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Royal Oak Schools urges Congress to fully fund IDEA, board votes to send resolution to legislators
Summary
The Royal Oak Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution calling on Congress to follow through on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding commitment and for the state to increase K–12 funding. The board voted to send copies of the resolution to legislators.
Royal Oak Schools Board of Education on Feb. 13 approved a resolution calling on Congress to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and asking the state legislature to provide adequate, equitable and sustainable funding increases for K–12 schools.
Superintendent Susan Fitzpatrick introduced the resolution, reciting the law’s funding history and saying, “the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, was passed in 1975, the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average per pupil expenditure for special education… and whereas the financial pledge for IDEA has never been met and it is currently funded at approximately 10.7%.” She recommended the board vote to support full funding and to urge state action to mitigate long-standing underfunding.
Trustee Wiecky made the motion to adopt the resolution; Trustee Cook seconded it. The board approved the motion by voice vote with no recorded roll-call tally. Trustee Anderson asked whether the district would send copies to legislators; the superintendent confirmed they would.
Why it matters: The board framed the resolution as a formal local appeal to federal and state policymakers, citing the persistent gap between the IDEA funding commitment and actual federal payments and the district’s need to reallocate local resources to meet special-education obligations.
What the board did not specify: The motion does not change district spending, nor does it create new local programmatic commitments; it is a policy resolution to be transmitted to legislators.
