LWSD Special Education Funding Lawsuit before State Supreme Court

By on June 22, 2010 in Archived, Headlines, School News

Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Historic State K-12 Special Education Funding Lawsuit

WHAT

The Washington State Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the School Districts’ Alliance for Adequate Funding of Special Education lawsuit against the State of Washington for failure to fund special education.  (Court No. 82961-6)

Underfunding of special education is a real and continuing problem for districts throughout the state.  Despite recent increases in funding provided by the Legislature with support from the Governor, the shortfall in funding of special education programs continues to grow.

WHO

School Districts’ Alliance for Adequate Funding of Special Education

  • Bellingham School District
  • Bethel School District
  • Burlington-Edison School District
  • Everett School District
  • Federal Way School District
  • Issaquah School District
  • Lake Washington School District
  • Mercer Island School District
  • Northshore School District
  • Puyallup School District
  • Riverside School District
  • Spokane School District

WHEN

Tuesday, June 22, 2010, Oral argument scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

WHERE

Washington State Supreme Court

The Temple of Justice

415 12th Avenue Southeast

Olympia, WA  98501


BACKGROUND

In 2004, the School Districts’ Alliance filed a lawsuit against the State of Washington for its consistent failure to fully fund special education programs.  The members of the Alliance are Bellingham, Bethel, Burlington-Edison, Everett, Federal Way, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Puyallup, Riverside and Spokane School Districts.

More than 70 school districts have joined the Friend of the Court Brief filed by the Tacoma School District in support of the Alliance.  These school districts are located across the state.  For example, they include Vancouver and Seattle school districts as well as MosesLake and Yakima school districts.  All together the Alliance and Amicus School Districts serve more than 62 percent of the students in this state receiving special education services.

About Rob Butcher

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  • C Tedrow

    In the discussion at tje Supreme Court on Tuesday 6/22/2010, the question asked was if the basic education dollars should be used in the equation for funding Students with Special Needs and if Special Needs students are also General Education Students. In Seattle Public Schools, not all Special Education Students are General Education Students. They do not all have seats in the General Educatioon classrooms. They are denied the same curriculum, services, experiences as General Ed Peers. The Special Education Teachers do not reaceive the same training and curriculum as their General Education Teaching Peers. If a Special Education class room has mixed grades such as 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students, they may only have science materials and training for the 1st grade level. My daughter has been denied the right to participate in General Education classrooms and fieldtrips with her general education peers of the same grade by her school principal. Until all Special Education students have seats in the General Education classrooms, they should not include the Basic Education dollars allocated in the cost equation for Special Education students. Therefore there is inadequate funding for Special Education students in Washington State in some school districts.