Washington lawmakers are likely to eliminate a longstanding limit on special education spending — a change advocates call a civil rights victory years in the making.
This move, coupled with an overall boost to special education funding, would bring at least a little relief to school districts, in the neighborhood of about $150 million annually. It’s a notable commitment, especially this year, as lawmakers seek to balance a multibillion-dollar hole in the state’s budget.
“It’s going to help,” Chris Reykdal, superintendent of public instruction, said in an interview Thursday.
Under current law, Washington only provides state funding to cover special education for up to 16% of a district’s total student population. Over 100 school districts have more than 16% of their students receiving special education services, according to the state education department.
Special education is an umbrella term for several instructional strategies and accommodations for students with disabilities. It can mean one-on-one support from an educator, speech therapy or a modified curriculum.
Any student who qualifies for special education services must be served under federal law. But districts say they don’t get full funding from the state to meet that obligation. Across Washington, that gap is one of the big reasons why so many school districts are saying they’re in a budget deficit.
Even with this potential move by the Legislature — the budget is not yet agreed to — schools say they still need more financial help. In 2023, districts reported a nearly $600 million gap between their special education costs and what the state covers, according to an audit commissioned by the state Legislature. That means on average, school districts spend at least 26% more per student than they receive from state and federal sources, according to the audit.
“The total amount we’re putting in is a small down payment on a much larger obligation,” said Rep. Gerry Pollet, D-Seattle, who has fought to remove the 16% cap since 2012, the year he was elected.
In Seattle last year, for example, the district reported a $74 million deficit driven by uncovered special education costs.
Those funding challenges can show up in many ways. School districts might under-identify students for services and spread staff thinly. Or students could be learning in buildings ill-equipped for their needs.
Kids notice this, said Samantha Fogg, a parent and co-president of the Seattle Council PTSA.
“Students have told me that it makes them feel like a burden to other people,” Fogg said. “We want students to go to school excited to learn.”
Districts fund any gaps from the state by pulling from local tax revenue, which Pollet says is unconstitutional. The state is responsible for covering all of school districts’ basic education costs under a state Supreme Court ruling.
The idea to remove the cap struggled to gain traction in previous years. Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, chair of the Senate’s education committee, was among the skeptics.
“It gave me pause,” Wellman said. “I was hearing that kids who were treated as problems in classrooms were being sent to special education,” especially if they were kids of color.
But she says her concerns this year were assuaged by the lobbying of her colleagues, and a condition in the legislation that requires annual monitoring to ensure identification rates for special education are not disproportionate.
The recent legislative audit also laid bare several inequities in how the state funds special education.
Washington doesn’t account for differences in student needs when it provides funding for services. Whether a child requires small check-ins or round-the-clock support, they’re largely funded according to the way districts get all of their money: a formula. And that formula tends to favor large, wealthy and urban districts because it accounts for staff experience and cost of living, according to the audit.
That means two districts serving the same number of special education students can receive vastly different amounts of funding. All else equal, a small rural district can receive $1,700 less per student than a large urban one, the legislative report said.
Rural and low-income districts are more likely to serve higher numbers of students with disabilities because poverty is associated with a greater amount of educational needs. Those districts also often struggle to pass local levies or bonds to cover the gaps in special education funding.
Lawmakers are also planning to boost the extra funding school districts get for special education students. But that change would still benefit larger, wealthier districts more because the underlying formula is the same, the report said.
The final budget negotiations are still underway, but few expect legislators to remove the special education funding provisions before the session ends Sunday. While advocates like Fogg say there’s much left to be desired, they see this step as an important one.
“Eliminating the cap is a massive moral and ethical victory,” Fogg said. “It’s a tremendous victory for the civil rights of students with disabilities to finally end what can only be described as unconscionable discrimination.”
Seattle Times staff reporter Claire Bryan contributed to this story.
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