Outdated funding formulas are causing severe disparities in terms of states' abilities to adequately serve children with special needs.

So said Clare McCann, who believes federal special education law is in dire need of an overhaul. Updating and keeping up with the law as well as standing behind the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, has been at the bottom of the list, according to McCann's article in The Hill. IDEA guarantees students with disabilities the right to an education and promises states some money to pay for that education.

"According to new research, though, that promise does not hold true across the board," said McCann. "In my recent report, Federal Funding for Students with Disabilities: The Evolution of Federal Special Education Finance in the U.S., I dug into federal funding for students with disabilities and found that children in some states have access to fewer federal dollars. In large part, that's thanks to Congress's willingness to postpone updates to the law."

Each state gets the amount it got in fiscal year 1999--the base dollars come from a now-defunct formula based on the number of children with disabilities. Then come into play the state's poverty rate and the size of its general child population.

McCann said the disparities from state to state are severe, and the funding they receive cannot adequately help those students who are in need of extra care. 

"So far, member of Congress have only had one thing to say in response to a revamped IDEA, though: Get in line."

Read the full story. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor