Legislation

This bill, enacted in 2021, amends the Dual Credit Quality Act, stating that transition planning must include information regarding career and technical education opportunities, as well as postsecondary CTE opportunities. The bill also outlines how school districts within community college districts will create partnerships with one another that modify their dual-credit plan to include students with intellectual and development disabilities providing appropriate accommodations.

This legislation, enacted in 2020, appropriates $500,000 in funding for inclusive postsecondary education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in the FY 2021 Georgia state budget. This continues an annual source of funding set up in 2019, when the legislature reallocated $500,000 from the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency to the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities for the purpose of promoting inclusive postsecondary education. This specific funding has been kept at the same level consistently since then.

This bill, which expired in committee in 2020, proposed the expansion of grants for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) enrolled in approved comprehensive transition programs (CTPs) to include postsecondary institutions in states that share a geographic border with Minnesota. This means that Minnesota’s public financial assistance grants for students with IDD could be used at institutions in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Students must have an IDD and be enrolled in a comprehensive transition and postsecondary program.

Enacted in May 2019, this legislation requires the Minnesota Office of Higher Education to make available to all residents information about preparing for postsecondary education. Starting in seventh grade, students and their families must receive annual notification about postsecondary and transition planning opportunities by September 30. Information must also be supplied to out-of-school youth and their families.

This bill, introduced in 2019, but not passed, would establish a pilot program for special education students to attend college courses or vocational training programs at county college, vocational schools and local IHEs in NJ. The program would be administered by local school districts that would submit a proposal to the New Jersey Education Commissioner to set up a partnership with a nearby postsecondary institution. They would be responsible for all management and must cover students’ tuition.

Enacted in June 2016, this legislation mandates that the Governor’s Workforce Board create and expand job and career opportunities for individuals with intellectual, developmental, or other significant disabilities while producing a strategic statewide employment and training plan for the state. The law directs the Board to structure the plan over a period of two fiscal years and produce a comprehensive analysis of all workforce development activities in Rhode Island in order to identify strategies to improve statewide employment, including for individuals with IDD.

The bill was held for further study by the state house in March 2016, but it was not taken up again. This legislation would have required the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education to direct all public colleges to establish and maintain an office that assists students with disabilities with needs related to their education. The offices in question must provide support with all “academic, social, living and career-planning” aspects of postsecondary education in order to ensure that students are able to participate and succeed to the same extent as their peers.

Bill was reported from committee in March 2019, but did not pass the House. This bill would have secured $2 million to support courses for resident full-time students enrolled in comprehensive transition and postsecondary (CPT) programs in North Carolina. The legislation, which would be entitled "Catherine's Law", draws money from the North Carolina General Fund, and would support the three CTPs within the University of North Carolina system at UNC Greensboro, Western Carolina University, and Appalachian State University.

Introduced in March 2019, this bill directs the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create the Texas Students with Disabilities Scholarship Program, which would provide assistance to students with disabilities at Texas public higher education institutions. To be eligible for the proposed scholarship, students must be enrolled in an associate or baccalaureate degree or a certificate program.