State Legislation

This legislation, signed in June of 2022, establishes the Louisiana Postsecondary Inclusive Education Fund, which will finance the creation of comprehensive inclusive postsecondary education programs at all of Louisiana’s public postsecondary education institutions. The programs must be federally approved, and provide postsecondary degree, certificate, and apprenticeship programs aimed at promoting independent living and employment opportunities. Institutions can use money from the Fund to create, coordinate, and expand their inclusive programs.

This legislation, signed into law in 2022, expands the eligibility terms of the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship Program to include Kentucky students with intellectual disabilities enrolled in comprehensive transition and postsecondary programs (CTPs).

Introduced in 2022, but not passed, this legislation directs the Iowa College Student Aid Commission to create a scholarship program to support individuals with intellectual, development or learning disabilities. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and enrolled in an Iowa-based comprehensive transition and postsecondary program (CTP) approved by the U.S. Department of Education. The Iowa College Student Aid Commission will administer the program and establish evaluation criteria for scholarship applications. Iowa applicants will receive priority in scholarship awardee selection.

This legislation, passed in May 2022, created a new inclusive higher education grant program to support IPSE at state institutions. The bill creates a state fund with $450K added annually to support IHE programs at institutions across the state. Awardees are selected by an administering agency chosen competitively by the state.

Signed in November 2021, this established the North Carolina Comprehensive Transition (CTP) Postsecondary Scholarship Program. The new scholarship program covers cost of attendance for NC students with intellectual disability (ID) enrolled in current and future CTPs within the UNC system (all North Carolina public universities). Individual institutions may determine the individual size of scholarships to give students based upon need and whether they have received other scholarships that will help cover cost of attendance.

Signed September 2020, this directed the University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors to allocate funds to UNC institutions for up to 100 resident full-time students enrolled in CTPs. The funding begins with FY 2021-2022, with direction to allocate funds each year thereafter. This is the state match for in-state students, which until this bill passed were not included in the FTE calculation. If there are more than 100 resident full-time students enrolled at UNC system CTPs in any academic year, the UNC Board of Governors must allocate funds to each institution on a pro rata basis.

The South Carolina state budget includes funds to provide needs-based financial aid to students with ID enrolled in one of South Carolina’s CTPs. They are disbursed by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. The state budget also allocates lottery scholarship funds to support students with ID who have financial needs and are enrolled in a CTP. Each student may receive a scholarship, called the College Transition Program Scholarship, of up to $5,000 per academic year. In FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, $750,000 was awarded to support needs-based scholarships for students with ID.

This legislation, signed in 2021, establishes that school district payments (integrated formula payments) will be made to postsecondary transitional programs for students who are on IEPs.

The state Superintendent of Public Instruction is responsible for reviewing and approving postsecondary transitional programs, and implementing this legislation by administering the payments. 

Passed and signed into law, May 2021

The legislation establishes that any student in an approved comprehensive transition program (CTP) whose parent is a veteran with a disability (or deceased) will receive equal educational benefits to students with similar parentage who are enrolled in traditional 4-year college and university degree programs.

This bill died in Senate Committee at adjournment in October, 2021.