Legislators review special education funding, data gaps as H.454 moves forward

A joint legislative session examined how Vermont funds special education, the federal rules that constrain state and local budgets, and preliminary estimates of how the House-passed school funding bill H.454 would change statewide special-education dollars.

The Office of Legislative Counsel and the nonpartisan fiscal office briefed committee members on legal requirements such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and on two closely related funding concepts: “maintenance of state financial support” and “maintenance of effort.” Ezra Holden of the Fiscal Office said, “special education spending in fiscal year 2024 was about $448,000,000,” a figure that excludes most federal funds.

The discussion mattered because H.454, as passed by the House, would move special-education funding toward a census block grant and a weight-driven foundation model. Under the bill’s design the committee reviewed, special-education weights are tiered: category A (0.79), category B (1.89) and category C (2.49). Fiscal Office modeling using supervisory-union data produced a long-term weighted ADM of about 122,955 and…