[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2965 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2965

  To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to provide 
 certain exceptions to the maintenance of effort requirement for local 
             educational agencies, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 8, 2015

Mr. Walberg (for himself, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. Ribble, Mr. Benishek, and 
   Mr. Bishop of Michigan) introduced the following bill; which was 
        referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to provide 
 certain exceptions to the maintenance of effort requirement for local 
             educational agencies, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Building on Local District 
Flexibility in IDEA Act''.

SEC. 2. EXCEPTIONS TO THE MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT REQUIREMENT FOR LOCAL 
              EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.

    Section 613(a)(2) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education 
Act (20 U.S.C. 1413(a)(2)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking ``subparagraphs 
        (B) and (C)'' and inserting ``subparagraphs (B), (C), and 
        (E)'';
            (2) in subparagraph (B)--
                    (A) in clause (iii)(III), by striking ``or'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in clause (iv), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting a semicolon; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(v) improved efficiencies that do not 
                        result in a reduction in special education 
                        services; or
                            ``(vi) the reduction of expenditures for 
                        employment related benefits provided to special 
                        education personnel (such as pay, retirement 
                        contributions, annual and sick leave, and 
                        health and life insurance) provided that such 
                        reduction of expenditures does not result in a 
                        reduction in special education services.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(E) Waivers for exceptional or uncontrollable 
                circumstances.--The State educational agency may waive 
                the requirements of subparagraph (A)(iii) for a local 
                educational agency, for 1 fiscal year at a time, if--
                            ``(i) the State educational agency 
                        determines that the local educational agency 
                        has not reduced the level of expenditures for 
                        the education of children with disabilities for 
                        such fiscal year disproportionately to other 
                        expenditures; and
                            ``(ii)(I) the State educational agency 
                        determines that granting a waiver would be 
                        equitable due to exceptional or uncontrollable 
                        circumstances such as a natural disaster or a 
                        precipitous and unforeseen decline in the 
                        financial resources of the local educational 
                        agency; or
                            ``(II) the local educational agency 
                        provides clear and convincing evidence to the 
                        State educational agency that all children with 
                        disabilities have available to them a free 
                        appropriate public education and the State 
                        educational agency concurs with the evidence 
                        provided by the local educational agency.''.
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