District Backs Neighbor’s Call for Special-Ed Funding Change

January 22, 2010

At its Jan. 11 meeting, the Glen Rock Board of Education (BOE) passed a resolution to support changes in the way New Jersey funds special education for private school students from other states.

The resolution seeks an adjustment to the legislation behind the state’s Chapter 192 and Chapter 193 programs. According to the state Department of Education, Chapter 192 programs provide non-pub lic school students with auxiliary services such as compensatory education, English as a second language and home instruction. Chapter 193 programs provide non-public school students with remedial services such as evaluation and determination of eligibility for special education and related services, supplementary instruction and speech-language services.

But school officials said the Chapter 192 and 193 programs currently only fund these services for private school students who live in New Jersey. Local public school districts are now required to pay for the cost of auxiliary and remedial services provided to out-of-state students who attend private schools within their districts.

"There is nothing in the legislation distinguishing between in-state and out-of-state residency for the purposes of special education funding," said Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Verducci.

Of the 1,513 private schools in the state, 208 are in Bergen County. Verducci noted that while Glen Rock’s only private school, Academy of Our Lady (AoOL), currently has no out-of-state special education students, the Paramus School District is home to 11 private schools attended by several out-of-state students who require special education.

"This resolution is to support Paramus," said BOE President Rona McNabola. "It is important … to show that other districts are behind them."

"These resolutions are not so much to change the law, but to raise awareness that this exists," added Paramus Superintendent of Schools Dr. James Montesano in a phone interview.

Montesano said he introduced the same resolution to the Paramus BOE in December.

"Twenty districts have passed similar resolutions so far," he said. State legislators need copies of t he resolutions from the school boards in their legislative districts to bolster their efforts to have the law changed, Montesano said.

"If we succeed in changing the legislation, we ultimately want the district from where the student resides to pick up the extra money needed to meet the needs of [that] student," Montesano said.

"In the end, all we want to do is the right thing for every child," Verducci said.