Weekly Legislative Highlights: December 17 through December 21, 2007
Updated January 8, 2008
* President Bush Signs FY 2008 Appropriations Bill
* Moratorium on School-Based Medicaid Cuts Approved by President
* ED Opens Growth Model Pilot to All States
*FY 2008 Funding Update
President Bush signed the consolidated appropriations bill for FY 2008 on December 26, 2007. The funding bill (H.R. 2764) provides increases for key programs including Title I, IDEA, and teacher quality grants.
Specifically, the bill provides approximately $14 billion for Title I grants, which reflects an increase of about $1.2 billion. Title I School Improvement grants will be funded at $491 million – an increase of $366 million from FY 2007. The funding level for IDEA Part B grants (special education) is roughly $11 billion, which includes a $259 million increase. The measure provides an increase of about $73 million for Teacher quality grants; total funding is $2.96 billion. Funding for education technology grants is also continued at $267.5 million.
NSBA will provide additional details about FY 2008 appropriations as soon as possible.
*Congress to Pass Moratorium on School-Based Medicaid Cuts
President Bush signed S. 2499, The Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, which includes a six-month moratorium provision that would prevent the Secretary of Health and Human Services from taking any action to limit Medicaid reimbursements to schools for administration and transportation services to students.
This action constitutes a significant win for school board members and others in the education community that have been lobbying hard to prevent the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from finalizing a proposed rule (CMS-2287-P) that would eliminate federal payments to schools for administration and transportation services provided to low-income students and students with disabilities. The legislation effectively imposes a six-month delay on any action by the Administration to restrict payments to schools in these areas. While the provision is only temporary (it will expire on June 30, 2008), it is a significant step in the right direction. NSBA hopes to build on this show of support, particularly by the Senate Finance Committee, to obtain a permanent solution to the problem next year.
In addition, the bill extends the current State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through March 31, 2009, and provides adequate funding to States for the purpose of maintaining their current enrollment through that date. Despite this 2009 deadline, Congress is expected to continue working on a compromise bill that would expand the program in 2008. The latest attempt to increase eligibility to an additional four million children, H.R. 3963, was vetoed by President Bush on December 12, 2007.
*ED Opens Growth Model Pilot to All States
After restricting the growth model pilot program to no more than 10 states, the U.S. Department of Education has announced that it will allow all eligible states to participate in the program for the 2007-08 school year. The new states will have to meet the same criteria as the nine states already approved to use a growth model to determine adequate yearly program under NCLB. The approved states so far include: North Carolina, Tennessee, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Iowa and Ohio.
These are some of the requirements your state must meet in order to be eligible for the pilot program for 2007-08 AYP.
- Ensures all students are proficient by 2014.
- Includes assessments that produce comparable results from grade to grade and year to year in grades 3 through 8 and high school in both reading and math that have been operational for more than one year and have received “full approval” or “full approval with recommendations” from ED before states determine the 2007-08 AYP results.
- Has data systems that track student progress over time.
If your state is interested in applying for the growth model pilot program, it must submit a proposal to ED by February 1. For more information on the pilot program, see http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/growthmodel/index.html.