“Sequestration” is the term used to describe the automatic spending reduction that must be made due to the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (aka “Super Committee”) to produce a bill identifying budgetary savings of at least $1.2 trillion in the federal budget.

 These are mandatory, across-the-board cuts with few exempted programs and take effect January 2, 2013. These automatic budget cuts will be applied to most programs, including all discretionary education programs, except Federal Pell Grants.

For FY 2013, “sequestration” will result in cuts to IDEA federal funding to states in the amount of $1,053,600,000 to support special education for students with disabilities ages 6-21 and $33,910,000 to support preschool programs for students with disabilities ages 3-5. These reductions, as estimated by the  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, represent a cut of 9.1 percent.  

To find out what “sequestration” will mean to your state, click on the map below and learn the reduction to the school-age and preschool programs, the number of students being served by each program, and the cut per student.