(a) Federal funds available through Part B of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400 et seq.) and appropriated through the annual Budget Act shall only be used as follows:
(1) For the excess costs of providing special education and related services to individuals with exceptional needs.
(2) To supplement state, local, and other federal funds and not to supplant those funds.
(b) Except as provided in subdivisions (c) and (d), the funds shall not be used to reduce the level of expenditures for the education of individuals with exceptional needs made by the local educational agency from local funds below the level of those expenditures for the preceding fiscal year.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), a local educational agency may reduce the level of expenditures from local funds where the reduction is attributable to the following:
(1) The voluntary departure, by retirement or otherwise, or departure for just cause, of special education personnel.
(2) A decrease in the enrollment of individuals with exceptional needs.
(3) The termination of the obligation of the local educational agency, consistent with this part, to provide a program of special education to an individual or individuals with exceptional needs that is an exceptionally costly program, as determined by the Superintendent, because any of the following is applicable:
(A) The child has left the jurisdiction of the local educational agency.
(B) The child has reached the age at which the obligation of the local educational agency to provide a free appropriate public education to the child has terminated.
(C) The child no longer needs the program of special education.
(4) The termination of costly expenditures for long-term purchases, such as the acquisition of equipment or the construction of facilities.
(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) and subdivision (b), for any fiscal year in which the allocation received by a local educational agency under Section 1411(f) of Title 20 of the United States Code exceeds the amount the local educational agency received for the previous fiscal year, the local educational agency may reduce the level of expenditures otherwise required by Section 1413(a)(2)(A)(iii) of Title 20 of the United States Code by not more than 50 percent of the amount of the excess. If a local educational agency exercises the authority under this subdivision, the local educational agency shall use an amount of local funds equal to the reduction in expenditures under this subdivision to carry out activities authorized under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.).
(e) Notwithstanding subdivision (d), if the Superintendent determines that a local educational agency is unable to establish and maintain programs of free appropriate public education that meet the requirements of Section 1413(a) of Title 20 of the United States Code, or if the Superintendent has taken action against the local educational agency under Section 1416 of Title 20 of the United States Code, the Superintendent shall prohibit the local educational agency from reducing the level of expenditures under subdivision (d) for that fiscal year.
(f) The amount of funds expended by a local educational agency under Section 1413(f) of Title 20 of the United States Code for early intervening services shall count toward the maximum amount of expenditures the local educational agency may reduce under subdivision (d).
(g) Notwithstanding Section 1413(a)(2)(A) of Title 20 of the United States Code or any other provision of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400 et seq.), a local educational agency may use federal special education funds for any fiscal year to carry out a schoolwide program under Section 1114 of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.), except that the amount so used in any such program shall not exceed the number of individuals with exceptional needs participating in the schoolwide program, multiplied by the amount received by the local educational agency under this article for that fiscal year, and divided by the number of individuals with exceptional needs in the jurisdiction of that local educational agency.
(h) (1) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) to (g), inclusive, a local educational agency may also use federal special education funds for other purposes specified in Section 1413(a) of Title 20 of the United States Code.
(2) In accordance with Section 300.208(b) of Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations, a local educational agency may use federal funds received under this article to purchase appropriate technology for recordkeeping, data collection, and related case management activities of teachers and related services personnel providing services described in the individualized education program of individuals with exceptional needs, that is needed for the implementation of those case management activities.
(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 454, Sec. 35. Effective October 10, 2007.)