During his 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama emphasized federally funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to the promised target -- 40 percent of each state's "excess cost" of educating children with disabilities -- but it came nowhere close to that level.

In 2011, we rated this Promise Broken, as funding hovered between 17 and 20 percent. In 2016,  $12.98 billion was appropriated for IDEA -- not much higher than the 2011 level of  $12.53 billion.

IDEA was enacted in 1975 under President Gerald Ford, as the then-Education for All Handicapped Children Act. It strove to provide 40 percent of IDEA funding, making public schools more inclusive to students with disabilities.

Thanks to the bill, 60 percent of students with disabilities spend 80 percent of their time in general education classrooms today. The bill also provided early intervention services and programs to meet individual needs. But federal funding never reached the 40 percent mark.

However, there are two bills making their way through Congress that might change that.

If passed, the IDEA Full Funding Act would reauthorize and make appropriations for the grant program. It would increase the grant money each fiscal year from 2016 to 2025, until funding reaches the maximum amount each state is allowed to receive.

The IDEA High Cost Pool Funding Act would amend IDEA to provide fund "pools" to schools for special education programs that are three times or more the average cost per student, reimbursing local schools.

But there is no guarantee either of these will pass through Congress, or if the states will receive the full 40 percent of funding promised. The promise remains Promise Broken.