Washington Initiative 1003, Changes to Special Education Funding Measure (2019)

Washington Initiative 1003, Changes to Special Education Funding Measure
Election date November 5, 2019
Topic Education
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Washington measuresWashington Initiative 976Washington Washington Referendum 88Washington Senate Joint Resolution 8200Washington Advisory Vote 20Washington Advisory Vote 21Washington Advisory Vote 22Washington Advisory Vote 23Washington Advisory Vote 24Washington Advisory Vote 25Washington Advisory Vote 26Washington Advisory Vote 27Washington Advisory Vote 28Washington Advisory Vote 29Washington Advisory Vote 30Washington Advisory Vote 31Submit

Washington Initiative 1003, the Changes to Special Education Funding Measure, was not on the ballot in Washington as an Initiative to the Legislature, a type of indirect initiated state statute, on November 5, 2019.

Initiative 1003 would have changed special education funding requirements.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the initiative is as follows. Underlined text would have been added and struck-through text would have been deleted:

Sec. 1. RCW 28A.150.390 and 2018 c 266 s 102 are each amended to read as follows: (1) The superintendent of public instruction shall submit to each regular session of the legislature during an odd-numbered year a programmed budget request for special education programs for students with disabilities. Funding for programs operated by local school districts shall be on an excess cost basis from appropriations provided by the legislature for special education programs for students with disabilities and shall take account of state funds accruing through RCW 28A.150.260 (4)(a), (5), (6), and (8) and 28A.150.415. (2) The excess cost allocation to school districts shall be based on the following: (a) A district's annual average headcount enrollment of students ages birth through four and those five-year-olds not yet enrolled in kindergarten who are eligible for and enrolled in special education, multiplied by the district's base allocation per full-time equivalent student, multiplied by 1.15; and (b) A district's annual average full-time equivalent basic education enrollment, multiplied by the district's funded enrollment percent resident special education headcount enrollment, excluding students ages birth through four years old and those five-year-olds not yet enrolled in kindergarten, multiplied by the district's base allocation per full-time equivalent student, multiplied by 0.9609 1.00. (3) As used in this section: (a), "base allocation" means the total state allocation to all schools in the district generated by the distribution formula under RCW 28A.150.260 (4)(a), (5), (6), and (8) and 28A.150.415, to be divided by the district's full-time equivalent enrollment. (b) "Basic education enrollment" means enrollment of resident students including nonresident students enrolled under RCW 28A.225.225 and students from nonhigh districts enrolled under RCW 28A.225.210 and excluding students residing in another district enrolled as part of an interdistrict cooperative program under RCW 28A.225.250. (c) "Enrollment percent" means the district's resident special education annual average enrollment, excluding students ages birth through four and those five-year-olds not yet enrolled in kindergarten, as a percent of the district's annual average fulltime equivalent basic education enrollment. (d) "Funded enrollment percent" means the lesser of the district's actual enrollment percent or thirteen and five-tenths percent. Sec. 2. This act shall apply to the 2019-2020 school year and to all subsequent school years. Sec. 3. The provisions of this act are to be liberally construed to effectuate the policies, purposes, and intent of this act. Sec. 4. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected. Sec. 5. This act is known and may be cited as the Fair and Equal Special Education Funding Act.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Washington

The state process

In Washington, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirectly initiated state statute—called an Initiative to the Legislature in Washington—for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for the office of governor at the last regular gubernatorial election. Initial filings for indirect initiatives cannot be made more than 10 months before the regular session at which their proposal would be presented to lawmakers. Signatures must be submitted at least 10 days prior to the beginning of the legislative session in the year of the targeted election.

The requirements to get an Initiative to the Legislature certified for the 2019 ballot:

• Signatures: 259,622 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was January 4, 2019.

The secretary of state verifies the signatures using a random sample method. If the sample indicates that the measure has sufficient signatures, the measure is certified to appear before the legislature. If the legislature does not approve the measure, it is certified to appear on the ballot. However, if the sample indicates that the measure has insufficient signatures, every signature is checked. Under Washington law, a random sample result may not invalidate a petition.

Details about this initiative

• Richard Pope submitted this initiative on September 19, 2018.
• The Washington secretary of state's office confirmed to Ballotpedia on January 4, 2019, that sponsors of the measure did not submit signatures.

See also

2019 measures

• 2019 ballot measures
• Education on the ballot
• 2019 petition deadlines

Washington

• Washington ballot measures
• Washington initiative laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls
• Ballot measure signature costs

External links

• #1003 Full Text