Funding Lawsuit
May 2008 On May 6, the alliance of school districts
argued its appeal in front of the Washington State Court of Appeals. Underfunding of special education is a real and continuing problem for districts throughout the state. Despite recent increases in funding provided by the Legislature with support from the governor, the shortfall in funding of special education programs continues to grow. In March 2007, a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled that the state cap on the number of funded special education students is unconstitutional. But the judge did not go further in his ruling on the special education funding issue. The Appeals Court is expected to make a ruling by late fall.
Coalition appeals: May 2007 The twelve-district coalition filed an appeal against Judge McPhee's ruling on May 9. The coalition will now spend the next several months–through November–resubmitting documents and paperwork to support its contention that the state's special education funding system is unconstitutional. Afterward, the alliance will ask that the case go for direct review to the state Supreme Court; if the Supreme Court accepts the appeal, it will likely be on its spring 2008 calendar.
Initial ruling: March 2007 After several months of deliberating, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee issued his decision on March 1. He ruled that the cap on the number of special education students the state pays for is unconstitutional. However, Judge McPhee did not find the funding formula to be unconstitutional. Now it is up to state legislators to implement a fix.
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Court date delayed: summer 2006 The Thurston County Superior Court has delayed the funding lawsuit's trial date pending reports from the
Washington Learns Steering Committee, a legislatively-created group that is studying education finance. The funding lawsuit is currently set to go to trial on Oct. 30, 2006.
Background On September 30, 2004 twelve school districts joined together as an alliance to file a lawsuit against the state for failing to adequately fund special education programs. The suit comes after extensive discussions with the Washington State Legislature to resolve the problem. The problem has not been resolved. It continues to grow.
The courts have ruled that Washington State is obligated to fully fund basic education and that special education falls within that obligation. However, the gap between what the state is providing and what it should be providing for special education is almost $200 million per year. The gap is growing every year.
Just in Issaquah, the state under-funds special education by about $2.5 million annually. This affects every student. Because Issaquah uses local levy dollars to make up the difference, those dollars are not available to supplement other classroom programs.
About the School Districts’ Alliance
The members of the Alliance are Bellingham, Bethel, Burlington-Edison, Everett, Federal Way, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Puyallup, Riverside and Spokane School Districts.
More than 70 school districts have joined the Friend of the Court Brief filed by the Tacoma School District in support of the Alliance. These school districts are located across the state. They include Vancouver and Seattle school districts as well as Moses Lake and Yakima school districts. All together the Alliance and Amicus School Districts serve more than 62 percent of the students in this state receiving special education services.
