Legal Update for Special Education Law – Updates from the Pennsylvania Department of Education

Governor Josh Shapiro recently announced that the proposed 2024-2025 budget for the Pennsylvania Department of Education includes a $1,436,815,000 special education appropriation. 

This represents a $50,000,000 (3.61%) increase over the prior appropriation. See “Education Budget,” PA. Dep’t of Ed., https://www.education.pa.gov/Teachers%20-%20Administrators/School%20Fin…. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Education announced on August 30, 2023, that students are now entitled to the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) until their 22nd birthday.

See Change in Age of Eligibility for Free and Appropriate Public Education, Pa. Dep’t of Ed., Aug. 30, 2023, https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Special%20Education/IDEIA-I…. Previously, the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) only guaranteed the provision of FAPE until the end of the school term in which the student reached their 21st birthday, based on the statutory language that states must make FAPE available to “all children with disabilities residing in the state between the ages of 3 and 21, inclusive.” 

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