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Farmington presents special‑services budget increases, seeks in‑district programs to curb out‑of‑district costs
Summary
The district outlined a preliminary special‑services budget that requests 2.9 FTE additions, shifts existing positions and emphasizes in‑district programs to reduce expensive out‑of‑district placements and transportation costs.
Farmington School District staff presented a preliminary special‑services budget on Jan. 27 that would add staff and reallocate existing positions to meet rising special‑education needs and to reduce costly out‑of‑district placements.
Wendy, the district’s special‑services director, told the board that the district seeks to add staff to stabilize in‑district programming and serve students through age 22 where appropriate. Proposed changes include a 1.0 occupational therapist to replace contracted services, an additional specialized learning center (SLC) teacher for West District and a small number of paraprofessional adjustments tied to grant changes.
Wendy said the district currently supports about 93 students in specialized programs and 37 students in social‑emotional‑learning classes; combined those account for roughly 25% of students with special needs. She said the prevalence of complex needs — autism and speech‑language referrals, medical impairments and behavioral health requirements — has grown even as overall regular enrollment has been stable.
"If you provide students up front with all of the services that they need and you're rich and robust with their programming, the cost will take care of themselves," Wendy said, describing in‑district programming as a cost‑control strategy and citing the STEP program as an example that has returned students from out‑of‑district placements.
The proposed staffing changes on the budget document total 2.9 full‑time equivalent positions: 1.6 FTE tied to academic and equitable opportunity needs (including an additional 6th‑grade teacher) and 1.3 FTE for special‑services priorities. The board asked clarifying questions about the color coding in the staffing tables and was told that blue items represent positions shifted to non‑operating/Excel funding, green items are reallocations of existing budget lines and red indicates new positions.
Superintendent Cathy and board members pressed for clearer and more equitable state reimbursement. Several board members said Farmington has seen its excess‑cost reimbursement fall to 59% and urged legislators in attendance to pursue full funding for excess cost. "We should receive 100% — all towns in Connecticut were promised 100% — and we were typically receiving 70, 75%," Cathy said, adding that recent changes reduced reimbursement to the current 59%.
Other budget pressures Wendy identified include rising out‑placement and related transportation costs, increased need for consultative services, and the district’s expanding preschool and transition services. She said the district is examining funding shifts — for example, moving some care‑team costs to Excel revenue and using grant funds where available — to minimize the operating budget impact.
Board members asked for additional detail and a glossary of program acronyms ahead of a Saturday budget workshop. The district said the staffing and program proposals are preliminary; the board will review them again as staff provide refined fiscal estimates and potential offsets.
