{"id":449110,"date":"2025-12-15T17:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449110\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T17:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T17:40:13","slug":"san-diego-unified-launches-petition-to-demand-federal-funding-for-special-education-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449110\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Unified launches petition to demand federal funding for special education services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/back-to-school-640.jpg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/back-to-school-640.jpg\" alt=\"Children went back to the classroom in San Diego Unified School District as part of Phase One to help special needs students. The girl is returning to Lafayette Elementary School in Clairemont.\" class=\"wp-image-122868\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.777810814254768;width:657px;height:auto\"  \/><\/a>Lafayette Elementary School in Clairemont. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego Unified School District announced Monday that it has launched a petition calling on Congress to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. <\/p>\n<p>The district said that it is doing so in response to concerns from families and community members. <\/p>\n<p>The petition,\u201dDemand Congress Fully Fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,\u201d can be signed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSd6NU6fyGkJCy0bRkAdiBtOjUezMfHyDXO_z_yiUBFthOdU9A\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.\u00a0It\u00a0urges Congress to meet its long-standing obligation to fully fund IDEA. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis petition is a tool for collective action \u2014 a way for us to walk arm-in-arm into conversations with legislators backed by thousands of voices,\u201d San Diego Unified Superintendent Fabiola Bagula said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cPlease join us in this critical fight to secure the federal support promised nearly fifty years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The district said that officials were contacted by concerned parents within hours after they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DHzcaBnVfU4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shared their plan<\/a> to strengthen special education services and step up federal advocacy. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis effort is quickly growing into a powerful coalition of parents, educators, and community members united in the belief that every student deserves fully funded, high-quality special education services,\u201d Bagula said. <\/p>\n<p>The district said that when Congress passed IDEA in 1975, it committed to covering 40% of the additional cost of educating students with disabilities. <\/p>\n<p>That commitment has never been fulfilled. <\/p>\n<p>Federal IDEA funding covers only 6% of special education expenditures at SDUSD. The district spends more than $400 million each year on special education, but receives just $28 million from IDEA.<\/p>\n<p>Members of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegounified.org\/departments\/government_relations\/elected_officials\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Diego Unified\u2019s Congressional Delegation<\/a> have co-sponsored the IDEA Full Funding Act, which would establish a 10-year path toward meeting the original 40% federal funding level.  The petition calls on Congress to pass this legislation immediately.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lafayette Elementary School in Clairemont. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego) The San Diego Unified School&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":449111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,327,206514,206515,2445,3549,37947,7264,37680,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-449110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-congress","12":"tag-disability-justice","13":"tag-individuals-with-disabilities-education-act","14":"tag-petition","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-unified-school-district","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-special-education","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115724814463485642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}