LaTEACH
Join Fellow LaTEACH Members!
Do you want funding for students with disabilities to be equitable across traditional and charter school systems?
Tell Your State Senator!

April 21, 2015

 

 

Senate Bill 267 (equitable funding formula) by Senator Dan Claitor passed out of Senate Education and will be voted on by the full Louisiana Senate.

 

Act now to indicate your support for the money following students to be fair across all schools!

 

Is your answer YES to any or all of these questions below?  If so, take action now.

  • Do you want for your child's school to have the money necessary to support the services your child needs to succeed?
  • Do you want to make sure charter schools serve a fair share of students with disabilities?  
  • Do you want the school funding formula to be fair by using the same funding structure across all school systems?

The Good News!

 

SB 267 will require for the same funding formula to apply to all schools, traditional and charter (type 1, 2, 3 and 4) schools.

 

This change will reduce incentives for some schools to not serve students with disabilities.


 

What you can do:

  • Let your Senator know if you want to see Louisiana schools to receive their fair share of funds and be required to serve all students .  
  • Get friends and other advocates to join LaTEACH! www.lateach.org.
  • Stay up to date by 'liking' LaTEACH on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LaTEACH?ref=hl
Do you feel that you should have to wait for fairness?

Senator Claitor successfully prevented an attempt to delay using this equitable funding formula in the Senate Education Committee. 

There is reason to believe that another attempt will be made to delay the start date of fairness. 

 

Let your Senator know how you feel about asking children with disabilities to wait for fairness!

Louisiana State Senators

Contact your Senator to tell them how you feel about these issues.

 


 

 

 

 

PHONE

EMAIL

Senator

Robert Adley

(318) 965-1755

adleyr@legis.la.gov

Senator

John Alario Jr

(504) 340-2221

alarioj@legis.la.gov

Senator

R.L."Bret" Allain II

(337) 828-9107

allainb@legis.la.gov

Senator

Jody Amedee

(225) 644-1526

amedeej@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Conrad Appel

(504) 838-5550

appelc@legis.la.gov

Senator

Sharon Broome

(225) 359-9352

lasen15@legis.la.gov

Senator

Troy E. Brown

(985) 369-3333

brownte@legis.la.gov

Senator

Sherri Smith Buffington

(318) 687-4820

smithbuffington@legis.la.gov

Senator

Norby Chabert

(985) 858-2927

chabertn@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Dan Claitor

(225) 765-0206

claitord@legis.la.gov

Senator

Page Cortez

(337) 993-7430

cortezp@legis.la.gov

Senator

AG Crowe

(985) 643-3600

crowea@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Jack Donahue

(985) 727-7949

donahuej@legis.la.gov

Senator

Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb

(225) 342-9700

dorseyy@legis.la.gov

Senator

Dale Erdey

(225) 686-2881

erdeyd@legis.la.gov

Senator

"Rick" Gallot

(318) 251- 5019

gallotr@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Elbert Guillory

(337) 943-2457

guillorye@legis.la.gov

Senator

David Heitmeier

(504)361-6356

heitmeierd@legis.la.gov

Senator

Ronnie Johns

(337) 491-2016

johnsr@legis.la.gov

Senator

Bob Kostelka

(318) 362-3474

kostelka@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Eric LaFleur

(337) 363-5019

lafleure@legis.la.gov

Senator

Gerald Long

(318) 628-5799

longg@legis.la.gov

Senator

Daniel Martiny

(504) 834-7676

martinyd@legis.la.gov

Senator

Fred Mills

(337) 365-8484

millsf@legis.la.gov

Senator

Jean-Paul Morrel

(504) 284-4794

morrelljp@legis.la.gov

Senator

Blade Morrish

(337) 824-3979

morrishd@legis.la.gov

Senator

Edwin Murray

(504) 945-0042

murraye@legis.la.gov

Senator

Ben Nevers

(985) 732-6863

neversb@legis.la.gov

Senator

Barrow Peacock

(318) 741-7180

peacockb@legis.la.gov

Senator

Jonathan Perry

(337) 643-6425

perryj@legis.la.gov

Senator

Karen Carter Peterson

(504) 568-8346

petersonk@legis.la.gov

Senator

Neil Riser

(318) 649-0977

risern@legis.la.gov

Senator

Gary L. Smith, Jr.

(985) 764-9122

smithgl@legis.la.gov

Senator

John Smith

(337) 238-2709

smithj@legis.la.gov

Senator

Gregory Tarver

(318) 227-1499

tarverg@legis.la.gov

Senator

Francis Thompson

(318) 878-9408

thompsof@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Michael Walsworth

(318) 340-6453

walsworthm@legis.la.gov

Senator

"Rick" Ward

(225) 246-8838

wardr@legis.la.gov

 

Senator

Mack "Bodi" White, Jr

(225) 272-1324

whitem@legis.la.gov


 

Did You Take Action?
Thank you
 
Please let us know if you contacted Senators by emailing us at info@lateach.org.
Important Information

Why does the money not necessarily follow the right students?

The Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP, is the formula for how elementary and high schools get their piece of $3,500,000,000 - that is 3.5 Billion dollars.  While the formula is complex, the concept of how the formula creates inequities across schools is simple.  Relative to the amount provided for students without disabilities, each student identified with a disability in a traditional public school system brings in 2.5 times as many dollars as a child without a disability.   The amount of money taken from traditional public schools and provided to charter schools run by BESE and other school choice programs is determined by a different formula - an average amount of money which is the same amount for every student -regardless if the student has a disability or not.
 

When there is an imbalance of students with varying levels of need across traditional and certain charter schools or choice programs, whichever school has more than their share of students with needs that cost more is not receiving the funding necessary to cover the costs of the services for the students in their school.


Additional dollars are needed to provide services such as therapies (speech, occupational, Adaptive physical education, behavioral), services (e.g., nursing), devices (e.g., augmentative communication systems, medical equipment, adaptive equipment, etc.) and higher teacher ratios.  Of course, no two students with disabilities have the same amount of services, but on average, it costs much more to serve students with disabilities.  In today's world of competitive education, it seems necessary to ensure adequate resources are provided to schools based on student need and there should not be financial incentives for schools to avoid serving students with more needs.

 

Which school systems are not getting adequate funds to serve the students in their schools?


Typically, the imbalance works against the traditional public school system because it does not receive its fair share of funding; however, the funding inequity can work both ways.  A charter school wishing to serve a student with a disability may not be receiving an adequate amount of funds needed to provide services to that student.  Parents should not have to wonder whether the school received the right amount of funds to serve their student.

 

To understand the funding imbalance between traditional and charter schools click the link to watch the webinar:  Louisiana Accountability and Funding Systems:  Impact on Students with Disabilities

 

 

Any questions?
If there are any questions about the information in this alert, contact LaTEACH at:
contact pic
Email:  info@lateach.org
Phone: 1-800-450-8108
Phone: 1-800-894-6558
Website:  www.lateach.org

LaTEACH is an initiative of the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council.