ODE tells House committee state school fund, caps and grants leave hundreds of millions unfunded for special education

The House Education Committee held an informational meeting Feb. 12 on special education funding shortfalls. Cara Williams, Director of Inclusive Services at the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), and Michael (Mike) Wilfong, administrator for school finance and facilities at ODE, told the committee that current funding formulas, caps and grant levels leave a significant portion of special education costs unfunded and borne by local districts.

ODE summarized three core components of state funding for special education: the second weight (commonly called the IEP weight and historically capped at 11 percent), the cap waiver mechanism, and the high‑cost disability grant. Wilfong said current calculations for the 2022–23 school year show roughly 79,000 identified special education weights statewide; an 11 percent cap would recognize about 59,500 weights in the state school fund, leaving roughly 19,500 weights unfunded. Under the department’s cap waiver formula the state identified about 7,000 additional weights, but the testimony characterized a remaining unfunded portion in the range of roughly 12,000 weights (numbers presented by ODE during the hearing).

ODE’s fiscal picture and estimates Wilfong described historical and formula work by a task force…