FinCom tells Schools: 'Costs are spiraling out of control'
3-11-2009 2:15 pm
Updated: 3-11-2009 2:15 pm
by Brian Keaney
The Finance Committee heard the School Department’s budget request last night and told them that special education costs were “spiraling out of control” and had the potential to “strangulate your regular education program.”
Discussions centered around the costs to place students in private schools that are equipped to meet their special needs.The School Department pays tuition for these students, which in some cases is more than $300,000 a year.They have requested an additional $762,000 next year for tuition increases.
Committee member Mark Driscoll, husband of School Committee Chairman Tracy Driscoll, noted that Town Administrator Bill Keegan has only recommended a $516,500 total increase for the School Department’s operational budget.
“According to the Town Administrator, we can’t even fund SpEd, never mind giving anybody raises or maintaining things the way they are,” Mark Driscoll said.
The Department is requesting $3.6 million next year for tuition for students placed out of district.This represents a 27% increase over the current fiscal year and 11% of the total proposed budget. The 74 students who are placed out of district make up 2.6% of the total population of the district.
In 2003 there were 45 students placed out of district, showing a 64% increase in six years.In contrast, there has been a 12% increase in students receiving in district special education services in that same time span.
“It’s spiraling out of control,” said Committee member Sue Carney.“Somehow you have to get a handle on how to contain the costs or its going to strangulate your regular education program.”
Kathy Gaudreau, Interim Director of Special Education, told the Committee that “there are a significant number of students that, because of the intenseness of their disability, there is no way we could educate them in district.”
School Committee member Tom Ryan also pointed out that sometimes the out of district placements went beyond learning disabilities.He said there were criminal justice, Department of Social Services, and Department of Youth Services issues that were in play as well.
“It’s social services to a certain extent,” Ryan said.
Chairman David Martin said he agreed that students were entitled to receive needed services, but that “if you take a step back and take a look at it just from a pure, calculating, numbers standpoint, the increases are not sustainable.There needs to be some method of management.”
The Department is requesting $800,000 for special education transportation costs next year, with 86% going to out of district transportation.The $90,000 increase represents a 13% jump over the current year’s costs.
Business Manager Michael LaFrancesca also told the Committee that the Department was paying to bus nine or 10 students in from other communities.These students are now living in motels, homeless shelters, or other temporary housing in Boston, Malden, Framingham, and Natick.Under the McKinney-Vento Act students are entitled to attend school in the last district in which they had permanent housing.
The School Committee warned that under Keegan’s proposed budget, the Department would be forced to eliminate 28 full time positions.This could free up some classroom space, they said, which could then be used to house new special education programs that could eliminate the need for out of district placements.Space, as well as a lack of finances, were the two reasons officials offered for why the Department does not offer more.
“I think we need to do the very best we can for these kids,” Carney said, “but we need to do it responsibly”.
