Comment: State must fully fund K-12 special education
Published 1:30 am Saturday, January 14, 2023
By Chris Reykdal / For The Herald
The funding provided to school districts by the state and federal governments to support the learning of students with disabilities is not aligned with the actual costs of providing those special education services. Last school year, districts across the state spent $400 million in local funds to cover the gap in the dollars provided.
At the same time, costs and demand for these services are increasing, staffing shortages are persisting, and school districts are continuing to raise ongoing concerns about their ability to meet the needs of students with disabilities within their budgets.
All students have a right to a free and appropriate public education where they are supported to progress in grade-level learning standards. Special education is specially designed instruction that addresses the unique needs of eligible students at no cost to families. These services are determined by a team of people, including the student’s parent(s) or guardian(s), who meet to prepare, review and update the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP), which is the district’s commitment of special education resources and services.
Currently, the state’s funding model provides an average per-student baseline level of funds for school districts to serve their students. Districts have a federal obligation to identify and serve all children with disabilities within the district’s geographic boundaries. For students with disabilities, the state provides an additional amount of funds above the baseline, on an average basis, to recognize the costs of providing additional services.
However, the funding model has a limit on what it provides to school districts for that additional amount above the baseline. Regardless of how many students within a district are receiving special education services, the state’s funding formula only provides those dollars to cover up to 13.5 percent of the district’s student population. For more than half of Washington’s school districts, the percentage of students receiving special education services is above 13.5 percent of the district’s total student population, creating a gap in funding.
In advance of the upcoming legislative session, I have put forward a budget proposal that would remove the arbitrary 13.5 percent cap on funds and ensure all of Washington’s students continue to have access to the services they need for a successful K-12 career. In addition, my proposal would increase the amount of per-student funding provided to serve our students with disabilities, more accurately reflecting costs of services.
Further, my budget proposal would sustain and expand the state’s evidence-based project to ensure students with disabilities have adequate access to time spent learning alongside their peers in general education environments. These inclusionary models consistently show more success in the research; one recent study found that students with disabilities spending 80 percent or more of their time in general education settings with their peers had better reading and math outcomes than their peers who spent more time in special education settings.
In 2019 when this work began, only 77,500 of our 134,000 students with disabilities were spending 80 percent to 100 percent of their school day in their general education setting. As of 2022, our inclusion of students with disabilities has improved dramatically, resulting in an additional 15,000 students with disabilities moving into the highest tier of inclusion and spending 80 percent to 100 percent of their school day in general education settings with their peers.
It’s because of the investments by the Legislature over the past few years that we have made such progress. To continue this trajectory, we must invest in the ongoing growth and transformation that is critical to improving student outcomes.
In addition to these timely and necessary investments to better support our students with disabilities, I have proposed that the state establish a hiring bonus for teachers within a district’s special education program providing services to students with disabilities. Our schools continue to experience shortages in teachers who are trained to provide special education services, and this bonus aims to provide an incentive for teachers to choose that path.
It’s time for the state to fully fund special education services and eliminate the overreliance on local revenues — which districts do not have equal access to — to serve this population of students who are often furthest from educational justice.
Follow along with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction this legislative session as we advocate to get these essential supports for our learners and their educators into state law.
Chris Reykdal has dedicated his career to ensuring each Washington learner has equitable access to a high-quality public education. He has served as the state Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2017.
