Special Ed Funds Avoid Big Cuts (CA)

September 13, 2010

While state funding has declined during the past three years and teaching positions are eliminated across the north state, special education funding hasn’t been cut as deeply.

That’s because it is against the law to reduce special education funding, said Conde Kunzman, director of Shasta County’s Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA).

“You can’t cut special education funding. In fact, when you have an IEP meeting, you can only look at what is appropriate for the child and not the dollars,” Kunzman said.

An IEP meeting is an individualized education plan meeting that includes teachers, psychologists, speech therapists and administrators who develop a teaching plan for a student.

However, expenditures on special education can go down if the cost or the need for services goes down, though, Kunzman said.

Special education services can vary from helping kids with learning disabilities, autism, mental retardation and brain injuries to physical disabilities such as vision, speech and hearing problems.

RoseAnn Adams, the Redding School District’s assistant superintendent for business services, said the amount of money the district receives for special education has been stable over the past three years, even while revenue has gone down about 18 percent.

Even though cuts have not been as deep as in general education, special education is still underfunded, Kunzman said.

Congress has been required since 1977 to provide 40 percent of the costs of special education. Instead, the federal government has been providing about 18 percent, Kunzman said.

“It has never been fully funded, ever,” Kunzman said.

In 2007-2008, the Redding School District spent $2.5 million on special education, with about $725,000 coming from the district’s

general fund. The rest of the money was federal and state funds targeted for special education student s.

This year the district plans to spend about $2.2 million, 12 percent less than it did three years ago, with $484,632 coming from the general fund.

About 22 percent will come from the district’s general fund, which means it is money that doesn’t come from the county SELPA, she said.

Over the past five years, school districts have watched their state funding dwindle. The Redding School District gets $6,093 general funding for general funding for all students from the state per student a year, but that is only about 80 percent of what it is supposed to receive, she said.

As the state cuts funding to local districts, schools are losing money through declining enrollment, Adams said. But while the general student population goes down, the percentage of students with special education needs, keeps rising, she said.

The county SELPA is expected to distribute about $15.2 million to Shasta County districts this year, a 3 percent drop compared to about $15.7 million three years ago, Kunzman said.

During that same period of time, Shasta Union High School District’s revenue fell 20 percent, from $51.6 million in 2008-09 to a projected $41.3 million this year, Superintendent Jim Cloney said

The drop in district revenue is due to decreasing revenue and declining enrollment, Cloney said.

Over the past three years, the number of special education students in Shasta County schools has fluctuated 3 to 5 percent. In 2009-10, there were about 3,850 special education students in Shasta County. In 2008-09 there were 3,957; and in 2007-08 there were 3,757 students, Kunzman said.

The SELPA receives money from the federal and state governments based on the total student enrollment in the county. District officials determine how much money each district receives, based on the number of special education students at their schools, Kunzman said.

Each district gets $576 per special education student, Kunzman said. Districts have to use money from general funds to pay for special education when the cost of providing special education exceeds what they receive in funding from the SELPA, Kunzman said.

On average, districts use about 20 percent of their general fund — money not specifically earmarked — for special education, Kunzman said.

Over the past three years, local school officials have had to find ways to stretch their money, said Wendy Longwell, a parent of a child who receives special education assistance. She is also a member of Shasta County SELPAs Community Advisory Committee.

“From a parent’s perspective, it’s getting harder to get services that used to be easy to get,” Longwell said.

Longwell said she hasn’t had problems getting what she needs for her son because she knows how to ask for what he needs.

Kristin Williams, special education director for the Enterprise Elementary School District, said her district has been training more teachers to provide services, such as occupational therapy, that the district used to hire contractors to provide.

Ryan Sutton, a special education teacher at Rother Elementary School in Redding, said he has been trained to provide occupational therapy, which the district used to pay outside companies to provide.

Occupational therapy covers such things as improving coordination and helping kids deal with stresses caused by their environment, Sutton said. He said some of his students have difficulty processing information and become overwhelmed easier.

“We’re just finding ways to get kids what they need,” Sutton said.

Williams said wasn’t sure how many special education students were in the district, but the number of students has remained fairly constant over the years.

The district also has been able to preserve special education teaching positions. There are 15 special education teachers in the district, Williams said.

Adams said the number of special education teachers in the Redding School District has risen from 16 to the equivalent of about 19 full-time positions this year.

As school districts watch their state funding decrease, they try to limit what they spend on special education, Longwell said.

“The schools are getting creative in how they offer the services,” Longwell said.

But she said she doesn’t blame local school officials because they are doing what they can to make ends meet in the face of state budget cuts.

“In the past, if it was reasonable they would do it. Now, unless they have to do it, they aren’t going to offer it, and I can’t blame them. They have to give our kids the same services with the same money,” Longwell said.

Gina Grecian of Redding, whose son is autistic, said she has not had a problem getting services for her son. But she said it’s now harder for parents to prove their children need services.

Grecian said she has had to be an advocate for her son, who attended schools in the Cascade Union Sch ool District. He now attends Anderson High School, she said.

“I’m a very, very proactive parent and not all of them are like that,” Grecian said.