Special Ed Takes Toll on Budgets

April 14, 2010

Thirty-five years ago, the federal government mandated that public school districts provide free, equal education for disabled children.

However, federal or state monies have never come close to funding 40 percent of a school’s excess educational costs, as required by the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. That lack of funding has left school districts picking up much of the tab.

Educators all over the country are scrambling to slash budgets, yet the federally mandated program continues to cost school districts millions of dollars a year.

Making up the difference

Lucia Mar Unified S chool District spends approximately $10 million annually on special education programs, with $4 million of that coming from its own general fund budget, said Mary Stark, assistant superintendent for business.

That $4 million is called “encroachment” by district business managers and it means school districts move general fund money, normally used for other programs, to pay for special education.

School districts receive basic funding for any student, whether they have special needs or not, based on average daily attendance (ADA). The federal and state governments also provide specific funding for special education.

While those sources are theoretically supposed to fund 100 percent of the program, they fall woefully short.

Federal funding has never exceeded 15 percent to any state, according to Don Dennison, director of student services with Lucia Mar, leaving school districts holding the bag.

The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District spent more than $6 million on special education last year and received just $989,000 in federal funding, according to district Superintendent for Business Diane Bennett.

“It’s not even paying one-sixth of the cost of the program,” Bennett said. “The expense of running a special education program is significantly more than the amount of money we receive from those three income sources.”

The Santa Maria high school district had more than $2.5 million of encroachment last year, according to Bennett.

Offering smaller classes, longer schooling

Special education students, which include those with even slight learning or physical disabilities who require Individual Educational Programs (IEPs), are more expensive to educate.

Because of their needs, they require more assistance, which means more teachers and assistants. That leads to smaller class sizes in a time when class sizes are growing because of budget cuts.

Special education students who have conditions ranging from visual and hearing impairments to severe physical and emotional disabilities, also are entitled to a public education until age 22.

Because the graduation rate of special education students is slightly below 60 percent, many remain in school after their traditional senior year.

“This district has the responsibility to spend what the district spends on any child in the district on any special ed child,” Dennison explained.

California spent $9.3 billion on special education in 2006-07, or about 17 percent of the total kindergarten-through-12th-grade general fund expenditures, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Thirty-four percent of that $9.3 billion was spent on class instruction, which includes teachers, aides and support services.

“It is tough to make cuts in special education,” said Maggie White, spokesperson for the Santa Maria-Bonita School District. “You have to have a certain number of aides. You have to provide transportation because these students can’t walk to school.”

Districts spending more, trimming back

Despite cuts in recent years, the Santa Maria-Bonita School District is actually spending more on special education now than it did two years ago, noted Matthew Beecher, assistant superintendent for business services.

In the 2007-08 year, the district spent just over $8.5 million on special education. That increased to $9.1 million in 2008-09 and just over $10 million, which included some federal stimulus money, this year.

White said the district currently serves just over 1,000 special education students.

Special education classes haven’t been totally insulated from budget cuts, though.

Dennison told the Lucia Mar budget advisory committee, which is looking to trim about $5 million from its 2010-11 budget, that the district’s student services staff, which includes staff for special education, accounts for 161 full time equivalent (FTE) positions.

Other districts are contemplating similar cuts or have already made them.

“Sometimes we do with a few fewer psychologists,” White said. “Our special ed classes are a little larger than they were four or five years ago. Some of those things have been done where they can be done.”

Enrollment swelling

Making cuts has become harder because the number of students in special education continues to rise.

Dennison pointed to the steadily increasing number of autistic students as a reason for higher special education costs.

In 2000, Lucia Mar had just seven autistic students. There are

81 students with some form of autism enrolled this year.

In that same 10 years, students enrolled in special education programs have swelled from 1,175 to 1,216, peaking with 1,285 in 2006.

The special education program in the Santa Maria Joint Union High S chool District serves approximately 650 students. The district has about 50 teachers and an equal number of assistants working in those classes, said Tina Christen, director of special education for the district.

Class sizes range from 15-to-1 student-to-teacher ratios to 28-to-1 in resource classes.

“If we have the students, we have the staffing. There’s no way around it,” Christen said. “We’re using whatever resources we have to create the best program we can for the kids we’ve got.”