News and Knowledge

The $1.3 trillion spending package signed by President Trump in March provides funding to aid people with disabilities who wander, increase special education funding, tackle restraint and inclusion, and implement other measures as well, says a March 28 Disability Scoop article.

Most notably, the article says, the legislation provides $2 million annually through 2022 to Kevin and Avonte’s Law. Named for two boys with autism who died after wandering, the law provides grants for local law enforcement and nonprofit agencies to supply electronic tracking devices to families of those at risk of wandering as well as for education, training, and notification systems to better respond to wandering.

Though the bill had bi-partisan support, concerns related to privacy halted its progress in 2016. Commenting on the passing of the law, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told Disability Scoop, “Making voluntary tracking devices available to vulnerable children with autism or adults with Alzheimer’s who are at risk of wandering will help put countless families at ease.”

Other notable budget line items for education and disability advocates include an increase of $2.3 billion for school safety programs and an increase of $299 million for special education funding from last year. That increase for special education provides a total of $13.1 billion.

Overall, $70.9 billion of the $1.3 trillion government spending package has been allocated to the Education Department budget, a $3.9 billion (or 5.5 percent) increase. In addition, there has also been an increase in the budgets for housing assistance, vocational rehabilitation, respite care, independent living, autism research, and training activities and other programs.

“Overall, we’re pleased and we’re relieved,” Annie Acosta, director of fiscal and family support policy at The Arc, told Disability Scoop, “but we have to keep in mind that we’re still making up for cuts in previous years.”