By Jimmy Gunnell, IAASE President
March 2012

As I prepare to turn over the Presidency to Dr. Gineen O’Neil, I want to focus on a few of the IAASE initiatives from my term and provide an update on recent IAASE Board actions. When I was seated as President nineteen months ago, I asked Board members to recommit themselves to IAASE goals, to review and update the strategic plan, and to think of ways to reenergize regional networking. The IAASE membership responded by reviewing and adopting a new strategic plan in March of 2011, “Recommitting the Executive Board and IAASE Membership to our Six Goals and Beyond.” As a result of the revised strategic plan, the IAASE standing committees and liaisons have a renewed sense of purpose. The strategic action plan was designed to serve as a framework for improvement activities. While we are proud of the accomplishments of our membership to date, we are even more excited about our future improvement activities and anticipate better outcomes for students with diverse abilities and their families.

As executive officers, Dr. O’Neil and I have joined other regional statewide special education organizations to share state initiatives and issues, to identify common themes, and to brainstorm collective action. The regional special education entities, i.e., Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana, have committed to convene ongoing “Regional Special Education Leadership Roundtables.” The collective thought of the group is to maintain Midwest focus on national efforts to advocate for legislative changes that support students with disabilities and their families. I am confident that this new Midwest regional collaboration will only get stronger under Dr. O’Neil’s leadership.

Gineen and I, along with members of both the Finance and Legislative Committees, have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue with ISBE and various public agencies throughout the state. This ongoing dialogue has centered on the State’s special education funding formula and reimbursement process. At the time of this writing, there are thousands of bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments before the General Assembly. I would like to provide you with a “heads-up” on an ISBE special education funding proposal that could potentially impact special education and the important work that we do as administrators. As we all know, the current special education funding formula and reimbursement process is complicated and has been targeted by ISBE along with transportation as one of the priority formulas in need of “equalization.” ISBE has proposed a change in the special education funding formula, moving from the current 85% average daily attendance and 15% poverty rate to a proposed 60% average daily enrollment and 40% poverty rate coupled with some kind of severity index. ISBE’s proposed formula supports many of the tenets of the HJR 24 Task Force report written by Tom Parrish. Please know that we have asked ISBE to consider Educational Environment as a means to capture those students with the highest needs and greatest costs as it relates to their proposed severity index. As always, be sure to check the IAASE website frequently to stay informed of our position on proposed legislation and other current statewide topics.

As we turn our attention towards Spring, it is also a very busy time of year for IAASE members. A great way to stay abreast of what is happening with the task forces and workgroups is to attend our Executive Board meetings. The most recent updates and developments are routinely shared during our board meetings. At our most recent Executive Board meeting on January 25, 2012, a long discussion took place centering on the work of the Finance and Legislative Committees. As a result of the discussion, Board members took affirmative action on two items related to special education funding. The first action approved charged the Finance Committee with continuing their examination of special education funding formulas. The second motion approved reaffirmed the Board’s commitment to pursuing an equalized reimbursement rate for students placed publically or privately. The Finance and Legislative Committees are working in concert on these critical matters. Be sure to check the IAASE web-site and please attend to timely E-mail announcements for updates on our efforts and activities related to special education funding and reimbursement.

Lastly, I want to urge you to vote in the upcoming IAASE election of officers. Candidates for President-Elect are Melissa Taylor and Dr. Sheri Wernsing. Linda Rodriguez and Heath Brosseau are the candidates for IAASE Secretary. The new officers will be announced at the IAASE Executive Board meeting in Collinsville. I hope to see many of you there!

Jimmy Gunnell
jgunnell@aerosped.org