STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - Across the state, districts and families of children with special needs are advocating for the state to reimburse two-thirds of public schools’ costs for special education services. They say it would lift all students, not just those receiving special services.
“We are committed to ensuring that every student receives the support and the services that they need to thrive,” Cory Hirsbrunner, superintendent of Stevens Point Area School District, said. “More dollars to primary special education funding, which would open the doors for all students, as well as students with disabilities. Special education is not optional. There’s definitely legal obligations as well as moral obligations.”
Currently, the state reimburses districts about 30% of the costs of special education services. In Stevens Point, that equates to about $5 million worth of the costs of primary special education services. The other 70% of the costs, or $13 million, is taken out of the district’s general fund.
“What that does not allow us to do is maintain adequate class sizes. It limits our programming. It does not allow us to use those dollars to retain and recruit high-quality staff,” Hirsbrunner said.
Special education staff can be difficult to hire and retain due to the challenging nature of the job, and due to pay levels that may not match. Hirsbrunner said they always have openings for special education positions, particularly assistant positions, which pay about $17.53-$24.78 per hour. Special education teachers with a bachelor’s degree without experience would start at $48,891 and receive a $5,000 signing bonus. The district is currently recruiting four assistants and one teacher for the next school year.
To compare, the Wausau School District pays about the same rates for teachers and aids, but has four teaching positions and 26 assistant, or paraprofessional positions open. Diana White, the Wausau School District’s communications coordinator, explained in an email that at the current 30% funding, the gap the district has to cover through its general fund after state reimbursement is $12.3 million. If that reimbursement was increased to 60%, the district’s gap costs to cover would reduce to $7 million.
“An increase to 60% would leave an additional $5.3 million available in Fund 10 and would provide the Wausau School District with substantially more financial flexibility to support and enhance all other educational programs across the district.”
Using general funds means some resources that could be helpful for students with special needs or who could use other interventions do not have access to those programs.
“Early intervention is key. Our goal is always to provide things as early as possible so that students have the skills and supports that they need to thrive throughout their educational career,” Hirsbrunner said. “It’s just so important that we commit everything that we have, which right now isn’t enough to do everything that we need to do to help students to be successful.”
It can also mean schools feel obligated to go to a referendum to pay for other school costs that are otherwise going to cover special education services.
Struggling alongside families
The Block family hears, “our hands are tied,” often. Of Kristen and Ryan Block’s six children, four have special needs. Two of their sons have more severe needs, which Kristen expressed, seem to be easier to access because the needs are more obvious.
For their two daughters, it is a different story. Kiana, 15, who is their oldest, and Aurora, 6, are higher-functioning.
Kristen said their journey through the special education system began when Kiana was about 2 years old; she was nonverbal until about age 5. Kiana is autistic and has short-term memory challenges. Kristen said she was able to get her an individualized education plan, or IEP, through third grade. Then, the IEP was dropped because Kiana’s scores were passable.
“Every single year she fell more and more behind in school,” Kristen said.
By the end of her sixth-grade year, she got another IEP and access to services, but Kristen explained she had already fallen through the cracks of the system; she does not know how to count money, for example, which Kristen pointed out, means she cannot get a job at a time when her peers are starting to find work.
The services that are available in school, Kristen believes, are not enough to meet her needs.
“The Stevens Point School District, as far as I know, (doesn’t) have enough funding to be able to have enough pull-out classes for kids like Kiana who need that extra help that can’t-- their intellectual ability can’t handle the general education classes.”
What the district does provide matters. Kiana is part of a reading and math program in school. In those pull-out classes where she receives individualized attention to learn at a level and pace appropriate to her abilities, she receives A’s and B’s on her report card.
“My confidence is pretty high when I, like, actually know what I’m doing,” Kiana nodded.
When there are no pull-out classes available for other subjects like science or social studies, she freezes and fails.
“That hurts when your daughter– excuse me. I was trying not to cry. When your daughter is going in and giving 200% effort and it’s not enough, that sucks,” Kristen cried. “When you get told, ‘oh, we’ll try to get her by,’ which she’s really trying her hardest at school. But when she’s in a general education class that’s just above her intellectual ability, I don’t know how you expect her to be able to perform at that level.”
Kiana said it makes her not want to go to those classes, even though science is one of her favorite subjects. Despite learning the special education system early through Kiana’s needs, getting services for Aurora was nearly just as tough. Their family spent the time and money when she was little to get evaluations done so that the school would have a packet of detailed needs.
Kristen said it still took about six months to go through the IEP process for Aurora; she did not get a plan until the end of her kindergarten year. In the meantime, she was sent to the principal’s office for behavior issues regularly, making her feel like “the bad kid.”
“Parents are expecting that they get timely evaluations when they feel like their student may need additional support,” Hirsbrunner stated. “They’re expecting that we maintain consistency in programming, and they’re expecting us to make sure that we have adequate staff to meet those individual needs.”
She affirmed, the IEP process can be done more quickly if there are more staff and resources available to administer them.
Now that Aurora has an IEP, she can have space to cope with her big feelings and have a safe space to calm them so she can return to class to learn.
Kristen does not blame the schools; she said the teachers have told her they know her daughters need services and have cried alongside her, frustrated with the limited resources available to meet them where they are at.
“If we could get more funding that we could give these kids a better chance to actually learn things in school and not just get through the system because it’s easier that way,” she expressed.
The family tried private school for Kiana when she was little, as private voucher schools are reimbursed at 90% of their costs to provide special education services. However, at $500-600 per week, they said it was unsustainable and not feasible for them to be able to do for all of their kids needing those services.
Professional education associations, like the School Administrators Alliance, anticipate the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee to focus on high-cost special education aid and the school levy tax credit, rather than increasing the reimbursement rate for primary special education.
“If that happens, it will result in minimal new, spendable resources for classrooms and students, ” the SSA advised its members.
High-cost special education aid is already funded at 90% of eligible costs above $30,000 per student. If there were increases, Hirsbrunner said it would only benefit about half of the schools in the state and only a small portion of the costs of providing services in that system. Hirsbrunner explained, of the roughly 1,100 students receiving special education in the district, about 30 students receive high-cost special education services.
7 Investigates reached out to Sen. Patrick Testin’s office for comment about the push for increased funding for primary special education, but did not receive a reply.
