Funding cuts spell trouble for special education in Indiana

This guest post is from Pat Howey, a special education advocate in West Point, Indiana.

Indiana parents and advocates:

After December 1, it may be more difficult to get certain services for our students in special education. Thanks to the current Trump administration and Betsy DeVos, federal funding for special education to the Indiana Department of Education has been cut for 2018.

Remember the outcry for "full funding" of special education, as was anticipated when the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) was enacted? Congress at that time said it could fund up to 40% of the cost of special education. In reality, Congress has never funded even 10% of the cost. Now, it is balancing its budget on the backs of the poor, the disabled, and the disenfranchised, and it has cut funding for special education.

What this means: The small part of funding that comes from the federal government has been cut even further. Local school districts will now have to foot the bill for the services listed below. School districts that already are struggling to provide adequate services to all students will now have to stretch their budgets even further.

After December 1, 2017, the IDOE has stated that it will no longer be providing funding through Special Education Excess Cost funds for the following services to local schools:

(1) Extended School Year (ESY) in day programs;
(2) ABA services in centers and in schools;
(3) One-on-one services (paraprofessionals and aides) in centers and schools;
(4) Related services; and,
(5) Transportation.

In addition, a cap on residential services and day services is being considered.

What we can expect: Advocating for students in special ed will become more and more difficult. We can expect to have to fight for these services for special education children who need them, even though the IDOE memo states: "Please remember that funding is not a topic for case conference committee discussion. No decisions about services should be based on whether DOE is able to help schools with funding."

Here is the link to the full memo:
https://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/specialed/seec-memo.pdf

Folks, I predict that this is only the beginning. Things will get much worse.

ADDENDUM
Response from Dr. Kathleen Hugo, MCCSC's Director of Special Education, 11/28/17
The main impact of this on local school corporations will be that certain school-funded services, those that are extremely unique and expensive for a few students, will become the sole responsibility of the local school, further diminishing the available funds for the remainder of students. Special education has never been "fully-funded" by federal or state special education dollars. Yet the needs of students are increasing everywhere which is why the Indiana DOE has seen an increase in the number of requests for additional state funds to pay these excess costs. 

The IDOE was clear in pointing out that this does not relieve the local schools from their responsibility to provide these services, if necessary for the appropriate education of the student. Local schools will be required to pay these costs from their existing funds. 

Indiana special education funding is allocated to school corporations as one amount. There is no specific funding for paraprofessionals, related services, or teachers. The exception to that is when a particular student has extraordinary needs that are so unique that they are beyond the capacity of the local school corporation. The clearest example of this is when a student requires residential placement. Indiana has had a special mechanism in place for many years by which school corporations can request that IDOE pay for this "excess cost", for one particular student at a time. The memo was referring to the fact that the funds approved in this category by the legislature are being used up and so they are telling school districts that many of these excess services will be the responsibility of the school corporation, specifically services in local ABA centers, unique services in the summer, and others. ###
Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ParentCommunityNetwork/permalink/1477268495725376/