Volume I, No. 16

March 5, 2009

Bill Seeks Equity for Special Education New Construction

By Anna Ferrera   

SB 334 (Ducheny)

In 2006, when Proposition 1D was passed, it contained a needed increase in the new construction grants that school districts and county offices of education use to build additional K-12 classrooms. 

Because the language did not specify an equal adjustment for new construction grants for special education, those learning disabled, blind, deaf and autistic students were left out of this adjustment.

Senate Budget Chair, Denise Ducheny (D-Chula Vista) tried to fix this problem legislatively in 2007 with SB 704 (Ducheny).  Unfortunately, the bill was held in Assembly Appropriations and died at the end of that legislative year.  

In 2008, after studying the costs of school construction per Proposition 1D, the State Allocation Board (SAB) provided an additional 6% adjustment for new construction grants to better reflect the real costs of building K-12 schools and classrooms.  Special Education students were again left out of this additional adjustment. 

That same year, AB 100 (Mullin) again attempted to fix the problem and was voted out of both legislative houses.  The bill was vetoed by the Governor over provisions that would have provided an increase to the overall new construction grants and because some of the adjustments for special education new construction were retroactive.

This year, Senator Ducheny has introduced SB 334, to fix the problem should another adjustment to the new construction grants be made in the future.  The bill would ensure that a new construction grant adjustment made for K-12 classrooms would also be made for special education classrooms.

The bill was introduced on February 25, 2009.