State won't pay share of SPED

By Betsy Levinson / Staff Writer
Thursday, January 9, 2003


Town saddled with $300,000

-->A bombshell crossed Superintendent Eugene Thayer's computer screen last week in the form of an e-mail from the state Department of Education telling him that the state would no longer share in the cost of educating special needs students in private schools outside the Concord district.-->

The e-mail referred to this year, covering the period from April 1 to June 30, 2003. The message went on to say that for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, the state would not pay its share of the out-of-district placements at all.

Thayer said for the last quarter of this year, the state was backing out of a commitment of approximately $200,000 for the K-8 placements for the quarter, and about $100,000 for this year at the regional high school.

Costs for the high school placements for next year, in fiscal 2004, may reach $495,000, Thayer said, with the K-8 special education placements topping $300,000. This amount will have to be found in the schools operating budgets, he said.

"The DOE said it would pay us back by Aug. 31, but we have to pay the costs now," said Thayer. "And we have to assume those costs next year."

There is an article on the warrant to cover unanticipated SPED costs for the current year, but it assumes that the state would share in out-of-district placements for the entire fiscal year.

Thayer said he is compiling firm figures before presenting the unwelcome news to the School Committee, the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen for further action.

Committee Chairman Betsy Bilodeau blasted state officials for their actions.

"It's an abrogation of duty," she said. "They are playing a shell game, pulling back on their commitment and asking local property taxpayers to make up for it." She said the committee and administration will join with other superintendents and committees "to make a very, very strong case" against the state cutback.

"We are not just going to sit back and let it happen," said Bilodeau. "Property taxpayers need to join us in this fight, because that is what it will be. Either the state releases the mandates or comes up with funds."

Committee member Becky Shannon is concerned that the action by the state will worsen the divide between parents of special needs children and so-called regular education students.

"It means that the funding for SPED will either come from overrides or, without overrides, it will be taken from the regular education program," she said. "School committees will try to do what they can to maintain quality while curbing costs in regular education (they are unable to do anything about sped costs), but without overrides, schools will be in trouble."

"It's been an issue for 20 years," said Thayer, "Paying for SPED mandates with a fixed annual budget has an impact on regular education. It creates division."

Shannon said the committee would have to "try to maintain what we can without cutting everything to ribbons," but she was not optimistic. She said many of the private schools in the area can cost $100,000 per student per year.

"All public school districts will find it necessary to implement staff layoffs and program reductions in their regular education programs in order to maintain their commitment to mandated special education services," said Shannon.

She said the state has indicated it may cut funding for MCAS remediation, even though all students must be entitled to help passing the graduation requirement.

"How do you maintain a school that has athletics, music and art, subjects that are not tested," wondered Shannon. "These mandates always require more money than is allotted."

"It was going to be a difficult fight even before last week," said Shannon, "now it is going to be gargantuan. We all need to be interested in this subject, not just SPED parents. It's the majority of students in the entire state."

The School Committee meets Jan. 14 to decide on a course of action.