Special education leaders request targeted additions and warn nonpublic placements and vacancies are rising

Department of Special Education leaders told the Board of Education on Jan. 23 that the FY26 proposal includes targeted staff increases but does not yet close a larger staffing gap; nonpublic-placement costs and contracted services remain major pressure points.

Terry Savage, chief academic officer, and Richard Jeffries, executive director of special education, presented eight program budgets covering birth-to-21 special education services. They said the proposal would add staff for regional classrooms and other targeted needs, but that the operating budget does not yet meet all staffing needs identified by school leaders.

Key takeaways - Nonpublic services: The budget summary lists a $3.2 million net increase for nonpublic transfer tuition and compliance. Jeffries and others told the board that nonpublic placements have grown in recent years and that placement costs and tuition-rate increases are a primary driver of this line-item growth. - Targeted staffing: The proposal includes requests to add teachers, paraprofessionals and student assistants for regional classrooms (the presentation referenced roughly 10 teacher FTEs, 10 paraprofessional FTEs and 12 student-assistant FTEs in one program area) intended to staff new or expanded regional classrooms. Staff said adding roughly 32 positions could allow creation of about seven additional regional classes (each regional classroom typically serves six to eight students, so seven rooms could accommodate up to about 56 students). - Vacancies and contracted services: Special education leaders reported persistent vacancies: at the time of the presentation there were about 23 teacher vacancies, nine paraprofessional vacancies and 13 student-assistant vacancies. The district continues to use contracted services to fill gaps where it cannot recruit employees quickly enough; staff said about 12 contractors were filling teacher vacancies in some cases. - Speech-language pathologists and related services: The presentation and follow-up answers said the budget requests add three SLP positions in some program areas but that overall vacancies for related-service providers (speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and other specialists) remain high and are being partially filled with contractors. Leaders said recruiting and retention are ongoing challenges and that compensation and workload factors are under review. - Grant-funded positions shifted to operating: The budget moves several pass-through/grant-funded positions into the operating fund to preserve service levels after grant awards did not increase; staff identified 3.5 positions shifting from pass-through to operating (examples given included a 0.5 occupational therapist, a 1.0 speech-language pathologist, a 1.0 nurse and a 1.0 special education teacher).

Board members asked for more precise cost estimates tied to several options: the full cost to “shore up” the district’s special-education staffing formula, the cost of adding noninstructional instructional team leaders, and short- and long-term changes that might come from the expected special education program review. Staff said they can provide more detailed modeling and said the program review will produce both near-term and longer-term recommendations.

Special-education staff closed by stressing program complexity: Richard Jeffries said he is still reviewing program operations after joining the district several weeks earlier and that a formal program review will be used to guide decisions about future staffing and structure.