Committee weighs lowering catastrophic special-education threshold, cites lack of data and proration risk

The Education Funding Committee spent the morning debating several bills that would change how the state shares the cost of high‑cost special‑education students and how the state budget would cover those claims.

The committee heard that the Department of Education lacks the student‑level information needed to forecast how many more students would become eligible for state reimbursement if the catastrophic threshold were lowered from 3.5 times the estimated average cost per pupil to 3.0 or 2.5. Lawmakers discussed options to hedge the state’s exposure, including changing the state’s percentage share and creating an Education Trust Fund warrant to avoid proration.

Why it matters: lowering the threshold for catastrophic aid would shift more of high special‑education costs to the state but could substantially increase the state’s liability and require more budgetary appropriations or changes to the funding mechanism. Committee members repeatedly warned that, without better data or transitional budget language, local districts or the state budget could face unpredictable costs and proration.

Mark Minganiello, identified as “of Bureau of School Finance” at the Department of Education, told the panel that the department only collects detailed claims data for students whose special‑education costs exceed the statutory reimbursement filing threshold. “Once you hit $70,000 in special education expenditures, you submit claims to this Bureau of Special Education for reimbursement. So we have data…