SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 874
91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR BENTLEY.
Pre-filed January 4, 2002, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
3580S.01I
AN ACT
To repeal section 162.700, RSMo, relating to special education, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.
Section A. Section 162.700, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 162.700, to read as follows:
162.700. 1. The board of education of each school district in this state, except school districts which are part of a special school district, and the board of education of each special school district shall provide special educational services for handicapped children three years of age or more residing in the district as required by P.L. 99-457, as codified and as may be amended. Any child, determined to be handicapped, shall be eligible for such services upon reaching his or her third birthday and state school funds shall be apportioned accordingly. This subsection shall apply to each full school year beginning on or after July 1, 1991. In the event that federal funding fails to be appropriated at the authorized level as described in 20 U.S.C. 1419(b)(2), the implementation of this subsection relating to services for handicapped children three and four years of age may be delayed until such time as funds are appropriated to meet such level. Each local school district and each special school district shall be responsible to engage in a planning process to design the service delivery system necessary to provide special education and related services for children three and four years of age with handicaps. The planning process [may] shall include public, private and private not-for-profit agencies which have provided such services for this population. The school district, or school districts, or special school district, shall be responsible for designing an efficient service delivery system which uses the present resources of the local community which may be funded by the department of elementary and secondary education or the department of mental health. School districts [may] shall coordinate with public, private and private not-for-profit agencies presently in existence. The service delivery system shall be consistent with the requirements of the department of elementary and secondary education to provide appropriate special education services in the least restrictive environment.
2. Every local school district or, if a special district is in operation, every special school district shall obtain current appropriate diagnostic reports for each handicapped child prior to assignment in a special program. These records may be obtained with parental permission from previous medical or psychological evaluation, may be provided by competent personnel of such district or special district, or may be secured by such district from competent and qualified medical, psychological or other professional personnel.
3. Where special districts have been formed to serve handicapped children under the provisions of sections 162.670 to 162.995, such children shall be educated in programs of the special district, except that component districts may provide education programs for handicapped children ages three and four inclusive in accordance with regulations and standards adopted by the state board of education.
4. For the purposes of this act, remedial reading programs are not a special education service as defined by subdivision (4) of section 162.675 but shall be funded in accordance with the provisions of section 162.975.
5. Any and all state costs required to fund special education services for three- and four-year-old children pursuant to this section shall be provided for by a specific, separate appropriation and shall not be funded by a reallocation of money appropriated for the public school foundation program.
6. A school district, or school districts, or special school district, shall assign children with disabilities ages three to four inclusive to programs based on what is in the best interest of the child. If a child reaches the age of three while receiving instruction from a program approved by the Missouri department of elementary and secondary education other than the program provided by the school district or school districts or special school district, the team preparing the child's individualized education program shall give preference to the existing placement unless it is determined by the team that the child will be better served in a program provided by the school district or school districts or special school district for the remainder of the school term.