A lot happened this week at the General Assembly. Committee meetings are happening fast and furiously. Let’s take a quick look at some of the highlights.
Education Committee
On Tuesday this committee received a report from the Department of Public Instruction regarding the state of educational outcomes for students with disabilities. The report was not encouraging. As mentioned before only 42% of students with disabilities scored Level III or above on the 2006-2007 End-of-Course Tests in core subjects. But how bad was it really? Well, here is the break out on English I, for students with out disabilities 76% scored at Level III compared to student with disabilities where 36% scored at Level III. Here is another fact, we either start investing more in educating students with disabilities or we will be investing in more Medicaid services.
Public School Funding Formulas
On this committees agenda is the question on funding for students with disabilities. There was a brief discussion regarding the current 12% funding Cap. Senator Martin Nesbitt suggested that the committee might was to see if the current 12% Cap on Special Needs Funding is appropriate. He continued by asking the committee that if it is not appropriate then what it should be. Nesbitt stated “I would like for us to take a whack at it. There are some districts that have a really high enrollment of students with disabilities”. Excellent point! Let’s hope the other committee members were listening.
Bullying
Last session, The Arc of North Carolina partnered with the Covenant with North Carolina’s Children to advocate for the passage of House Bill 1366 School Violence Prevention Act. This important legislation will standardize anti-bullying policy in all of our school districts. It includes language regarding the protection of children with cognitive, physical, and developmental disabilities. Children with disabilities often find themselves as the focus of classroom bullying. This week the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board vote 6-3 to approve an anti-bullying policy which protects children with disabilities from bullying. We applaud the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board and we hope the state legislators were reading the paper. Let’s pass House Bill 1366 this session and provide comprehensive statewide protections for students with disabilities.
Appropriations/State Budget
Appropriation subcommittees have also started meeting. On Wednesday the appropriations subcommittee on higher education met. The topic during this meeting was funding of the Nursing School. No votes were taken during this meeting. UNC President Erskine Bowles spoke earlier about the need to graduate more nurses, doctors, and medical professionals. Hopefully this means this important program will continue to receive funding.
So, that is the week in review. Next week the Transportation Oversight Committee meets to continue their discussions on state transportation needs. There will also be another meeting of the Joint Study Committee on Autism Spectrum Disorder, Law Enforcement, Public Safety and First Responders.
On Thursday the House will be back in session. An extra session has been called by the Speaker of House and the Governor to consider a recommendation to expel Representative Thomas Wright.
It will be a busy and interesting week and we will bring you a wrap up of all the activities on Friday.
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