Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Funding And Hb1563 topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Panel details scale of special‑education costs, backs transitional changes to aid proration
Summary
Members cited FY24 special‑education expenditures near $977M — about 85% covered by local property taxes — and reviewed HB1563 changes to proration and LEA/state shares; members also urged better Medicaid billing and data collection.
A commission member summarized the statewide fiscal picture on June 23, telling the Commission to Study the Cost of Special Education that fiscal‑year 2024 special‑education expenditures totaled roughly $977,000,000: about $152 million from state and federal revenue and roughly $825 million from local property taxes.
"When combining the state federal revenue of $152,000,000 with the local property tax revenue of $825,000,000 then New Hampshire's actual annual expenditure for special education services comes to $977,000,000," the member said. The chair reiterated that roughly 85% of those costs are borne by local school districts and local property taxpayers — a central problem the commission was charged to study under SB 57.
HB 1563 and proration: Members reviewed HB 1563’s new cost tiers for state support, which change the LEA/state shares by cost‑per‑IEP multipliers. Under the bill’s transitional design, costs up to 2.5 times the average per‑pupil cost remain the LEA’s responsibility; the state picks up larger shares for higher‑cost tiers (for example, a specified share for 2.5x–3.5x, 3.5x–10x, etc.). The commission included language encouraging removal of long‑term proration as a policy goal, noting proration creates unpredictability when state budgeting falls short.
Medicaid to schools and consortia: Members also discussed Medicaid‑to‑schools billing as an under‑used revenue source and considered multi‑district consortia (modeled after Colorado) to assist small districts with consent, billing, training and claims processing. DOE staff noted that Medicaid reimbursements are paid as lump sums and cannot be traced to individual students without breaching privacy rules, so the department recommends consortia or state‑level support to help smaller SAUs capture available reimbursements.
What’s next: The commission resolved to include HB 1563 language (with editorial edits) and to recommend improved documentation for grant offsets (Medicaid, private insurance) in the LEA reporting process. It also asked DOE to provide the LEA determination rubric and historical adequacy tables as attachments to the final report.
