Congress gave final approval to a sweeping spending bill Thursday (12/21/17) evening that sidesteps a government shutdown less than 36 hours before the year-end deadline and includes a short-term extension for CHIP health care for low-income kids, which had expired Sept. 30. The stopgap extends funding through Jan. 19, 2018 and passed in the House 231-188 and in the Senate 66-32.
Category: Federal Government Actions
GAO Report Shows Voucher Programs Unclear on Disability Rights
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported that parents/guardians of children with disabilities who are looking for an educational option outside of the public schools are not being provided the information they need to make an informed choice. Although federal law provides certain protections (i.e., a guaranteed FAPE in the least restrictive environment, access to special education, and disciplinary safeguards) to students with disabilities when they attend public school, if parents/guardians use a publicly funded voucher to enroll their child in a private school, many of those protections are no longer available. Though some parents/guardians are aware of this trade-off, the GAO contends that others are unaware of the loss of this legal safety net. The GAO also contends that many private schools are doing a poor job of making sure that parents/guardians are informed. In fact, the GAO found that about half of the private schools surveyed offered little or no information about special education services on their websites.
It is important to note that the legal protections afforded special needs students will follow the identified child if their school district decides s/he would be better off in a private school. However, when the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) initiate the move to a private school, the right to a FAPE no longer applies. This is important information that needs to be shared, and the GAO recommends that Congress pass a law requiring states to notify parents/guardians of such, since the US Department of Education says that it does not have the authority to require states to inform parents/guardians of the rights they are giving up when they leave a public school.
House and Senate Tax Overhaul Bills Differ on How They Treat Education
As federal lawmakers work to pass a tax overhaul package, it is important to note that the House and Senate bills have some glaring differences, as shown below:
- The House tax bill would increase the Child Tax Credit to $1,650, while the Senate bill would raise it to $2,000. The current tax credit is $1,000.
- Currently, educators can deduct up to $250 for those who spend their own money on classroom supplies. The Senate bill would double the deduction to $500, while the House bill would eliminate the deduction.
- In order to expand school choice opportunities, the House bill would alter the use of 529 college savings plans to allow those funds to be used for K-12 expenses, including tuition for private schools. There is no such provision in the Senate bill.
It is also important to note that both the House and Senate bills would allow people to deduct up to $10,000 in local property taxes.
Stay tuned to see where we end up in this highly politicized process.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear School Prayer Case
On Monday, November 27, 2017 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case that centered on prayers before school board meetings. The Court’s denial, without comment, has thus left continuing uncertainty over the constitutionality of such practice.
The case, American Humanist Association v. Birdville Independent School District, saw a former student from the Birdville, TX school district and the Washington-based humanist group seeking review of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which upheld the school district’s policy of permitting students to lead prayers before school board meetings.
Back in 2014, in Greece v. Galloway, the US Supreme Court upheld the practice of a town in New York state that opened its municipal meetings with prayers. The Court held that the town does not violate the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion by having a prayer “that comports with our tradition and does not coerce participation by non-adherents.”
What is still up for debate is whether school boards are considered to be akin to general municipal governing bodies like town councils and county boards, or whether school boards are similar to schools, which would trigger church-state considerations. In its ruling, the 5th Circuit categorized the Birdville school district as being akin to the town of Greece, NY.
CHIP Re-authorization in Jeopardy: So is Health Insurance for PA Kids in Need
In Pennsylvania, Act 84 of 2015 requires that school districts inform every parent or guardian of every student enrolled in each school district of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) on an annual basis. A popular program across political lines for more than two decades, CHIP has provided free or low-cost comprehensive health coverage to over 175,000 children up to 19 years of age in the Commonwealth. But, in Washington, DC, Congress has yet to reauthorize it, which is putting states whose funding expires soon in a quandary. In Pennsylvania, that could jeopardize health care for children in February, since CHIP’s budget runs at about $450 million in the PA, with 90 percent of that money coming from the federal government. What remains to be seen is whether political rankling regarding health care and budget issues – as well as most everything else – will put a program in jeopardy that has helped reduce the uninsured rate among children in PA to under four percent.