The House and Senate Appropriations Committees both approved their spending bills for the 2019 fiscal year (FY19), each included spending increases for two Federal education funding sources that will benefit school based occupational therapy practitioners.
The first is an increase to the funding for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant (Title IV-A grant under the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA).The Senate increased the FY19 funding level from $500 million in FY18, to $1.25 billion in FY19. The House increased the funding levels from $450 million in FY18 to $1.2 billion in FY19. This increase provides occupational therapy practitioners with a great opportunity; one of the grant’s primary goals is to support safe and healthy students through a number of services, including greater mental health support and positive behavioral interventions and support. As a key member in the Title IV-A coalition, AOTA worked to obtain this increased funding.
The second source of education funding that saw an increase in the FY19 appropriation bills is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Senate proposed an increase from $13 billion in FY18 to $13.5 billion in FY19, while the House proposed an increase from $13.2 billion in FY18 to $13.5 billion in FY19.
AOTA is working to support school based occupational therapy practitioners in every way possible. Have education funding issues affected you and your students? Tell us your story!
UPDATE: The full Senate has passed the FY19 bill, and no cuts to any of the programs listed above were included. We now await House action, followed by a conference committee made up of members of both the House and Senate to work out the differences between the two bills to make one bill that both chambers can then pass. Both chambers of Congress must pass identical bills (down to the punctuation) before it can go to the President to be signed or vetoed. There is a chance that this all could occur before the September 30th deadline when government funding runs out.
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