At a Oct. 9 meeting of the Portland Public Schools Board of Education's Teaching, Learning and Enrollment Committee, district special-education leaders described persistent staffing shortages and funding shortfalls and outlined steps already taken to raise substitute paraeducator fill rates and standardize special-education practice.

Chief of Student Services Jay Bueno and Senior Director of Special Education Kelly Charles told the committee that special-education enrollment and complexity are rising while the state funding weight for students with disabilities is capped at 11 percent of ADM, leaving a sizable gap between what the district spends and what it receives.

The committee heard that the district’s October 1 count identified 7,614 students receiving special-education services, that roughly 17 percent of students are served in special education, and that the district spent about $160,000,000 on special-education services last year. Bueno said the district’s federal IDEA allocation was about $8,900,000 and that additional state weighted funding and Student Investment Account dollars together do not cover total expenditures.

Committee members were shown staffing and operational problems the district says are preventing consistent service delivery. Bueno said substitute paraeducator fill rates have averaged about 35 percent since 2021–22 and that “we have 40 to 60 special education paraeducator positions every day unfilled,” leaving classroom teams to reassign duties or rely on providers who then have less capacity for their primary roles. The district reported about 465 paraeducator FTE systemwide.

Families and community members who testified at the start of the meeting tied the staffing gaps to classroom disruption and to inequities. Parent Suzanne Carson told the committee that intensive‑skills classrooms are frequently understaffed and urged better pay and training for paraprofessionals: “Without good para, she says we can't even meet the basic needs of our classroom, such as feeding, toileting, and keeping kids safe,” Carson said during public comment.

District leaders described a set of responses they said are already underway. The Board voted weeks earlier to award a contract, via an RFP, to an outside agency to provide substitute paraeducator staffing; district staff said they will monitor fill rates to determine whether to continue the contract. Staff also described a new weighted caseload staffing model used to allocate teacher and paraeducator FTE in neighborhood schools, a set of work groups to standardize procedures (including change-of-placement and IEP implementation), and a centrally organized professional-learning program for special-education staff.

Bueno framed inclusion and district priorities with federal and state law: “IDEA guarantees two fundamental rights for students with disabilities,” he said, naming a free appropriate public education and services in the least‑restrictive environment. He and Charles emphasized that inclusion is a continuum — not an “all or nothing” approach — and said research supports delivering instruction primarily in general education settings with supplementary supports as appropriate.

The committee also reviewed equity data. Leaders said students of color are disproportionately represented in specialized placements; Bueno said the district monitors identification processes and evaluation practices to confirm that students identified for services meet eligibility. Board members asked whether language status and multilingual programs (including Dual Language Immersion) affect identification rates; staff said they do not have a ready districtwide breakout for DLI schools but committed to provide that data.

District officials identified several funding details: state weighted ADMw funding covers students with disabilities up to an 11 percent cap; federal IDEA funding is substantially lower than federal law originally envisioned; a state high‑cost disability reimbursement fund covers individual student program costs above a threshold (district staff said Oregon considers programs costing over about $30,000 a year for high‑cost reimbursement and that last year Portland submitted roughly $60,000,000 in claims against a $55,000,000 budget for that program). Staff characterized the result as a recurring shortfall between revenues and actual special‑education expenditures.

Looking forward, staff said they will continue family and staff listening sessions, evaluate the contractor’s substitute fill rates, rebalance staffing after the October count where needed, and proceed with the standardized procedural manual and training. The committee did not take additional binding legislative or budget votes at the meeting; several board members asked staff to return with more data on caseload distribution and DLI comparisons.

The committee chair noted the next TLE meeting is scheduled for Nov. 13 and reminded the public of upcoming Jefferson High School community engagement sessions on assignments, for which feedback will return to the committee in November and to the full board in December.