Latest news with #SenateBill568
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
NC lawmakers call for new look at psychedelic drugs for mental health therapy
Good morning and welcome to Under the Dome. I'm Ronni Butts and here's what's been happening in North Carolina politics. First, a dispatch from Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi on Senate Bill 568, a proposal to create a task force to study how North Carolina could integrate psychedelic-assisted therapies into its mental health system — if federally approved. The bill is receiving bipartisan support and is backed by Sen. Sophia Chitlik, a Durham Democrat, and Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Powells Point Republican. At a Tuesday press conference, Sally Roberts spoke in favor of the bill. She said she has two resumes. One reflects her achievements: two-time world bronze medalist in women's wrestling, special operations combat veteran, business founder. The other tells a different story — multiple surgeries, seven concussions, two traumatic brain injuries, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her PTSD, she said, didn't come from military service or wrestling, but from being abducted and sexually assaulted at age 5 while playing outside. 'That put me on a life trajectory of that of a fighter and of a warrior,' she said. During the pandemic, stress from her business career overwhelmed her. She began experiencing memory loss. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offered 'tips and tricks' to cope, but those didn't help, she said. When that failed, she was prescribed a 'cocktail of medication,' which initially felt like 'being strapped to a rocket booster' — until she 'crashed,' and 'crashed spectacularly,' she said. Desperate, she tried something new, and traveled abroad for psychedelic therapy. She said Ibogaine, a psychoactive substance that's not legal in the United States, gave her 'a second chance at life, a do-over.' Luke Focer, a former Marine sniper and intelligence professional with seven combat deployments, also spoke in support of the bill. Focer, who works with Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), said VA care and dozens of medications failed to ease his PTSD, anxiety, suicidal ideation and more. He was approved for a grant by VETS to undergo psychedelic-assisted therapy in Mexico using Ibogaine — a treatment he said saved his life. 'This is not a red or blue issue,' Focer said. 'This is an American issue.' Since 2001, more than 125,000 U.S. veterans have died by suicide, and the VA reports that 29% of veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will experience PTSD. Other states are looking into psychedelics as therapy. Texas most recently launched a state-backed research consortium focused on Ibogaine — which sponsors call the largest public investment in psychedelic research. Alaska and Nevada have passed similar task force bills. As for its chances of passing into law this year? Hanig said there's 'quite a bit of support in the House and Senate — bipartisan support for it.' The bill missed a key deadline to move forward, but its language could be added to other bills that did survive. — Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi Senate Bill 50, which would eliminate the permit requirement for concealed carry of a handgun, passed the House Rules Committee in a close vote Tuesday and is on the calendar today for a potential House vote. But at least two House Republicans oppose the bill. Republican Reps. William Brisson and Ted Davis voted against the bill in Rules, and a few more Republicans left the committee room just before the 12-to-10 roll call vote. Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan has the story here. Without every single Republican and at least one Democrat, the House cannot overturn a likely veto from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. In the past, Republican House and Senate leaders have not even called for a vote if they don't think they have a supermajority of support. The House session Tuesday afternoon started an hour late because Republicans' caucus meeting ran an hour over time. — Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan Two senators were joined by a Fayetteville City Council member at a Tuesday news conference in support of legislation that would ban 'ghost guns,' which are made in parts and don't have traceable serial numbers. Senate Bill 409 would ban ghost guns and untraceable firearms. Sen. Val Applewhite of Fayetteville, who filed the bill in March with Raleigh Democratic Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, spoke at the news conference. Regulating ghost guns 'is not about infringing on lawful gun ownership,' Applewhite said. 'This is about untraceable, unserialized weapons, often assembled in basements or garages, that are increasingly finding their way into the hands of people with no intention of using them responsibly,' she said. 'These are weapons with no paper trail, no accountability and no way for law enforcement to do their jobs effectively.' Fayetteville City Council member Courtney Banks-McLaughlin serves on the Governor's Crime Commission. Her daughter, Coryonna Treasure Young, was accidentally shot and killed at 15, in 2022, by a ghost gun. 'They are selling these parts and making it out of 3-D printers,' she said. 'They have no serial numbers, no background checks are required. 'Our daughter, Corianna, should have graduated on Wednesday,' she said. 'She should have been in her cap and gown.' The bill has not moved forward. — Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan The state Senate on Tuesday passed a wide-ranging bill titled 'Various Disaster Recovery Reforms.' The bill includes all Helene-related provisions that have passed the Senate, said Sen. Tim Moffitt, a Hendersonville Republican. It also includes provisions the bill previously contained in the House, where it had initially focused on banning discrimination in disaster recovery aid based on political affiliation or speech. The proposal followed reports that a Federal Emergency Management Agency supervisor — who was later fired — is said to have instructed staff to skip homes with signs supporting President Donald Trump. Additions to the bill include new criminal penalties for trespassing or looting homes in emergency areas, temporary building code exemptions in certain situations and more. What has not advanced in the Senate is the House's separate Helene recovery bill, passed in May, which outlines how to spend an additional $464 million on recovery efforts. The House has called for Helene recovery funding to be handled separately from the budget, which remains stalled. On budget negotiations with the House, Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters they were working on 'a list of items that we feel need to be addressed.' Berger didn't elaborate when The N&O asked him about Helene negotiations. 'It's all wrapped up together. We'll have conversations about both of those,' he said. — Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi President Donald Trump, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, paid a visit to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville on Tuesday to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army, Sophia Bailly reports. This was Trump's first visit to the state since January, when he visited Western North Carolina to assess damage from Helene. As Trump addressed the crowd, he referenced the ongoing protests in Los Angeles against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump has activated thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles. 'This anarchy will not stand,' he said. North Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday sent two bills to Gov. Josh Stein that target unauthorized immigrants and mandate further state cooperation with ICE. The bills, among other things, would require some state law enforcement agencies to carry out immigration actions and prevent immigrants from receiving state benefits if they are in the country illegally. Both passed the Senate along party lines, Kyle Ingram reports. Stein has not indicated how he will act on the bills. Today's newsletter was by Ronni Butts, Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi. Check your inbox Thursday for more #ncpol. Not a subscriber? Sign up on our website to receive Under the Dome in your inbox daily.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas school districts hopeful lawmakers will help plug $1.7 billion gap in special education funding
Texas school districts are hoping changes under consideration at the Texas Legislature will help them keep up with the rising number of Texas students in special education programs — and the costs to support them. Education advocates and school administrators say the proposals would help narrow the large funding gap between what Texas and the federal government provide schools for special education services and what public school districts have to pay themselves. That gap stands at about $1.7 billion, according to the Texas Education Agency. Under changes proposed in the Texas House and Senate, the amount of funding a school receives for special education for each student would be based on students' individual needs. That approach would be a significant departure from the current system, which directs special education funding to schools based on how much time a student spends in a particular setting. For example, two students who are placed in the same classroom but require different levels of support receive the same dollars under the current settings-based funding model. Proponents say the new system would better serve special education students with widely varying needs — a deaf student, for example, may require a different level of support than a student with attention deficit disorder or dyslexia — and provide schools more funding to pay for those services. In some states that already have a 'tier-based' funding system for special education, schools receive more money to support students who require one-on-one instruction than for children who need more periodic help. Other changes in the bills include giving partial reimbursements to schools when they initially evaluate students' special education needs, which can sometimes cost school districts thousands of dollars per student. The demand for initial special education evaluations has skyrocketed in recent years. In addition, House Bill 2 — the Texas House's priority school finance bill this session — would include an additional $615 million in special education funding for the 2025-26 school year. Senate Bill 568, a more narrow special education funding bill advancing in the Senate, does not outline similar additional funding. District leaders welcome the potential changes, which they say are much needed to provide relief to Texas schools that have been increasingly burdened with budget deficits and inflation-related cost hikes. Schools in Texas and across the country are required by law to provide special education services to students who need them. They often have to pull money away from other programs if they don't receive enough funding from the state and federal government. 'We would welcome, appreciate and encourage any additional funding provided by the state for our special education students,' said Bryan Guinn, the chief financial officer for Fort Bend Independent School District, the sixth-largest school district in the state. 'They're the students that have the greatest needs.' The number of Texas students receiving special education services has grown rapidly in the past decade. During the 2014-15 school year, 8.6% of all Texas public school students participated in these programs. Almost 10 years later, that figure has gone up to about 14%, representing close to 800,000 Texas children last school year. Much of that growth occurred after 2017, when the Texas Legislature ended an unofficial TEA policy that effectively prevented schools from providing special education services to more than 8.5% of their students. In Fort Bend ISD, just southwest of Houston, the number of students in special education programs has more than doubled since the 2014-15 school year, according to a 2023 report by the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education. Last year, more than 11,000 students in the district were enrolled in special education programs, representing almost 14% of all students and a more than 6,500-student increase from almost a decade ago. Though Fort Bend ISD receives substantial funds from the state and federal government to pay for special education services required by law, they were not enough to cover the costs. This past school year, state and federal funding covered close to three-quarters of the district's special education costs, but Fort Bend ISD was left on the hook to pay the remaining $33.6 million, Guinn said. Footing the rest of the bill has become a trend in recent years, he added. Since the 2019-20 school year, Fort Bend ISD has had to pay about $28 million each year for special education services out of its own pocket, Guinn said. Higher special education costs in recent years have come as the district has had to hire more diagnosticians, speech-language pathologists, licensed school psychology experts and other aides to support the growing number of students in these programs, Guinn said. Like many other school districts in the state, Fort Bend ISD also provides personalized special education programs. These services sometimes require multiple school employees to work with the same student at the same time, Guinn said. He believes the changes lawmakers are considering, which would base the special education funding schools receive on students' individual needs, will better help with his district's costs. In addition, Guinn was pleased with HB 2's proposal to help schools cover the costs of special education evaluations they conduct. Like in many other Texas school districts, Fort Bend ISD staff evaluate children and decide whether they require special education services. Students generally receive these evaluations, with parental or guardian consent, before districts decide whether they need special education services. HB 2 would reimburse schools $1,000 for every initial special education evaluation they conduct. Guinn said that amount might not cover the full cost of every evaluation but 'any funding is going to be helpful.' His district conducted more than 1,000 special education evaluations in the past year, he said — including follow-up evaluations that would not be covered by the House or Senate's proposals. Schools are generally required to cover the costs of these evaluations — not parents of students. The Senate proposal, SB 568, would reimburse schools $500 per initial evaluation. The proposed reimbursements also come at a time when the House's school voucher bill — which would give families taxpayer funds to subsidize their children's private education — would put more pressure on public schools to conduct special education evaluations. Federal law already requires public schools to fund and conduct evaluations for private school students under certain circumstances, but the House's voucher proposal, House Bill 3, would mandate that public schools do so within 45 days. Like in Fort Bend, Round Rock ISD Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez said high special education costs have become a heavy burden for his district. Last school year, nearly 6,100 students were receiving special education services in the district, an increase of about 25% from five years prior, according to a report from a consulting group. The cost of the special education services the district provided was $60 million, out of which Round Rock ISD had to pay about $20 million from its own pocket. The district has an 'obligation to take care of the students, regardless of the cost,' Azaiez said. The district has had to make some 'difficult decisions' — like cutting several positions in the central office in recent years and increasing class sizes — to make up for rising costs from special education and other areas, Azaiez said. 'We have been creative in a way to offset the lack of adequate funding from the state,' he said. 'But it's getting harder and harder now to kind of make ends meet.' Special education advocates have applauded the changes on the table this session. They have pushed harder for funding reforms like the ones in HB 2 and SB 568 as the number of special education students in the state has risen. Two state special education task forces in recent years have recommended the state provide different levels of funding to schools depending on individual student needs. Changes proposed in both major pieces of legislation are consistent with the main recommendations that one task force outlined in a 2022 report for revamping the special education funding formula: base funding on students' individual needs and give schools more money to cover the cost of special education evaluations and transporting special education students. Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, who was part of one of the task forces and who has filed her own bill to reform special education funding this year, said all of those recommendations made it into HB 2. She said her constituents have told her that the 'state has been suffocating schools' by not adequately funding them. HB 2 — the House's priority public school finance bill — also proposes a broader funding boost that would increase the base amount schools receive for every student by $220. Some education advocates and school leaders recently said they'll accept any new funding the state wants to provide, though others complained the proposed hike is too low and does not account for high inflation in recent years. The base amount of per-student funding that Texas schools get from the state has not been increased since 2019. It seems unlikely that the Senate will propose its own increase to that base amount, which stands at $6,160 per student. Instead, senators have proposed a targeted funding increase that would raise teacher pay. Late last month, the Senate passed Senate Bill 26, which would establish pay raises for teachers based on years of experience. But when it comes to special education, the proposed funding model would likely help close the current funding gap, according to Sabrina Gonzalez Saucedo, director of public policy and advocacy at The Arc of Texas, a disability advocacy group. 'In theory, with this new updated formula that considers all of these really important pieces, ISDs would be getting a more appropriate amount for providing the services that they're already doing and are federally required to do,' she said. Some advocates have said they worry the bills as written will put the new system in place too quickly. The changes to special education funding in both HB 2 and SB 568 would go into effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Andrea Chevalier, director of governmental relations for the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education, said making the changes too hastily could result in a difficult transition for school districts. 'Our advocacy has been, 'Please wait. Give us a year because there's going to be a lot of new data elements and data collection,'' Chevalier said. 'That would be the downside of it if the implementation piece of it is muddy, overly cumbersome or burdensome, and then it doesn't actually lead to improvements — at least not right away.' She also expressed concern that both bills delegate power to the TEA commissioner, an unelected official, to decide what the different tiers of funding based on students' needs will be. The bills' authors should consider incorporating public comment or an advisory committee into that decision-making process, Chevalier added. Other criticisms have centered on changes the bill does not include. At a Senate Committee on Education K-16 hearing Tuesday, Ryan Wheeler, executive director of special education at Channelview ISD, asked lawmakers to amend SB 568 to include reimbursements not just for initial special education evaluations but for follow-up ones. Under federal law, he said school districts like his own are required to reevaluate students in special education programs at least every three years. Also Tuesday, several individuals — including special education advocates and school officials — called on lawmakers to end a funding 'penalty' that causes schools to lose some general funds if students in special education programs spend time outside the general classroom. Misty Odenweller, president of the Conroe ISD board of trustees, said her district would be able to recoup an additional $18.5 million without the penalty. That policy, she added, 'disproportionately affects our ability to serve all students.' Still, advocates are optimistic about the proposals and hopeful they will alleviate Texas school districts' financial burdens. 'This is one of the most transformational bills this session,' Gonzalez Saucedo testified Tuesday. 'These reforms are a crucial step toward ensuring equitable and adequate funding for students with disabilities across Texas.' Disclosure: Arc of Texas has been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Transformational': Texas Senate Bill 568 would overhaul special education funding
As a Texas public school student in the 1960s, Brent Hagenbuch was the only second grader in his class who couldn't read. He said he had fallen behind and was at risk of sliding further. But then his father, a firefighter with a high school education, worked with Hagenbuch's teacher to find an expert doing early research on dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects reading and writing. The diagnosis was life-altering. After learning skills to adapt, Hagenbuch went on to graduate as his high school's valedictorian, attend the Naval Academy and Stanford University, and run a successful business. Now, a Republican state senator from Denton, Hagenbuch recounted his story Tuesday to his colleagues on the Senate Committee on Education K-16 in support of a proposal that proponents have called 'transformational' for special education funding in Texas. Senate Bill 568, by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, would overhaul the formulas Texas uses to budget for its 775,000 students with disabilities, increasing overall funding, offsetting schools' costs for initial evaluations and adding new grants and teacher incentives. The proposal is 'great,' Hagenbuch said, "because this provides help to so many more kids who need it. I think they have to catch them early, or they lose their confidence." Hagenbuch told the American-Statesman about a neighbor his age growing up who he believed had dyslexia but whose parents refused to seek a diagnosis for him. The boy didn't graduate from high school. "I think that would have been me" without treatment, he said, choking up. In the Tuesday education committee hearing, Bettencourt said his 57-page proposal would help boost the state's underfunded special education programs. 'This is a groundbreaking special education bill ... that I think will lead to stunningly better outcomes for a number of our 775,000 school children with disabilities," Bettencourt said. Based on positive outcomes in other states that fund special education this way, SB 568 would require Texas to classify student need based on an eight-tiered model, rather than on the time they spend in certain educational settings. 'This is effectively a complete overhaul, and (SB 568 has) what I think would be the best intensity model in the country,' Bettencourt told the Statesman. "We were having to face the reality that we needed to do something, because early intervention means so much with these kids." If the bill is passed, the state would send local school districts money to offset each initial disability evaluation they administer to students, an initiative Bettencourt described as crucial for early identification of disabilities. It would also double the college, career or military readiness outcomes bonus for special education programs. Committee members expressed unanimous support for the bill, a version of which sailed through the Senate in 2023 but died in the House. It is nearly certain to clear the upper chamber again this year before it heads to the House for consideration. SB 568 is the culmination of a year of work by the Texas Commission on Special Education Funding, created by the Legislature in 2021 to help the state adapt to a significant increase in new disability diagnoses like dyslexia and autism. The task force identified best practices and crafted legislative recommendations. Public education consultant and former state Rep. Dan Huberty, one of the special education funding commission's leaders, called the bill 'a legacy builder' for Bettencourt. He noted that the number of students diagnosed with disabilities has increased by 67% since the 2015-16 school year. 'This is going to be transformational for millions of children,' said Huberty, who left the House with his own legacy for leading the 2019 overhaul of state public school finance. The bill builds on momentum from 2023, when the Legislature passed House Bill 3928 to move students with dyslexia into full special education plans. During about two hours of testimony Tuesday, students, disability rights groups and teacher associations praised the legislation while requesting the committee to consider some tweaks. Several speakers asked that the bill's timeline be pushed back a year, so that it can take effect in the 2026-27 school year. 'It's important that we do this right, not rushed,' said Stephen Aleman of Disability Rights Texas. 'We put so much into this; I would hate for it to fall apart because people are scrambling under too much pressure.' Another request was that the bill allocate more money for initial evaluations, which Cy-Fair school district Superintendent Doug Killian said can reach close to $3,000 per student. The bill also aims to increase the information parents receive about residential treatment for their children. Parents and guardians are often told they must exhaust outpatient and group home options before they can apply for spots at state supported living centers, which senators said caused unnecessary waiting and difficulty in some cases. SB 568 would require schools to inform parents they can seek spots in living centers. 'It's the parents who are the best decision-makers for their child, not the local authority where they have been told that they must exhaust HCS (Home and Community-based Services) group homes first,' said Stacey Combest, who chaired the Texas Commission on Special Education Funding. While some witnesses expressed enthusiasm about the change to residential treatment pathways, others expressed concern that it could lead parents to move too quickly to put children in those facilities. Most state supported living centers 'are not just another educational setting; they are the most restrictive, segregated and costly residential option for children with disabilities,' said Sabrina Gonzalez Saucedo of the ARC of Texas, a group that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 'Prioritizing them in placement discussions without sharing information about community-based supports and services could lead to increased institutionalization and family separations, rather than supporting children in family-based settings," she added. Bettencourt appeared open to suggestions from witnesses, particularly on pushing back the timeline, but he expressed some frustration that his funding bill didn't make it into law in the 2023 legislative session. 'We're looking at some alternatives, but I'm just glad everybody's on board with general direction, because we've been underfunded and we haven't had an intensity model for a long time,' he said. "I wish this bill would have passed in 2023.' The Senate education panel also appeared interested Tuesday in advancing several other special education proposals. SB 1447 by Sens. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, and Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would allow students with disabilities to use assistive technology electronic devices or software applications that are otherwise prohibited under the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, or SCOPE Act. Another proposal, SB 57 by Zaffirini, would require public schools to make plans 'to ensure the safety of' disabled students during drills and emergencies. Eduardo Castillo, a student with dyslexia who will attend St. Mary's School of Law, expressed the hope that SB 568 will remedy what he says was a damaging lack of funding during his own education. 'While my family was blessed enough financially to be able to afford outside special education, what happens to those who weren't afforded the luxury? They simply fall through the cracks,' he said. Castillo added that nearly 48% of Texas prison inmates are estimated to have dyslexia, a statistic based on a study conducted in 2000 that examined inmates' ability to decode single words. 'You, sir, are exactly what we're trying to find in those 775,000 kids," Bettencourt told Castillo. "Just keep doing what you're doing. Make all of us proud." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Senate bill proposes to overhaul special education funding
