RESOLUTION ON S. 2294, EDUCATION FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers has always supported quality education and related services for all children; and

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers has particularly supported full educational opportunity for children with special needs, such as those who are economically disadvantaged or physically or mental­ly handicapped; and

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers has supported, and does now support, the general objectives of P.L. 94-142, the Education of the Handicapped Act, which calls for a free, appropriate, public education for all handicapped children; and

WHEREAS, this law has never been adequately funded by the federal government, and the resulting burden has been felt in other areas of education; and

WHEREAS, the federal government currently pays only nine percent of the "excess costs" of educating han­dicapped children, which is far less than its original commitment to pay 40 percent of "excess costs" by 1980; and

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers has consistently worked to increase federal funding of P.L. 94-142; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Senate recently passed the Education of the Handicapped Amendments of 1986, S-2294, which extends the federal mandate for a free, appropriate, public education to handicapped children three to five years of age and also creates a program of grants to states for early intervention services for handicapped children from birth through two years of age:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers endorses the intent of S-2294 to provide early childhood education and services to handicapped children. Services at an earlier age are often more effective in helping children with special needs. The American Federation of Teachers endorses lowering the age at which services are required on the condition that their right be made an "entitlement" under federal law whereby the federal government will assume its fair share of the costs for providing federally mandated services to children five years of age and younger; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT communicate to the Congress our union's opposition to establishing a new federal mandate that must be fulfilled by adhering to the prescriptive and expensive program for educating handicapped children found in P.L. 94-142 without mandating the federal aid necessary to carry out the law. (Executive Council)