Special education: funding: deaf and hard of hearing children.

Existing law establishes the special education early intervention preschool grant, which requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in any year moneys are appropriated for this purpose, to allocate grant funding to school districts for preschool children with exceptional needs, as provided. Existing law requires the Superintendent to make specified computations to determine the amount of grant funding for each school district. This bill would require the Superintendent to add to that calculation an unspecified dollar amount, based on the total number of children from birth to 5 years of age, inclusive, who are deaf and hard of hearing to the amount to be apportioned to each school district in order to contract with the California Schools for the Deaf or nonprofit organizations for purposes of providing specified services to children from birth to 5 years of age, inclusive, who are deaf and hard of hearing, as provided. The bill would require this funding to be allocated to settings that offer both or one of the languages of American Sign Language and English, as defined. The bill would require the funding allocated to school districts pursuant to these provisions to be used to provide specified services to children from birth to 5 years of age, inclusive, who are deaf and hard of hearing, including for strategies to improve outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing children that involve early intensive language services and related specialized services, as provided. The bill would also make related findings and declarations regarding the need for early intervention services for deaf and hard of hearing pupils.