Z-1243.2                   _______________________________________________

                                                     SENATE BILL 6097

                              _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1994 Regular Session

By Senators Bauer, Wojahn, Oke, Pelz and Rinehart; by request of Legislative Budget Committee

Read first time 01/12/94.  Referred to Committee on Education.

Extending the duration of special services demonstration projects.

          AN ACT Relating to special services demonstration projects; amending RCW 28A.630.845 and 28A.630.850; and repealing RCW 28A.630.851.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  RCW 28A.630.845 and 1992 c 180 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) The legislature finds that the state system of funding handicapped education has fiscal incentives to label children as handicapped and that unnecessary labeling can be detrimental to children.  The legislature encourages demonstration projects that provide needed services without unnecessary labeling.  To test this approach, the legislature intends to maintain the funding level for innovative special services programs that reduce the incidence of unnecessary labeling.

          (2) School districts may propose demonstration projects under this ((section)) subsection to provide needed services and achieve major reductions in the percentage of district students labeled as handicapped in one or more specified categories.  State handicapped funding for districts with such projects shall be based ((for the duration of the project and for two years after the end of the project)) on the average percentage of the kindergarten through twelfth grade enrollment in the specified categories ((during the 1991-92 school year or, for projects approved after April 1, 1992,)) during the school year before the start of the project.

          (3) School districts with specific learning disabled enrollment at or above four percent of the district's kindergarten through twelfth grade enrollment may propose demonstration projects under this subsection to provide needed services and reduce unnecessary labeling to below the four percent level.  When the specific learning disabled enrollment is below the four percent level, funding for the district shall be based on four percent of the kindergarten through twelfth grade enrollment considered as specific learning disabled, without regard to the actual number of students so identified.

(4) Funding under subsections (2) and (3) of this section is contingent on the following:  (a) The funding is spent on children needing special services; and (b) the overall percentage of first through twelfth grade students in the district labeled as handicapped declines each year of the project ((after the 1991-92 school year)), excluding handicapped students who transfer into the district.

          (((4) School districts with approved demonstration projects that wish to convert to a project under this section shall by May 1, 1992, notify the selection advisory committee and the superintendent of public instruction and propose appropriate modifications to the project.

          (5) This section expires September 1, 1997.))

(5) The selection advisory committee shall request proposals for up to ten more projects under this section and make appropriate recommendations to the superintendent of public instruction.

        Sec. 2.  RCW 28A.630.850 and 1991 c 265 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:

          ((Sections 1 through 5 of this act)) RCW 28A.630.820 through 28A.630.845 shall expire ((January 1, 1996)) September 1, 2001.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  RCW 28A.630.851 and 1992 c 180 s 4 are each repealed.

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