY 13 annual appropriations in the FY 13 CR which are subject to the ATB increase.  However, all of the sequester cuts to these four programs will be taken from school year 2013-14 funds. See July 2012 memo from Anthony W. Miller, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education for further details.

The Department of Education has not yet issued tables showing the sequester cuts at the program, project and activity level, so the figures in this table are CEF calculations. In addition, the FY 13 funding levels are subject to change by the final FY 13 CR or omnibus appropriations bill.

Special Education Directors,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to the Exceptional Student Services (ESS) annual customer survey.  

Please click on the graphic below to read the summary memo.

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