By Mary Welander
State Rep., D-114
Mary Welander
There has been a lot of confusion around the proposals coming out of the legislature’s Select Committee on Special Education lately, so I am hoping to clear some things up.
To start, a ‘select’ committee is a temporary one created for a set period that operates under the cognizance of a permanent committee. In this case, SED is under the Education Committee. The rules of a select committee are decided and agreed upon by the leadership of both chambers and both parties and are included in the joint rules that the entire legislature votes on at the beginning of each session year.
This year, the SED was charged with creating the language that would become the number one House priority bill (HB5001), and the Senate number one priority bill (SB1).
The SED recently voted a draft of the special education proposals out of committee – but what we voted on is not the final language of the bill. Any legislation drafted in the SED must be referred to the Education Committee before it either is referred to the Appropriations Committee if there is a cost, or directly to the floor if there isn’t. This was just the next step.
This is still a work in progress. No final language has been agreed upon, and it will be worked on a lot over the next month.
The process of creating this legislation has been incredibly frustrating. I have had the honor of working on priority bills in the past (such as the landmark children’s mental health legislation). Unfortunately, for many different reasons, the process of creating legislation around special education has not gone as smoothly and has resulted in more uncertainty and confusion than expected. Also unexpected: certain advocates and others (many who stand to profit over an unchanged system) have been deliberately misleading or misrepresenting information to vulnerable families, leading to high levels of fear and distress.
I promise this: there was never any intention of closing any schools or preventing any child from receiving needed services. I always strive to put the needs of children and families first, especially when it comes to education, safety and support. This has not changed and will not change.
What does need to change is the trajectory of costs of special education services. Despite serving roughly the same number of children, the cost has increased by roughly $150 million over the last few years. Why? Is it the type of services provided? Increased severity of needs? Fees or tuition charges? Have transportation costs gotten out of control? We don’t know for sure.
Our goal was to create policy that increased transparency and accountability over the costs of special education and hopefully make the process simpler for families and schools, find ways to support our special education teachers and ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used properly. But most importantly, our goal was to ensure that our children get the best chance at success. I will continue to keep you updated as this work in progress continues to evolve.