House approves special-ed money

By Alice Keesing and Ronna Bolante
Advertiser Staff Writers

In a move that may avert a federal court takeover, the House Finance Committee yesterday approved $70 million in emergency money for special-education services.

The heads of the Departments of Education and Health said the long-awaited approval will put off the threatened disruption of special education services, which could have led to a federal judge taking over the system.

Both departments are racing to improve services by December as ordered by U.S. District Judge David Ezra in the Felix consent decree to meet the needs of special education students. They had requested the emergency money to get the job done.

But with the committee delaying its decision, Paul LeMahieu and Bruce Anderson said, services to children and progress in the consent decree were threatened.

Anderson said his Health Department was heading for a "catastrophic situation" if the money was not provided soon. It ran out of special-education money last month and has been paying for services with money earmarked for staff pay and emergency ambulance services.

Schools chief LeMahieu said his department also was about to run out of special-education money. Anderson and LeMahieu expressed relief that the committee approved $27.9 million for the DOE and $41.9 million for DOH.

"We wanted to make sure that the Felix kids did receive the services that they rightfully should be getting," said committee chairman Dwight Takamine, D-1st (Hamakua, N. Kohala). "However, our job was to make sure that there is accountability that those services are actually being provided and being provided properly and in a cost-effective manner.

"And therefore the ongoing discussions with both departments resulted in some reduction in the amounts, and the final figures that are in the bills reflect basically input from both departments."

The bill still has to pass conference committee.