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Staff outlines plans and risks for forming independent SELPA; operational target July 1, 2026
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Summary
John Fisher told the subcommittee the district is conducting a detailed fiscal and program review of forming its own SELPA, estimating roughly $3.3 million to operate its special-education services and flagging uncertainties in the high-cost pool and some reimbursements.
John Fisher presented the subcommittee with the district's SELPA update, describing where the district is in a detailed fiscal review and the programmatic considerations for forming a Special Education Local Plan Area.
"We're looking in a sort of finer grain study with respect to the fiscal piece," Fisher said, noting the district is consulting legal counsel and the county office of education as it prepares materials for a board decision. Fisher said some specialized programs the district currently supports (including a DHH program at Hidden Valley and itinerant DHH services) would need negotiating if the district forms its own SELPA.
Fisher gave program counts and staffing estimates: "Our count for the elementary and secondary districts together is, 45 students, and we would anticipate to meet the needs of those students. We would hire probably two FTE to be able to do that." He also described a subgroup of students currently placed outside the district and said an MOU with the county office may be needed for specialized vision or medically fragile placements that are not cost-effective to run in-district.
On funding, Fisher said that SELPA-related pooled funds present uncertainty. He described a South High Cost Pool that last year produced $550,000 in reimbursements for claims the district estimated at $1,600,000 ("it was funded at a 43% rate"), and warned expanding or altering pool allocations could have negative fiscal impact. He estimated that operating the district's own SELPA could be in the "neighborhood of $3,300,000".
Fisher said staff expect to provide a recommendation and notify SELPA of the district's final decision no later than January, with an operational target of opening a local SELPA on July 1, 2026; Fisher, however, noted certain programs and phased-in strategies could extend implementation into 2026'27 if needed. The subcommittee did not take formal action but asked staff to finalize the recommendation for the Dec. 10 board packet.
The discussion highlighted trade-offs between program control and funding uncertainty; Fisher urged careful documentation of IEPs and interagency agreements as staff review whether specific services can be returned from outside placements into district-run programs.
