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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) appropriates significant new funding for programs under Parts B and C of IDEA. Part B of the IDEA provides funds to state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) to help them ensure that children with disabilities, including children aged three through five, have access to a free appropriate public education to meet each child's unique needs and prepare him or her for further education, employment, and independent living.

Third, there's more great ideas about what works around the country than ever before. What I've said repeatedly is I don't have to come up with any great ideas. My job is to listen, to learn. And that in every inner-city community around the country and many, many rural communities, there are extraordinary schools, great educators who are beating the odds every day. My job is to listen to them, to invest in them, to take to scale what works. And there's been this blossoming of entrepreneurial ideas and energy around education over the past 10 to 15 years. And we know what is possible: Regardless of socioeconomic challenges, regardless of family background, when children have a chance to get a great education, they do very, very well.

This article about San Diego Unified School District paints an honest picture of the classic struggle that many school districts and counties will face in trying to get together an Economic Stimulus action plan so quickly that favors school reform ideas put forth by Arne Duncan. Union negotiations, feedback from teachers, parents and community will all stall the process.

Part B of the IDEA provides funds to state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) to help them ensure that children with disabilities, including children aged three through five, have access to a free appropriate public education to meet each child's unique needs and prepare him or her for further education, employment, and independent living. Part C of the IDEA provides funds to each state lead agency designated by the Governor to implement statewide systems of coordinated, comprehensive, multidisciplinary interagency programs and make early intervention services available to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.

ARRA provides $12.2 billion in funds under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) under Part B and Part C. Part B consists of $11.3 billion allocated for Section 611 (ages 3-21) and $400 million for Section 619 (ages 3-5 only).1 $500 million is provided for Part C (infants and toddlers). In addition to IDEA funding, it's possible that other ARRA line items, including but not limited to Title I and Head Start funding, might also be dedicated to special education and educational reforms. State Fiscal \nStabilization Funds can also be used by states for these purposes, but there is no requirement that they do so/

Montana Dept of Public Instruction's plan for management of IDEA Funds secured under ARRA. Includes discussion of maintenance of effort.

Suggestions for use of special education ARRA funds are:\n\n1. Teacher salaries and salaries for other trained educators. Possible use could also be trained para professionals that will help a child benefit from an inclusive placement.\n\n2. Scientifically research based curriculums in the areas of reading and math, which are required by No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Many school districts are continuing to use outdated curriculums that are not proven to help children learn reading and math. Once a school district purchases the curriculum and trains their teachers the benefits will continue for years to come.\n\n3. Obtain state of the art assistive technology devices and also provide training in their use to enhance access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities.\n\n4. Provide intensive district wide professional training for regular and special education teachers, that focuses on research based curriculums and strategies in the areas of reading, math, writing, and science.\n\n5. Provide intensive district wide professional development in the area of positive behavioral supports and plans to improve outcomes for children with disabilities. Many children with disabilities are continuing to be suspended and expelled for behavior that is part of their disability; though this is not allowed under IDEA. School wide use of positive behavioral supports and plans will benefit all children not just those with disabilities.\n\n6. Hire transition coordinators to work with employers in the community to develop job placements and training for youths with disabilities. This will ensure that children graduating will have a job and a future!\n\n

14-page document that describes authorized uses of IDEA PartB funding from ARRA.

ARRA provides $12.2 billion in funds under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) under Part B and Part C. Part B consists of $11.3 billion allocated for Section 611 (ages 3-21) and $400 million for Section 619 (ages 3-5 only).1 $500 million is provided for Part C (infants and toddlers). In addition to IDEA funding, it's possible that other ARRA line items, including but not limited to Title I and Head Start funding, might also be dedicated to special education and educational reforms. State Fiscal Stabilization Funds can also be used by states for these purposes, but there is no requirement that they do so.

This is an analysis of economic stimulus funding for education, provided by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA). Federal stimulus dollars have begun flowing to the state. But LEAs are still a few weeks away from getting them in their hands. LEAs will begin receiving these funds in May. There are three primary one-time funding sources in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): Title I, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF).

May 4 09: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today released California Department of Education (CDE) calculations of the amount of Title I funds that local educational agencies (LEAs) in California will receive, as well as the amount of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B funds that Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs) will receive under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Schools are starting to get their first checks from the initial round of federal stimulus funding. What tripwires have they faced so far in securing and sustainably spending the money as the U.S. Department of Education suggests? How have school districts responded to the surge of funding for Title I, professional development, and IDEA? As educators prepare for the next wave of funding, what lessons can they draw from the past three months?

The document, released on April 24, 2009, is intended to spark ideas about how schools and districts might use Recovery Act funds, particularly under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Title I, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act Part B.

Find your state's recently released allocations for ESEA Title I Grants to LEAs, IDEA Parts B and C, Rehabilitation Act State Grants, Independent Living State Grants, and Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind, as well as your school district's allocations for Title I, Part A, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

This is a fabulous Stimulus Package Reporting idea - something that I've been thinking about too. It could work for every sector. Social media tools could play a huge role in organizing projects, monitoring progress and keeping everything transparent. I love all the concepts in this web site. Excellent work! Training would be needed however, because project leads are not necessarily the kind of people who normally use these tools.

The Department of Education received significant new funding that can benefit public charter schools. Over $100 billion in direct spending primarily is designated through already existing programs (e.g., Title I, IDEA) and the newly authorized State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The State Fiscal Stabilization Fund became the primary new education program in the bill, and absorbed the funding for modernizing public schools that had been included in earlier versions of the bill.

Well before the idea of using data to manage schools gained prominence on the national stage, Oklahoma's Western Heights school district had made the ideal of real-time, data-driven decisionmaking a reality. Back in 2001, Superintendent Joe Kitchens was already being spotlighted for his focus on creating a longitudinal-data system that would give teachers in the 3,400-student district the ability to make quick decisions to improve student learning, while reducing the time spent compiling reports.

Detailed Description of Appropriate and Inappropriate use of SFSF Funds. INAPPROPRIATE USES INCLUDE: * Payment of maintenance costs;\n * Stadiums or other facilities primarily used for athletic events or other events which charge for admission;\n * Purchase or upgrade of vehicles;\n * Improvement of stand-alone facilities whose purpose is not to educate students such as central office administration or operations or logistical support facilities; or\n * Financial assistance to students to attend private schools, unless the funds are used to provide special education and related services as authorized by IDEA.

Concrete ideas from the Center for American Progress for strategic spending in three key areas-taking stock of current practices, focusing on support for quality instruction, and making transitional investments-in order to give some guidance to those districts seeking to balance the act's short-term focus on preserving jobs with its long-term goals of promoting student achievement.

Schools are advised not to build it into budgets just yet. School superintendents across California looked to the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund portion of ARRA to backfill cuts to state programs in education and social services. As California's economy continues to sour, there is a great deal of uncertainty as to whether the stimulus dollars will ever make it out of Sacramento-so much so that a group of congressional representatives from California wrote a letter on March 17, 2009, to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to pass the federal dollars on to local schools to save teaching jobs, as Congress intende