OLYMPIA…Bills sponsored by Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, that would increase small-school access to special-education funding and student-transportation funding were passed by the House of Representatives today.
Senate Bill 5852 was passed with a unanimous vote and now heads to the governor’s office for a signature. Senate Bill 6031 passed with strong bipartisan support and will return to the Senate, which will decide if it agrees with the changes made by the House.
SB 5852 is designed to help rural school districts by streamlining the application process for safety-net funding to support children with higher-cost special-education needs. Most rural districts do not have the staff to dedicate to what can be an arduous and time-consuming process. Some districts worried that their applications were being rejected for small errors that had nothing to do with the content of the application or the students’ needs.
“One area where Washington has not done a good job funding basic education is in providing special-education services,” said Braun.
“As we work to increase and improve those services, we also need to make it easier for the children who need them to gain access. Until now, one large barrier for rural school districts was the application process and the staffing level needed to properly complete the applications. I hate to think that students in rural areas may have been denied services because the schools didn’t have the resources necessary to navigate the application process. Schools who need that money to properly serve their students should have the support they need to deal with the bureaucracy, regardless of which community they serve.”
SB 5282 received unanimous votes in both the House and Senate. Unless the governor vetoes it, the bill will become law 90 days after the Legislature adjourns on March 7.
SB 6031 aims to modify the state’s student-transportation funding allocation to accommodate multiple vehicle types for transporting students. Braun was inspired to sponsor the bill after seeing a full-size school bus transporting only two children.
After talking to local school superintendents about why that bus was being used instead of a smaller, less-expensive, more environmentally friendly vehicle, he discovered state law requires money allocated for student transportation be used only for school buses.
“It’s just common sense and good fiscal practice to allow school districts to use alternative vehicles, such as vans, when a school bus is not necessary,” said Braun. “The state is wasting resources by mandating that student transportation only be used for the more expensive buses, especially if they are transporting only two children.
“The intent of this bill is to allow school districts more flexibility. If they save money as well, all the better.”
An amendment adopted in the House of Representatives would require the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to compare current transportation-funding formulas with alternative formulas that reimburse special passengers, accommodate different vehicle types, and include per-rider and per-mile rates.
SB 6031, passed in the House with bipartisan support, now returns to the Senate for concurrence. If the Senate agrees with the House’s amendment, SB 6031 will also go to the governor’s desk for a signature and will become law 90 days after the March 7 adjournment of the Legislature.