Jan 21, 2025, Valley Independent Sentinel: Derby (CT) School Officials Are Worried About State Special Education Funding
DERBY – On the heels of a potential decrease in state funding, members of the school board may ask the city for more time to prepare a spending plan for the next school year.
The Process
The finance subcommittee of the Derby Board of Education was scheduled to send a recommended budget to the full school board on Jan. 15.
That budget was to be considered by the full board at a meeting scheduled for Jan. 23 — and then voted upon by the school board and sent to the city for review by Feb. 1, the deadline set in the Derby City Charter.
At that point the city’s Board of Apportionment and Taxation would begin a review and come up with a bottom-line school budget dollar amount by the spring in advance of the next school year.
But …
The school board’s finance subcommittee met Jan. 15 and opted not to move the budget along.
The move happened after Superintendent Matthew Conway said he was notified on Jan. 10 about a reduction in the special education cost excess grant. That’s state money that goes toward special education costs.
At the same time, Conway said the cost to provide services to students with special needs is dramatically increasing.
These are costs related to students who can’t go to school because the local school can’t meet their educational needs. So they may attend a private facility or another school for their education. The school officials refer to it as “outplacements.” The home district picks up outplacement costs under the law, with help from state and federal aid.
The school district had been pondering asking the city for a small increase — .06 percent, or $12,206. Now they’re talking about a budget that asks for anywhere from that to more than $500,000. . .
District officials aren’t sure what to ask for until they find out later this year what happens with state funding for special education. The central administration is also worried about predicting the number of outplaced students that will be entering the district this year or next. . . .
That makes it tough to predict costs connected to special education outplacements. School officials said the average cost now in Derby for outplaced students is about $151,000 per outplaced child.
The current Derby school budget (approved by the city in the spring of 2024) is $20,281,949.
Derby school board chairman Jim Gildea told The Valley Indy that the state needs to step up and fulfill its obligations.
“It’s disappointing that the state continues to decrease support to local boards of education for special education costs. We need our legislative delegation to advocate for the additional funding we urgently require,” Gildea said. . . .
However, Gildea also said he’s confident the state funding numbers being discussed now will change as the state creates a new budget.
Gildea said the school board should not adopt a budget as scheduled on Jan. 23 since so much is still up in the air.
State Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria represents part of Derby’s west side.
She’s a Republican who said her party has consistently fought to get more money for schools. She criticized the Democratic majority in Hartford.
“Unfortunately, the current ambiguity and budget concerns being faced by local boards of education are the direct result of decisions made by the Democrat majority last year to spend millions of one-time, federal ARPA funds to prioritize higher education institutions like UConn and the Connecticut State Colleges and University system instead of providing much-needed funding for early and special education programs that impact our youngest, most impressionable learners,” she said.
State Rep. Rochelle, a Democrat, represents Ansonia and part of Derby in Hartford.
Rochelle sent an email in response to The Valley Indy saying “the focus on special education this year is evident.”
As proof she pointed to the designation of the “priority bills” on the topic and the creation of a “select committee on special education” created “to have a team laser focused on the necessary policy reforms to not only assure better funding now but also long term solutions for sustainable funding.”
Regarding local concerns about funding cuts, Rochelle said the state previously budgeted $181 million and created “tiered reimbursement legislation” to help schools with special education costs.
“In fiscal year 2024, requests came in $60 million over the $200 million, and preliminary numbers for fiscal year 2025 came in approximately $30 million above that. Due to the increases and the allocation of $181 million, district reimbursements have been proportionally decreased,” she wrote.
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