Special Education Subcommittee Recommendations

1
Special Education Subcommittee Recommendations

• Governors Task Force on Educational Excellence
• March 30, 2004

2
Subcommittee Charge

• Consider and recommend ways to adequately fund
  special education, including ways to share
  special education costs more evenly across the
  state, while assuring that public education is
  available to all.

3
Problem Areas

• The subcommittee identified five areas of
  concern
• Funding
• Accountability
• Paperwork/Process
• Programmatic
• Public Awareness

4
Special Education Recommendations

• Problem Area Funding
• Utilize an alternative-funding source for preK-12
  education as part of a reorganization of public
  school funding.
• Cost Unknown - dependent on full committee
  action.
• Create a new categorical aid appropriation to
  reimburse school districts for costs associated
  with high-cost special education students.
• Cost Anywhere from several million to well in
  excess of 10 million.

5
Special Education Recommendations

• Provide retroactive fiscal relief to school
  districts in situations where a high-cost special
  education student enrolls in a district after
  local levies are set.
• Cost Unknown - dependent on need. (Relief
  could take the form of a nonrecurring adjustment
  to school district revenue limits or from a new
  categorical aid program.)

6
Special Education Recommendations

• Problem Area Programmatic
• Direct the Department of Public Instruction, the
  Department of Health and Family Services, the
  Department of Workforce Development and other
  state agencies to develop a streamlined,
  nonduplicative process for the provision of
  services to individuals with special needs.
• Cost None
• Encourage the Department of Public Instruction to
  continue to work with school districts to provide
  special education services in the most
  streamlined and cost-effective manner as
  possible.
• Cost None

7
Special Education Recommendations

• Support investments in early childhood as a means
  of reducing the need for other educational and
  social services later in adolescence.
• Cost None, although any additional investment
  in early childhood would require additional state
  resources.
• Reiterate the importance of parental involvement
  in the early education of children.
• Cost None

8
Special Education Recommendations

• Problem Area Public Awareness
• Create a working group or Governors council
  consisting of parents, teachers, administrators
  and interest groups to assess problems in the
  special education field and promote better
  awareness and understanding of special education.
• Cost None

9
Special Education Recommendations

• Problem Area Accountability
• Reaffirm that there are considerable federal,
  state and local accountability measures in place
  to assess the efficacy of the special education
  system.
• Cost None

10
Special Education Recommendations

• Problem Area Paperwork/Process
• Encourage standardization in reporting
  information to the Department of Public
  Instruction as a means of gathering information
  more effectively. Encourage the department to
  disseminate the resulting information as widely
  as possible.
• Cost None
• Review the statutes for potentially obsolete
  passages.
• Cost None

11
No Recommendations At This Time

• School District Reimbursement Formulas (including
  pupil weights)
• Overidentification