PTA Takes Action: Federal Policy Update: June 2009

In This Issue

• President Obama Releases Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2010

• U.S. Supreme Court Updates

• President Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor to U.S. Supreme Court

• Funding for Green School Facilities Passes the House of Representatives

• GAO Report Finds Hundreds of Allegations of Abuse in Schools

President Obama Releases Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2010

On May 7, 2009, the Obama Administration released budget documents that fill in details of the broad $3.4 trillion outline for federal spending put forth in February of this year. Congress passed the over-arching budget limit on April 29, 2009. However, the recent budget documents set program-by-program requests for individual spending levels for the approximately 40 percent of the budget controlled by Congress. The administration's spending proposals do not carry the weight of law as they will have to survive the Congressional appropriations process.

Under the budget request, the Department of Education would receive $46.7 billion in Fiscal Year 2010, as compared to the $45.4 billion allocated during Fiscal Year 2009. However, this modest increase becomes all the more meaningful when one factors in the more than $100 billion included for education initiatives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law earlier this year.

For a more detailed explanation of funding levels in the Obama Administration's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2010, please see the following table developed by National PTA's Office of Public Policy. Though this table does not include every child-related program in the federal budget, it provides an overview of the President's budget as it relates to PTA's key policy priority areas.

Overview of Select PTA Priorities in President's FY10 Budget

U.S. Supreme Court Updates

In April, the United States Supreme Court took up the case of Safford School District v Redding, regarding a 13-year-old girl who was strip-searched at school, because she was suspected of carrying prescription-strength ibuprofen. This is the first U.S. Supreme Court case to address the issue of strip searches in schools.

In 2003, Savana Redding, an 8th-grade honors student from Arizona, was strip-searched by a pair of female school employees after another student accused Redding of possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen, a violation of the district's drug policy. The search subsequently revealed that Redding was not in possession of drugs. Redding's parents sued the school district, saying that the incident violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco affirmed this ruling in July 2008. "It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights," wrote Judge Kim McLane for the majority. "More than that, it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity."

The Safford Unified School District appealed the decision and the case went before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 21. School-district lawyers said that the schools are "on the front lines of a decades-long struggle against drug abuse among students," citing federal studies showing a rise in prescription-drug abuse among young teens. The district argued that the search was "not excessively intrusive in light of Redding's age and sex and the nature of her suspected infraction." Redding, now in college, said that school officials never asked her if she had drugs before searching her and did not take into account her academic record and lack of a disciplinary record. She did not return to school for months after the search and eventually transferred to another school.

This is the first Supreme Court case to address the issue of strip searches in schools. If the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling is affirmed, it will set an unprecedented legal limit on the authority of school officials to search for drugs or weapons on campus. A ruling in the case of Safford School District v Redding is scheduled to be issued by late June.

President Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor to U.S. Supreme Court

On May 26, President Obama nominated federal appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice and the third woman to serve on the high court. Sotomayor's nomination will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate this summer.

Funding for Green School Facilities Passes the House of Representatives

On May 14, 2009, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2187, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, by a vote of 275-155. This legislation, introduced by Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY-6), would provide $6.4 billion for Fiscal Year 2010 in federal grant funding to local education agencies (LEAs) for the modernization, renovation, or repair of public school facilities.

Fifty percent of these funds are required to go toward "green" projects in the first year, with this allocation increasing by 10 percent in each subsequent year. In order to qualify as "green" under this grant program, projects have to meet the standards of at least one of the following:

1. United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating standards (LEED Green Building Rating System);

2. Energy Star rating system of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;

3. Green building rating program developed by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS Criteria);

4. Green Building Initiative environmental design and rating system referred to as �Green Globes�; or

5. An equivalent program adopted by the state or another jurisdiction with authority over the LEA.

PTA has consistently maintained that modern, safe, and healthy education facilities will result in a better educated, more informed, and more productive population, and has supported this legislation since participating in its creation during the 110th Congress. Earlier this year, Chuck Saylors, PTA national president-elect, participated in a briefing on Capitol Hill to help explain the benefits of green building practices on the health and productivity of the student population, as well as the severe need for school modernization, renovation, and repair efforts nationwide.

While $6.4 billion is not a small amount of money for this effort, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that K-12 schools need approximately $112 billion to bring existing buildings up to meet minimum building standards. It remains unclear whether the Senate will take up the legislation this year.

Additional materials:
Estimated Allocations to States

Estimated Allocations to School Districts

GAO Report Finds Hundreds of Allegations of Abuse in Schools

A recently released government report has found hundreds of allegations that schoolchildren have been abused as a result of inappropriate uses of seclusion and restraint in classrooms. The report, compiled at the request of House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA), found these abuses to be widespread among both public and private schools over the past two decades. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified about the report's findings at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing held on May 19.

The GAO report examined 10 of these cases in detail. Four of the examined cases resulted in death. In half of the cases GAO studied, the teachers or school staff involved with the abuse continued to teach, either in the same school system or a new one. GAO also found that, more often than not, teachers and staff who used seclusion and restraint in abusive ways had not been properly trained. These practices were often being used as a routine disciplinary tactic, rather than in response to an emergency.

Seclusion is defined as the act of involuntarily confining a student in an area by him/herself. Restraint is used to restrict an individual's freedom of movement. As the GAO explained, restraint can become fatal when it blocks air to the lungs. In some of the cases examined, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps, and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children. Unlike in hospitals, other health care facilities, and most non-medical community-based facilities that receive federal funding, there are currently no federal laws that restrict the use of seclusion and restraint in public or private schools. Currently, 19 states have no laws governing the appropriate use of seclusion and restraint in schools. The Obama administration indicated it plans to meet with stakeholders to address these abuses. Read More

For more information, please contact VP of Legislation, Rita Aggarwal at raggarwal@hudson-pta.org.