School officials say special ed growing, but funding lagging

Districts statewide face the same issue as Moorpark Unified



BALANCING THE BOOKS—Moorpark school district officials say though the number of special-education students is rising, state and federal funding to help those students isn’t keeping pace.

BALANCING THE BOOKS—Moorpark school district officials say though the number of special-education students is rising, state and federal funding to help those students isn’t keeping pace.

An increase in special-education students has presented a challenge for Moorpark Unified School District and for Ventura County’s 19 other districts.

“Although most districts in this county have declining enrollment, most districts in this county have increased enrollment in special education,” Diane Weis, director of special education, said.

But despite the increasing numbers, school leaders say, the amount of state funding for those students is decreasing.

Superintendent Kelli Hays said funding from state and federal agencies falls “woefully short of covering needed services in this area.”

Special-education students include those who need additional help with learning or those who have psychological disabilities, emotional issues or speech, hearing, visual or other health impairments.

The numbers

During the 2016-17 school year, the district spent about $11 million of its nearly $62-million budget on special education, including teachers’ salaries and individualized services.

Only a little more than $4 million of that $11 million was supported by federal and state funding—about $1.1 million in federal money and about $2.9 million from the state.

Despite the state’s implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula in 2013, intended to put the spending decisions into the hands of local school district officials, California still ranks 46th in the nation for per-pupil funding. School leaders, here and statewide, are left with not enough money to cover the rise in special-education costs.

“A year after they passed the funding formula, the Legislature passed a 30-year plan to cover a massive unfunded pension liability for public employees, including teachers and hourly school employees,” according to a recent article in EdSource, a nonprofit reporting group that looks at education-related issues. “That expense, plus rising costs of special education that legislators didn’t foresee in 2013, have consumed a large portion of school districts’ base costs.”

Moorpark is in that boat.

“Special education in general is becoming a statewide, if not nationwide, challenge. We certainly see it here in our county,” the superintendent said. “This challenge is mostly due to a lack of funding. We do not receive adequate state or federal funding for special education.”

In order for a student to become eligible for special education, they must have a processing delay or at least one of 13 different conditions, such as autism or hearing problems.

This year, 944 students, or about 15 percent, of MUSD’s 6,300-member student body are receiving services from specialeducation staff.

The compares to 11 percent of the student body in 2002, when the district served about 868 special-education students in a student population of 7,800.

Why the rise?

Weis said the increase in special education students is linked to multiple factors, chiefly the improved diagnosing of children with problems by doctors and educators, especially as autism spectrum disorders have become more widely recognized.

She pointed to a stat showing the district had about 30 students diagnosed as autistic in 2002. This year there are 103.

Weis also said experts are seeing more kids with mental health issues. Again, she wasn’t certain whether more youngsters in today’s classrooms do have more mental health problems or whether those making the diagnoses are getting better at recognizing issues.

Regardless, she said it was “certainly concerning.” It’s an issue that affects not just each student but classmates and staff as well.

What’s more, Weis said, the district is also seeing a rise in the number of students with the “other health-impaired” designation, or disabilities that range from attention difficulties to auditory problems.

In 2002, 54 students were so designated. Last year 118 were.

What is an IEP?

In MUSD, all special-education students are given some type of assistance from special-education teachers, paraeducators, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, and school psychologists and counselors.

The specific services a student receives is based on their Individual Education Plan, a document that describes the amount of support and instruction each child needs to succeed in school.

The IEP determines how much time a student must spend in specialized instruction or with support staff.

“If (students) have an eligibility but they can still access their general education curriculum, then we have them in general education classes with support, because the main goal is to look at the least-restrictive environment and provide what they need in that setting,” Weis said.

But sometimes MUSD does not have the staff or resources to meet the needs of its specialeducation students and is forced to contract with outside agencies, including the Ventura County Office of Education and the Simi Valley Unified School District.

MUSD also works with private agencies when there is a shortage of qualified professionals to fill a role in the district. For example, two speech and language pathologists working in Moorpark Unified this school year were hired through a private agency.

In fact, someone seeking a new career may want to consider becoming a speech pathologist. It’s a job, Weis said, that’s in high demand in the state.

MUSD, for example, has had an opening for a speech and language pathologist for the past two years. The starting pay for the job is $68,000, according to the district.

To help reduce the need for outside services, MUSD has provided additional training for its teachers and paraeducators throughout the school year, according to Weis.

“We are very fortunate in Moorpark that one of our school psychologists is a BCBA, which is a board certified behavioral analyst, and so we have provided a number of workshops for paraeducators as well as some of our teachers,” Weis said.

The district also works with the Ventura County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), an office within the Ventura County Office of Education that provides public education to all students with disabilities, to give additional coaching to teachers.

“We were able to access another training going on in the Las Virgenes School District for paraeducators and teachers to be trained more with (applied behavioral analysis)-type procedures for students who have behavioral needs or have the eligibility of autism,” Weis said.

With this ongoing training, the district hopes to provide all students with the best possible education, while finding ways to financially support MUSD’s special-education needs.