Status of intern funding. Bottom line--good news.

>Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 12:25:10 -0400 (EDT)
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fwd: Intern Funding Update
>Sender: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
>MIME-version: 1.0
>Precedence: bulk
>Originator: [log in to unmask]
>
>Content-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
>
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Return-path: <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Intern Funding Update
>Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 12:02:56 EDT
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
>
>After around the clock negotiations on Wednesday regarding the special
>education amendments to the House passed HB 770, the Senate leadership agreed
>to another modification of the "work groups" proposal.  Thursday morning a
>Senate floor amendment was finalized, after members of the work group reviewed
>it.  The Senate passed HB 770, with agreed to special education amendments,
>late yesterday afternoon, and the House concurred shortly thereafter.  The
>School Psychologists Intern program funding was retored at $2.5 million for FY
>1999.   Intern funding for FY years 2000 and 2001 will need to be determined
>during the biennial state budget deliberations, which will begin in 1999.
>
>The special education proposal contained in the House passed version was
>unacceptable to the Senate leadership because the Legislative Budget Office
>determined that it was not revenue neutral in the fiscal years beyond FY 1999.
>Charlie Arndt, who drafted the proposal, then modified it to make it revenue
>neutral, but the Department of Education and a couple of key Senate
>Republicans would not support the modification, because they were afriad it
>earmarked too much money for related services and perhaps not enough money for
>classroom instruction.  Further modifications were made on Wednesday and the
>agreed to language that was adopted does the following:
>
>1)     Retains the 1/8th calculation for related services, but clarifies
>that it
>would be calculated based on a school district's total special education
>dollars (state and local).
>
>2.     From the 1/8th dollars districts would be required to meet the
>ratios of
>2000-1 for speech and language personnel, and 2400-1 for school psychologists.
>It also put in law the current blue book standards for classroom instruction
>ratios.  It allows for a waiver from the ODE in the event that districts
>cannot find ODE licensed speech and school psych. people, the districts could
>then keep the funds and spend them elsewhere for special ed. purposes.  The
>ODE would promulgate the waiver rule.
>
>3)     Requires school districts to document to the ODE that they employ the
>appropriate number of licensed personnel to serve the needs of handicapped
>children.
>
>4)     Requires ODE to annually audit a sample of districts to ensure that
>handicapped children are being appropriately reported.
>
>5)     Expands the definition of related services to include school
>psychological
>services, speech and language services, and teacher assistants.
>
>6)     Establishes the Special Education Implementation Review committee
>consisting of three members of the Senate and House, the Director of Budget
>Management, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Director
>of MRDD.
>
>I will send a complete legislative update to the membership as soon as we can
>schedule the mailing.
>
>Ann Brennan/cv
>

-----------------------------
Alex Thomas
Miami University
201 McGuffey Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-6632
[log in to unmask]