Language in the state budget indicates money will be available for Shoreline School District and others with a high concentration of special education students.
The budget agreed to by the House and Senate on Tuesday includes $3 million over the 2006-07 school years for a pilot program in the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction focusing on school districts with a high concentration of students living in group homes.
The study will look at homes licensed by the Department of Social and Health Services to provide 24 hour care for six or fewer children.
“It was a bit of a struggle,” said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, who chairs the House Children and Family Services Committee. “We were all very focused on finding resources to mitigate the impact.”
The issue originated when a cluster of group homes in the Shoreline School District became a source of controversy after special education classes cost the school district $1.2 million during the past two years. Fodor Homes LLC, runs six foster homes in the vicinity of 40th Avenue NE, in Lake Forest Park, and caters to autistic children.
“Shoreline has the second highest concentration (of group homes),” Kagi said. “It is by far the largest school district with a high concentration.”
The pilot program is a compromise between the House and Senate, who agreed on the funding solution on March 6. The pilot program will be established in at least five school districts. The funding will come in the form of a block grant from the OSPI, Kagi said, and the amount of funding for each district is in proportion to the concentration of group homes.
Shoreline School District officials originally requested $1 million to cover costs associated with serving a high number of special-education children, said Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, who chairs the Early Learning K-12 and Higher Education Committee. The district will likely receive the requested amount over the two-year period of the pilot program, she said.
“We can learn a lot about how to serve children in the residential homes,” McAuliffe said. “We have a lot to learn from this.”
In the original Senate budget, funding was provided through DSHS to group homes for education costs. The House budget, meanwhile, wanted to provide funding through OSPI on a per-child basis for special education children in group homes in Shoreline and a few other districts.
The pilot program requires districts to develop, in conjunction with the group homes, a plan for collaboration and information sharing and an individualized student plan, which includes regular communication for each child’s progress.
“I thought they needed to have more collaboration between the school district and homes,” said Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, who worked for money in the Senate budget to address the issue. “They don’t seem to talk to each other well.”
An annual progress report will measure progress toward meeting educational needs of students and provide information and data to OSPI.
“This will give us data about staffed residential clusters throughout the state so we can figure out how to deal with them,” Fairley said.
The pilot program won’t impact other education funding, Kagi said. School district officials may continue to apply for safety net funding, available to districts with demonstrated needs in excess of normal state and federal funding levels, Kagi said.
Because it is a pilot program, the issue will again be addressed in the Legislature next year as the biennial budget is developed, Kagi said.
The funding issue also is being evaluated by the Washington Learns Steering Committee, Kagi said. Washington Learns is Gov. Christine Gregoire’s effort to look at the state of the education system and develop an action plan to improve the system.
“I think it has really been a long journey,” Kagi said. “This definitely will provide major relief to the school district and we will still have to look for a permanent solution.”
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