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New Hanover County Schools urges state to fix special‑education funding, asks to lift 13% cap
Summary
District staff told the board that per‑child state funding of $5,593.34 and a 13% funding cap leave roughly 101 students unfunded this year (an estimated $564,927 gap); the board agreed to press the General Assembly for a weighted Exceptional Children funding model and to ask the county to join advocacy.
Julie Barnum, a district Exceptional Children (EC) staff member, told the New Hanover County Schools board that the district’s current funding formula leaves students underfunded and stressed the limits of the state’s flat per‑pupil allotment.
Barnum said state EC funding provides $5,593.34 per eligible student but that state rules cap funding at 13% of average daily membership. “We’re serving 13.9 percent of our population as students with disabilities requiring IEPs … meaning, almost 1 percent we’re not being funded for,” she said, and gave the district’s current unfunded total as $564,927.34 for…
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