(a) Not less than two million three hundred twenty-four thousand dollars ($2,324,000) of the federal discretionary funds appropriated to the State Department of Education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400 et seq.) in any fiscal year shall be expended for early education programs for infants with exceptional needs and their families, until the department determines, and the Legislature concurs, that the funds are no longer needed for that purpose.
(b) Programs ineligible to receive funding pursuant to Section 56425 or 56432 may receive funding pursuant to subdivision (a).
(c) This section shall become operative on July 1, 1998.