DOA:......Kretschmann, BB0149 - Early Childhood Special Education Coaches
For 2025-2027 Budget -- Not Ready For Introduction
An Act ...; relating to: the budget.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
EDUCATION
Primary and secondary education
Early childhood special education; coaches
Under current law, school boards and operators of independent charter schools must identify, locate, and evaluate children with disabilities who are in need of special education and related services and make available a free appropriate public education to those children if they are at least three years old. The process of identifying, locating, and evaluating children with disabilities who may need special education or related services is known as “Child Find.”
This bill provides $600,000 in funding for DPI to contract with cooperative educational service agencies to employ regional child care collaboration coaches to promote Child Find to child care providers and provide training, technical assistance, and consultation to, and facilitate collaboration between, child care providers, operators of independent charter schools, and school boards for the purpose of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities.
For further information see the state fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. 20.255 (1) (be) of the statutes is created to read:
20.255 (1) (be) Early childhood special education; coaches. The amounts in the schedule for regional child care collaboration coaches under s. 115.887.
****Note: This Section involves a change in an appropriation that must be reflected in the revised schedule in s. 20.005, stats.
Section 2. 115.887 of the statutes is created to read:
115.887 Early childhood special education; coaches. (1) In this section, “child find” means the process of identifying, locating, and evaluating children with disabilities who may need special education or related services.
(2) The department shall contract with cooperative educational service agencies to employ regional child care collaboration coaches to promote child find to child care providers and provide training, technical assistance, and consultation to, and facilitate collaboration between, child care providers, operators of charter schools authorized under s. 118.40 (2r) or (2x), and school boards for the purpose of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities.
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