At the request of Senator Molly Baumgardner, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Dr. Harwood discussed appropriations of special education aid, the current distribution model, and an alternative distribution model for additional funds. Dr. Harwood did an excellent job of presenting this information to the Committee. Committee members had numerous questions. One point that was stressed was that “Districts do not receive more aid than is spent on Special Education”. This misconception started last year following a printout that showed several school districts receiving more than 100% special education state aid which caused some to assume districts are making money on special education. Dr. Harwood stressed this is not an accurate way to determine costs, and that the 92% is to be used only on state calculations and not on individual district calculations. Individual district calculations can be misleading based on the type of program and whether or not the district is a sponsoring district, stand alone, or member of an interlocal or coop. 
 

Dr. Harwood completed his presentation by providing to committee members a computer printout of school districts, interlocal, and cooperative special education funding and expenditures with the final column of the printout showing how much local effort is used to pay for special education by districts. At the request of Chair Baumgardner, Dr. Harwood talked about how new money in special education for this year could be given to districts based on the portion of how much each district contributes to fund services provided to special education. He stated he did not think the current formula should be abandoned but that new money could be allocated based on the printout for a short period of time till a thorough review of special education be completed. He said, “This may not be the right answer but it is probably the best answer we have right now.” 

Dr. Harwood has asked KASB and USA to reach out to members to review the printout, determine how your district will be impacted, and then contact your legislators to let them know your findings and recommendations. Please take the time to review the printout and contact your legislators. In the event you do not have the printout you can locate it on the KSDE website under School Finance → What New link.