abuses. r Tammy
Baldwin, thanks for your time.
>> A major compromise included in the new state
budget says the state will provide 90% of the funding
for high cost special education students. To
detail how this will impact schools, we are joined by
two members of the Waunakee School District. Steve
Summers is the executive director of business
ns, and Tiffany Logan is the director of
special education. Thank you both for joining us.
>> Thank you for having us. >> Tiffany, let's start
with you. Give me the quick definition of high cost
special education student. And how many do you have in
Waunakee? high
cost, it's any student that their services meet the
threshold of $30,000 or more for that individual
student. So in our district we have between 60 and 70
students that would meet that threshold, at least
for last. This last year, they met about 60 to 70
students. at's the
financial impact of going to 90% from, you know, mid
Leow to low 30%? >> Sure. The reimbursement
level that we received in 2425 was about $300,000. We
expect that's going to increase by about $400,000
this year and another 350,000 the following year.
So very significant investment from the state
into this program. >> And so what is the plan
for how that money will be spent? Where will it be
redirected in the budget? >> We did decide. We took
to the school board proposal to begin a new
program, an alternative program for elementary age
students that need a little more intensive support than
what we can provide in a regular education classroom.
And the board was really supportive because of this
additional funding, because we could speak to using the
high cost funds to fund the program. And it's starting
starting this week. >> So is there an
obligation for districts to keep that money in special
education, because some districts have had to pull
from general ed to fund special education?
>> Yeah, the increased funding does go into our
special education fund in some district case that may
reduce the transfer that is needed from the General
Education Fund to the special ed fund in our
district. We will partner together between the
business office and the special ed office to
improve or increase our investment in students who
have IEPs, whether it's the program that Tiffany's
referencing or whether when we need to add an
additional one on one paraeducator for students
o move in. But we tend to utilize the funds to
increase the services for students with IEPs.
>> So, Tiffany, there are already skeptics saying
that schools are going to push more kids into this
category to try and grab more state dollars. Should
we expect to see an increase in the number of
kids that have this definition applied to their
IEP? >> I don't think you'll see
an increase in the number of students. I think what
you're going to see in future years is an increase
in the number of districts that are applying for high
cost, special education aid. Now that the the percentage
is increasing, there's more of an incentive for
districts to apply for that aid. So I don't think
you're going to see a student increase, but
tely additional districts applying for
those funds. districts
before that weren't providing all the services
that potentially they could have to some of these
students because they couldn't afford it or what
was the rationale there? >> So in the last fiscal
year, there were about 270 organizations or school
districts that applied for this funding. And there's
more than 400 school districts in Wisconsin. So
for many of them, they determine that the
reimbursement level that was coming back wasn't
significant enough for the investment in the time to
go through and file the claim. For others, they may
not have identified students that were $30,000
or more and above. Tiffany and I are partnering with
our professional organizations this year to
help provide professional development across the
state. We do expect more schools to learn about this
system, how it works, and because of the increased
investment from the state, we are expecting more
districts are going to be willing to spend the time
necessary to really apply for and manage these funds.
>> So the state budget also included a jump in the
reimbursement rate for regular special education
om 32% to 42%. Is that a bigger number overall for
most schools than this high cost?
>> Yes, it's a significantly bigger number
for most schools than the high cost. In our case is
an example. It's an over $800,000 increase in
additional funding for l ed students in 2526,
and it's the largest increase I've seen in my
career. So it's significant and what it's going to
allow most schools to do is to benefit all students. I
think it's important to that an increase in
funding for special education students benefits
the entire school system. Students, both with and
without IEPs, because when a school special education
fund is not funded correctly, the fund ten or
the general fund has to reimburse, which removes
opportunities for students who don't have IEPs. So it
truly benefits all kids for special ed funding to be at
a more appropriate level. >> And Tiffany, working
with these kids can be very rewarding, but it can also
be very challenging. And there's a lot of turnover
in some of these paid staffing positions. Could
you see an increase in funding for wages to try
and keep more consistency there?
>> Yeah, I think that I think that could be a
possibility. I think it will. Increasing wages
definitely helps you to recruit people and be able
to keep them. I mean, just example, for our district
alone, we had 12 full time positions open this summer
and we're very close to being full staffed. But
it's definitely difficult to keep people, especially
in our paraprofessional positions, who are really
working with some of our highest needs students.