This great link was passed to me by Linda Perlstein, the public editor for the Education Writers Association. It’s a breakdown of how much every school district in the country would receive in special education dollars under the stimulus bill recently passed by the House of Representatives.
The “American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill” includes $13 billion for special education funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act--a hefty infusion, considering the government’s contribution this year was around $11 billion.
The link also provides information on Title I and construction funds that would flow to schools under the proposal. Based on this, I see that the school district I used to cover, Prince William County Schools in lovely Northern Virginia, would be looking at another $28 million total for fiscal 2009 and 2010, about $16.3 million of which would be IDEA funds. I’m sure they won’t turn it down.
Of course, there’s far more that needs to be done before this bill becomes a reality, including reconciling the House bill with the Senate’s version of the stimulus package. My colleague Alyson Klein has a story here, and David Hoff has an article on state chiefs’ expectations here.