District warns special‑ed charter reimbursements will drop; online enrollment and reporting changes noted

At the meeting, district administrator Dawn reported rising cyber charter and online enrollment and outlined legislative changes she said will affect district funding and reporting requirements.

Dawn said the district currently noted 162 students enrolled in cyber charter programs and a larger online program of about 157 unduplicated online students. She told the board the state budget included a $100,000,000 reimbursement allocation for district cyber charter enrollments intended to ease fiscal burdens on districts; she noted it is unclear how much Mount Union will receive from that pool.

Dawn also warned that, effective Jan. 1, a new special‑education rate calculation will change the charter special‑education reimbursement formula to the lesser of the previous formula or regular education tuition plus the district’s total special‑education expenditure divided by its special‑education ADM, which she said will reduce the district’s charter special‑ed reimbursement rate. Dawn said that change is estimated to save the state about $70,000,000.

She said additional requirements placed on cyber and cyber‑related charters include weekly real‑time wellness checks (in person or online), attendance compliance with attendance officers/home and school visitors, reporting of expenditures for exceptional students, and compliance with educator effectiveness reporting. She added that a cap on cyber charter tuition and the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success Voucher Program were not enacted in this legislative update.

Administrators also described local impacts: increased online course offerings and some large class sizes, steps to ensure teachers of record meet PIMS requirements, and vendor coordination for college‑level dual‑enrollment scheduling. Dawn said further details on district allocations from the state reimbursement were not yet available.