State Supreme Court to Consider Special Education Lawsuit (WA)

June 22, 2010

Does the state of Washington provide school districts enough money to educate kids with special needs? That’s the question before the state Supreme Court Tuesday (June 22nd) afternoon.

Washington’s constitution says the state has a paramount duty to educate all kids. That includes special needs children. But most school districts say the state is underfunding special education, violating its constitution. Instead, districts spend money raised through local levies to pay the cost.

Jake Kupor is the chief financial officer for the Issaquah School District. Kupor says Issaquah spends between $2 million and $3 million each year from its levy funds to fulfill its state-required mandate. "Some of those costs are for extraordinarily high needs students that have one-on-one full-time help. Those students can run close to $200,000 a year alone," Kupor says. He adds levy funds raised locally by any district are for ‘enrichment’ purposes only, not for basic education costs.

Issaquah is part of a coalition of districts suing the state, a case has dragged on for six years. So far, lower courts have sided with the state, ruling they have no basis for micromanaging how the legislature goes about funding education. But an attorney for the dist ricts says the buck does stop at the state’s highest legal level.

"That paramount duty clause is only capable of being fully interpreted and being enforced by the state Supreme Court," says Seattle attorney Grace Yuan.

Attorney Grace Yuan says the fact districts, like Issaquah, have to use local levy dollars to pay their special education bills is proof the state is shortchanging them. In the past three years, the legislature has increased special ed funding by about $130 million dollars. Yuan says school districts need that much more each year to fully fund special education needs.