Committee reviews special-education costs, data gaps as state aid lags demand

A House Education Committee work session on special education on Oct. 12 focused on why certain special-education categories have grown while statewide enrollment has fallen, how the state reimburses districts for high-cost students and where data gaps hamper policymaking.

The discussion centered on two funding mechanisms: differentiated aid and what the department and many legislators described as the program often called "special education aid" (previously referred to in conversation as "catastrophic aid"). Committee members and Department of Education staff discussed a shrinking overall student population — roughly 210,000 in 2000 versus about 167,000 in 2023 — alongside roughly 32,000 students currently identified as eligible for special education services in New Hampshire.

The topic mattered to the committee because state aid for high-cost special-education cases has recently been prorated and fell short of district claims by millions of dollars in the current budget cycle. Committee members said the FY25 appropriation left a roughly $17 million gap and that proration levels have varied widely in past years. The department confirmed it has prorated claims historically and that the most recent proration rate is lower than in many recent years.

State special-education director Becky Fredette told the group that category shifts — for example, an increase in students coded as autistic and in the developmental-delay category — likely reflect changing diagnostic practices and earlier identification rather than a wholesale change in the number of students with disabilities.…