Thank you to everyone who raised their voice for our students in the 2025 Legislative Session, and to everyone who attended our Saturday Advocacy Drop In Sessions. It takes all of us working together to advocate and create change and we appreciate everyone who took time out of their weekend to be in community and to discuss strategy around legislative advocacy.

We thank both Senator Pedersen and Representative Pollet for their leadership on pushing for funding for Special Education and for our schools in general.

The cap on Special Education has been eliminated.
We are grateful for the years of work and partnership with Representative Pollet to get rid of this cap. Per Washington State’s constitution the paramount duty of the state is to amply fund access to a basic education. Special Education is how students with a disability who qualify for an IEP access education. When the cap was in effect, our state was choosing to not fund access to basic education for some students solely on the basis of their disability.

➜ Seattle Times, WA lawmakers poised to give schools a special education victory “Eliminating the cap is a massive moral and ethical victory,” [SCPTSA Co-president, Samantha] Fogg said. “It’s a tremendous victory for the civil rights of students with disabilities to finally end what can only be described as unconscionable discrimination.”

Our school districts continue to NOT be sufficiently funded.
Before the start of session, across the state, people who are involved in schools and the entities that represent and support came together, united, and said that our schools are in fiscal crisis, and asked for support on the Big Three funding issues - Special Education, Materials Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC), and Transportation - we would see districts across the state unable to pass balanced budgets and needing to go into binding conditions.  These issues were not fixed this session.

While we celebrate the elimination of the cap on Special Education, we simultaneously are frustrated that the legislature did not fully fund, or even approach fully funding Special Education.  If you look at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee report on Special Education you can see that the amount districts across our state are spending on special education is much larger than the amount of funding our state provides districts. Despite a small increase, MSOC continue to be woefully underfunded by our state. The Legislature did not address the shortages in transportation funding.

➜ Seattle Time Opinion, Lawmakers, you did not make a ‘significant investment’ in WA schools, By Joel Aune, Executive Director of the Washington Association of School Administrators

Equitable funding did not happen
A large part of the investment into our schools was done through allowing districts to ask local voters for increased amounts of levy dollars.  Here in Seattle, when we passed our recent levy, we granted authority to collect a larger dollar amount should the state increase the amount that Seattle is allowed to collect. This means that the change at the state legislative level will allow Seattle to collect an additional $25 million in levy dollars.  Across the state, however, we have seen other districts unable to pass levies, and communities not having the wealth to pass both an operations levy and a bond for things like critical improvements to their buildings. I am told that Northshore is not able to go to their voters to ask for a levy until 2027.  

This was a difficult session
Our state faced a budget shortfall, disagreement between legislators and Governor around the best way to navigate that shortfall, and has made some truly difficult cuts. Legislators are saying this is one of the hardest sessions they have had, and increased funding in our schools, as inadequate as it is, is one of very few areas to see increases rather than cuts.

• WSPTA And That’s a Wrap: Legislature Adjourns

• WASA This Week in Olympia – Sine Die Review

• Washington State Fiscal information State Budgets

• OSPI Detailed data and tools to help school districts with multi-year budget prep

• The Association of Educational Service Districts Data Dashboard on the Big 3

SCPTSA advocates under National PTA & Washington State PTA (WSPTA) to make every child’s potential a reality. WSPTSA & SCPTSA engage and empower families and communities to advocate for all children by organizing members across Washington state and Seattle through priorities selected by membership.

WSPTA Top 5 Legislative Priorities for 2025–26

1. Closing the Funding Gaps

2. Addressing the Student Mental Health Crisis

3. Addressing Funding, Inclusion, and Supports in Special Education

4. Preventing and Reducing Gun Violence and Suicide

5. Expanding School Construction Funding Options

WSPTA also supports The People’s Big 5 Legislative Priorities for Equitable Schools — a grassroots coalition echoing Professor David Knight’s “Big 5” legislative priorities for fully and equitably funding education in Washington State. SCPTSA encourages local PTA’s to vote with members to sign the pledge and share it with your school community!

SCPTSA is also informed by

• Seattle Public Schools 2025 Legislative Priorities

• The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s 2025 Legislative Budget Requests

Do you have a question?
Please reach out to president@scptsa.org, treasurer@scptsa.org, or secretary@scptsa.org and we would be happy to help!