Special education could lose $9M 

Funding for vacant special-education services positions at public schools could be cut by more than $9 million under a preliminary plan the state Department of Education is working on as it braces for a reduced budget allocation from the state.

DOE Chief Financial Officer Amy Kunz said the state’s budget director has yet to say how much could be withheld from the so-called discretionary portion of the DOE’s $1.4 billion general fund budget as a result of lowered state tax revenue projections.

But Kunz told the Board of Education’s Finance Committee on Tuesday that the department is anticipating a 10 percent reduction of about $24.6 million for the fiscal year that began July 1.

The department plans to apply $6 million in carry-over funds from last year to help offset the reduction, and has identified potential cuts to more than two dozen programs to reduce its operating budget by $18.6 million.

The cuts would touch everything from utilities and student transportation to food services and athletics.

The single largest cut would come from special education services through $9.15 million in salary savings by eliminating positions that have historically been challenging to fill.

"On paper it looks disproportionately as if students with disabilities are getting a bigger hit than anyone else, and it’s at a time when we have finally gotten acknowledgement from the federal government that we are underserving these children," Susan Wood, with the Special Education Advisory Council, testified. "If the department’s basing their cuts on unfilled positions, there generally are unfilled positions this time of year, but they are needed — we don’t want them to disappear."

Kunz didn’t have a tally of how many vacant slots would be eliminated, but said the majority of the positions are for special-education educational assistants.

"It has remained a challenge to fill those positions. We have done several things to try to fill those positions, but the reality is the vacancies exist," she told Board of Education members. "Because we haven’t been able to fill the positions, most of the carry-over money is unspent."

In light of impending budget restrictions, she said, "This is one solution to help us — just for one year — but knowing that we’re not impacting programs. If a hiring happens and we end up expending more than what we budgeted, we will find those funds."

Brian De Lima, chairman of the BOE Finance Committee and an advocate for special education services, questioned how the department could guarantee special-education students and programs would not be negatively impacted.

"When you tell me that if there are shortfalls in utilities, shortfalls in transportation, shortfalls in food services in terms of meeting the target, (and) if there’s a need in special education hiring that somehow, somewhere you’re going to find the money … I need to understand how is it that you can make such a representation," De Lima said.

Kunz emphasized that student services would not be affected and that the department will continue to recruit for the positions.

De Lima requested a future report on how the department is filling special education vacancies and any impact the vacancies are having on students.

The state Department of Budget and Finance expects to decide in about two weeks whether it will need to further restrict spending for state departments, said Deputy Director Luis Salaveria.

He said departments have so far received 90 percent of their general fund budgets for the first quarter of the fiscal year. The remaining 10 percent could be restored if actual tax collections come in as projected by the state Council on Revenues.

"Right now, the restrictions went out because of how fiscal year 2014 ended. We took some precautionary measures to make sure we go about this correctly," Salaveria said. "We’re waiting to see how revenues start coming in for the new fiscal year and what the Council on Revenues does when it meets in a couple weeks."