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Kennett staff warn rising charter tuition and special‑education formula could increase district exposure
Summary
District staff outlined charter tuition rates, how PDE's Form 3-63 computes regular and special-education tuition, and projected a higher charter tuition expense and a budget shortfall if current enrollments and rates hold.
District staff presented an analysis of charter school tuition rates and the PDE form that determines district tuition charges for charter students.
Mr. Tracy said the district is using three tuition categories for 2025-26: regular education, special education (brick-and-mortar charter), and special-education cyber. He said last year’s legislative changes created a separate special-education cyber column and staff have begun breaking tuition by those categories for the first time.
Tracy gave the committee per-student tuition figures the district uses to estimate exposure: $19,142.35 for regular education tuition, $44,003.65 for special-education tuition and $42,001.53 for cyber special-education tuition. He said charter billing runs July 1–June 30 and that the district reconciles bills during and after the year to ensure charges match resident students being served by a charter.
Tracy noted the district’s current charter tuition exposure: staff estimated paying $3,235,940 for the current year against a budgeted $3,000,200, leaving a projected shortfall of about $35,009.40 based on current enrollments and rates. Using projected tuition increases tied to the Act 1 index and static student counts, staff estimated next-year exposure rising into the $3.3 million range and a budgetary deficit in the low six figures.
Dr. Brady explained how PDE’s Form 3-63 calculates tuition rates. She said the district places total expenditures from the approved budget on the form, then deducts federal-funded items, pupil-transportation, facility acquisition and debt service, certain grants and other allowable deductions before dividing by average daily membership to produce the regular-education rate. For special education, staff divide selected special-education expenditures by the special-education average daily membership. “That includes every expenditure that we charge to our special education budget. It includes IU services. It includes students that are out placed. It includes students that are out on settlement agreements. Salaries and benefits for our employees,” Dr. Brady said.
Dr. Brady also noted PDE applies a state average special-education cap (16%) in the cyber calculation, which reduces the cyber special-ed rate compared with brick-and-mortar special-education tuition.
Committee members asked whether the special-education tuition figure includes high-cost outplacements and one-on-one services; staff confirmed those costs are included in the district’s special-education expenditures that feed the tuition calculation and observed that many of those high-cost services would not be provided by charter schools.
Staff recommended the board monitor charter enrollments and tuition-line exposure as the budget develops and consider policy-level discussions about special-education funding and potential legislative remedies.
