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Special-education director says district faces roughly $5 million shortfall; most funds go to staffing
Summary
Special-education director presented staffing-heavy cost structure and a roughly $5 million budget gap, noting 92% of special-ed spending goes to staff and some individual student services and out-of-district placements can exceed $100,000.
Zach, the district's special-education lead, told the board the district's special-education program is underfunded relative to student needs and shared a breakdown of revenue and costs.
He said the district receives about $31,200,000 in state special-education funding (from two state allocations) plus roughly $2,800,000 in federal grants, and that those revenues leave an approximate $5,000,000 deficit against program costs in the district budget.
"92% of our special-ed funds are spent on staffing, and of that, 98% is direct service to students," Zach said, explaining that most of the budget goes to teachers, speech-language pathologists and other direct-service staff. He noted that while many students require relatively low-cost services (for example speech-only support), a smaller number of students have very high annual service costs and that out-of-district placements and intensive services can exceed $100,000 per student.
Zach described the state's safety-net process, which allows districts to claim some costs once a student's expenditures exceed a state threshold (he cited the $40,000 trigger used in claims), and said the district typically budgets conservatively for safety-net reimbursements while submitting claims as needed.
Board members asked for follow-up details and a status update on an inclusion grant Zach noted: all grant deliverables are due by June 30 and he planned to return with a full report at or shortly after that deadline.
