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Middletown Area SD hears presentation showing sharp rise in special‑education enrollment and costs
Summary
District presenter David Franklin told the board that special‑education enrollment rose roughly 51.6% from 2016–2024 (349 to 529 students) while special‑education spending rose about 88%, and he warned of budget pressures tied to charter‑tuition and service needs.
David Franklin, a district presenter, told the Middletown Area School District board that the district’s special‑education enrollment climbed about 51.58% between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2024, from 349 students to 529.
“Middletown is next, and we had a 51.58% increase in special ed enrollment, from 349 students to 529 students,” Franklin said during a slide‑deck briefing that compared county districts’ decade‑long trends.
Franklin said the district’s special‑education spending rose faster than enrollment: overall special‑education expenses increased from roughly $5.0 million in 2015 to about $9.3 million in the most recent year on the chart — an increase of about 88%.
“We had an 88% increase in spending, while we had a 52% increase in enrollment,” Franklin said, noting that salary and benefits grew by about 50% (from roughly $3.7 million to $5.6 million) while purchases of professional services and transportation/tuition jumped more sharply.
The presenter highlighted a near‑quadrupling in some purchase services categories and a large rise in charter‑school tuition paid by the district: total charter tuition was approximately $725,000 in 2015 and just over $3.2 million in 2024, with the share attributable to special education increasing in that period.
Franklin said the charter funding formula — which uses the district’s per‑pupil special‑education expenditure to set charter tuition rates — can produce situations in which cyber charter operators receive materially more than their reported per‑student spending. He illustrated that gap using district data and examples from cyber charter operators in the state.
Looking ahead, Franklin said the district may need to add up to three autism‑support classrooms in the coming school year, and that each classroom would require one teacher and two paraprofessionals; he also foresees additional speech‑language and occupational‑therapy positions to meet student needs.
“We are anticipating the need to add up to 3 autism support classrooms for next year. Each one of those would require a teacher and 2 paraprofessionals,” Franklin said.
Board members asked whether recent state budget changes included caps or other reforms that would reduce charter tuition liabilities; Franklin said caps did not make the final adopted budget but that some deductions in the tuition‑rate calculation were increased. A board member also raised whether charter schools might tailor marketing toward districts with larger funding differentials; Franklin said he had not considered that possibility and described the question as “opening a can of worms.”
The presentation was intended as background for the district’s upcoming budget presentation; Franklin said much of the data came from a Frontline Analytics subscription and state reporting, and he cautioned that the figures reflect the quality of underlying district reporting to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The board did not take immediate action on the presentation; Franklin said the information will inform the business manager’s budget presentation at the next board meeting.
