Special Ed funds issue to be settled

"This is extremely important to the district because special education law has put many requirements on schools and there is no money for them," said Gracie Dougherty, chief financial officer for the San Mateo-Foster City School District . "And what has happened is that the money has come from the regular students."

"It's important because it will help fund programs and provide services for students. It will help fund those special programs that the students need, and by having these funds available there will be more funding available to all students in the district," said Marvin Meyers, director of special education for the San Mateo Union High School District.

After years of battle, the state finally conceded to school district demands and are offering a one-time settlement of $320 million for retroactive payments, $250 million of which will be spread in $25 million accruements over the next ten years, and $100 million as a permanent increase to special education services. This money will be spread across districts that are part of the case.

The San Mateo Union High School District will receive $346,000 up-front, and $34,600 spread over the next ten years. It will also receive an ongoing $133,800 on top of $2.1 million from the state for special education services. This additional money will help reduce general fund expenditures for special education that totals $3.7 million, or almost six percent of the budget, according to Mark Avelar, the district's associate superintendent of instruction. The district has about 900 special education students who have physical and mental disabilities.

The San Mateo-Foster City School District will receive $452,500 upfront, and an additional $42,500 each year for the next ten years for retroactive payments that will go into the general fund, according to Dougherty. Dougherty could not say yet how much additional funding for special education costs would come into the district. About $8.7 million, or 15 percent of the district's general fund budget has gone to covering special education services.

The school districts' fight for extra special education funding began in the early 1980's with the Santa Barbara County School District and Riverside County School District filed claims with the state board of education that they were not receiving enough funding for special education services they are required to provide, such as tutoring services, the extra personnel needed for monitoring students and smaller classrooms, and special equipment needed for transportation and other services. It costs about twice as much to educate a special education student than regular students, and the school districts were footing most of the costs. Under the state constitution, the state is required to provide funds to reimburse local governments for mandated services.

Other school districts joined the suit, which continued for over a decade. Although the funding coming down to school districts is still leaves them having to pay millions out of their general funds for special education services, local San Mateo school districts say they are satisfied with the amount and glad to have the suit finally over. They will not have to dig into past records, as they previously thought they might have to do, in order to nickel and dime their expenses for the state.

"This is excellent because if the governor didn't sign this, the other way to recoup the money would be to go back and look through the records for 20 years to look at data and provide verification," said Meyers.

School districts still have one more possibility of gaining extra funding - many are joining a national campaign to put pressure on the U.S. Congress next year to fully fund special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Right now only the federal government has only funded 13 percent special education costs out of a promised 40 percent.