This bill (Substitute House Bill 1357) amends multiple existing Washington statutes and adds new sections to change how special education and early intervention are funded and administered. It modifies funding formulas in RCW 28A.150.390 to treat special education on an excess cost basis with new multipliers for different age and placement groups, requires the superintendent of public instruction to submit a programmed special education budget request in odd-numbered years, and allows the superintendent to reserve up to .005 of those funds for statewide special education activities. It adds new statewide duties for OSPI including annual data review for disproportionate identification, technical assistance, optional professional development in inclusionary practices, maintenance of common templates (including a statewide IEP tool), and an annual report to the legislature by December 1. The bill creates a new pilot grant program (up to 20 schools) to fund school-wide centers of excellence for inclusionary practices, with grants sized to bring a school’s special education multiplier to 1.5 over four years and restricted to qualifying special education program expenses; OSPI must report annually beginning December 1, 2026. It designates the state lead agency for IDEA Part C in RCW 43.216.580, sets eligibility and payor-of-last-resort rules for early support for infants and toddlers (birth–3), and prescribes a birth–3 funding distribution formula. It revises special education safety net procedures and criteria, including requirements that districts maximize other revenues, limits on indirect costs, adjustments for Medicaid billing and audit findings, changes to high-need eligibility thresholds, expanded quarterly award distributions in specified cases beginning 2025–26, and rulemaking, application simplification, and reporting requirements for OSPI. The bill also funds demonstration and pilot projects to reduce restraint and isolation and requires an OSPI final report on those projects by November 15, 2026. The bill further amends RCW 28A.150.560 to state that students eligible for and receiving special education generate the full basic education allocation and requires the superintendent to develop a cost-accounting method that shifts 25 percent of a district’s base allocation for those students to the district’s special education program; OSPI must report allocations to the legislature by January 1, 2024 and every odd-numbered-year January 1 thereafter. It includes timelines and expiration dates for certain sections (including a goal to prohibit isolation of prekindergarten–grade five students by July 1, 2032, reporting due December 1, 2027, some sections expiring August 1, 2027 or July 1, 2028, and a clause nullifying the act if specific funding is not provided by June 30, 2025). The text provided is incomplete in places: portions of the safety net amendment begin or end mid-sentence, the bill header lists an amendment to RCW 28A.150.560 though the chunked text is partial, the specific identity of “the department” named as the Part C lead is not stated here, “qualifying expenses” for the pilot grants are not defined, and some referenced provisions or expiration details are missing from these extracts. No new crimes or criminal penalties are created; the changes are funding, administrative, reporting, and procedural in nature.

If enacted, the bill reshapes how Washington funds and oversees special education: districts’ excess cost allocations will be calculated with new headcount rules and multipliers that vary by student age and time spent in general education, and districts will be required to shift 25 percent of their per-student base allocation into their special education programs, with OSPI required to request a special education budget every odd-numbered year and able to reserve a small portion for statewide supports. OSPI takes on new duties to review disproportionate special education identification, provide technical assistance and training resources (including a statewide IEP tool), run a competitive four-year pilot to boost inclusion in up to 20 schools, and administer Part C early intervention funding and safety net awards under stricter rules that require districts to maximize federal and other revenue and face standardized application and reporting timelines; districts may see both new funding opportunities and new reporting, billing (Medicaid), and accounting obligations, while small and second-class districts gain options for quarterly safety net payments for certain awards. The proposal also adds timelines and reporting requirements (regular legislative budget requests, December and January reports, and a December 1, 2027 plan to eliminate isolation for pre-K–5 students by 2032) and makes several provisions contingent on appropriations; if the omnibus budget does not fund the act by June 30, 2025 the act is void. Important implementation details are missing from the extracted text—such as who exactly is named as “the department,” what counts as qualifying pilot expenses, and parts of the safety net amendment that are cut off—so districts and providers will likely face uncertainty until those specifics and appropriation amounts are finalized.