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Lawmakers debate special‑education funding after Grand Forks warns of growing local burden
Summary
School finance officials and lawmakers discussed options to narrow a widening gap between special‑education expenditures and state formula support: lowering the excess‑cost threshold, raising the special‑education weighting factor, or moving to a cost‑reimbursement model; DPI agreed to run fiscal scenarios.
A legislative committee spent more than two hours examining why special‑education spending in some districts has outpaced state formula support and discussed three reform paths to close the gap: lower the excess‑cost threshold, increase the special‑education weighting factor, or move to cost‑based reimbursement.
Brandon Bombach, business manager for Grand Forks Public Schools, told the committee that Grand Forks’ students served on individualized education programs increased roughly 44% between 2015 and 2025 while state formula support grew at a much slower rate. “When the special education count went up, but the total population went down, we saw increased costs for the district without additional support,” Bombach said, illustrating how his district’s local share of special‑education…
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