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Special-education costs outpace state reimbursements; district reports about $4 million in unreimbursed spending since 21-22
Summary
CFO Gary detailed that high-cost disability expenses in 24-25 amounted to $4.4 million for 68 students, with only $592,000 reimbursed — roughly 25 cents on the dollar — and a budget committee member said unreimbursed and noncovered portions total nearly $4 million since 21-22.
Sherwood SD 88J officials told the budget committee that special-education high-cost reimbursements from the state cover only a fraction of the district’s expenses, leaving substantial unreimbursed spending on the district’s books.
"We have $4,400,000 in total expenses for 68 kids, $2,385,000 eligible, and we received $592,000 back for that," the CFO said when walking the committee through the high-cost disability grant results. He summarized that the district is receiving roughly "25¢ on the dollar" for those eligible expenses and projected that reimbursement rates could fall to 20¢ and 15¢ on the dollar in coming years.
A committee member clarified the local fiscal effect: "The unreimbursed high cost disability expenditures for 24-25 was 1,800,000. But the noncovered portion of that expense is another 2,000,000... that's pretty close to... almost $4,000,000," the member said, echoing concerns that high local spending for specialized services is not matched by state reimbursement.
Officials said the district will continue to provide services and look for budget offsets; they pointed to other states (Washington) that moved to more comprehensive special-education funding as a model but said state action is uncertain in the near term.
