Jennifer Samuels knows well the challenges ? and joys ? of raising her 11-year-old daughter, who has a brain abnormality.
“It?s exhausting as a parent to … also have to fight for the services she needs and deserves,” the Crofton mother said.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., met Wednesday with Samuels and other parents of students with disabilities, as well as school system officials and teachers, at the Central Special School in Edgewater.
Frustrated with the $10 billion funding shortage for the Individuals with Disabilities Act in President Bush?s fiscal 2009 budget request, Mikulski said she hoped a bipartisan effort in Congress would add $3 billion a year for three years to fully fund it at $21.5 billion a year.
Funding for IDEA is crucial because the Base Realignment and Closure process at Fort Meade is expected to bring a dramatic increase in residents, she said.
The federal law requires federal funds be allotted to help students with disabilities receive a public education.
“I?ve been dumbfounded that it has not been funded,” said Samuels, the wife of a commanding officer of a squadron at Andrews Air Force Base.
“To me, it?s like the federal government doesn?t think my child?s important.”
Anne Arundel public schools are spending $101 million a year educating and providing services for about 8,500 students with disabilities, said Mary Tillar, the school system?s director of special education.
This accounts for about 10 percent of the school system?s budget.
Of this amount, only about $15 million is federally funded, she said.
If IDEA were fully funded, the school system would receive $40 million in federal assistance, Mikulski said.
