Parents strongly object to report calling for local funding of special education
State Board of Education President Michael Kirst called a report urging California officials to dismantle the current special education funding system “provocative and bold.” After listening to two hours of the public’s reactions at a hearing in Redwood City last week, Kirst could add the phrase “and feared.”
Parents of children with disabilities and special education teachers and administrators said they oppose the recommendation, which would eliminate direct funding of regional agencies that currently allocate special education money, coordinate services and monitor complaints. Under the proposal, the money would be sent directly to school districts to administer, as recommended in a report by the Public Policy Institute of California.
The institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, concluded that adding special education to the Local Control Funding Formula would be consistent with the principle of holding school districts accountable for the progress of all students. Students with disabilities would become another category of students receiving extra dollars, along with English learners, low-income children and foster youths. The amount of special education dollars wouldn’t change, but districts, which already fill in large gaps in federal and state special education funding, would have more latitude in deciding how to spend some of the money.
That prospect made parents nervous. As they had in two raucous hearings in Sacramento and Los Angeles, parents of special education students were emphatic that districts shouldn’t be trusted to do right for children who require expensive services for disabilities. Some exceeded their three-minute testimony limit to detail their anguishing battles with districts over services for their children. They said they were angry that researchers didn’t ask them for their perspectives. Only then, parents said, would the researchers understand why parents are worried about the proposal that would give districts more control over dollars.
Paul Warren was the chief researcher for the Public Policy Institute report. He is a Parents strongly object to report calling for local funding of special education | EdSource:
