abuses.

r Tammy Baldwin, thanks for your time.

>> A major compromise included in the new state budget says the state will provide 90% of the funding for high cost special education students.

To detail how this will impact schools, we are joined by two members of the Waunakee School District.

Steve Summers is the executive director of business ns, and Tiffany Logan is the director of special education.

Thank you both for joining us.

>> Thank you for having us.

>> Tiffany, let's start with you.

Give me the quick definition of high cost special education student.

And how many do you have in Waunakee?

high cost, it's any student that their services meet the threshold of $30,000 or more for that individual student.

So in our district we have between 60 and 70 students that would meet that threshold, at least for last.

This last year, they met about 60 to 70 students.

at's the financial impact of going to 90% from, you know, mid Leow to low 30%?

>> Sure.

The reimbursement level that we received in 2425 was about $300,000.

We expect that's going to increase by about $400,000 this year and another 350,000 the following year.

So very significant investment from the state into this program.

>> And so what is the plan for how that money will be spent?

Where will it be redirected in the budget?

>> We did decide.

We took to the school board proposal to begin a new program, an alternative program for elementary age students that need a little more intensive support than what we can provide in a regular education classroom.

And the board was really supportive because of this additional funding, because we could speak to using the high cost funds to fund the program.

And it's starting starting this week.

>> So is there an obligation for districts to keep that money in special education, because some districts have had to pull from general ed to fund special education?

>> Yeah, the increased funding does go into our special education fund in some district case that may reduce the transfer that is needed from the General Education Fund to the special ed fund in our district.

We will partner together between the business office and the special ed office to improve or increase our investment in students who have IEPs, whether it's the program that Tiffany's referencing or whether when we need to add an additional one on one paraeducator for students o move in.

But we tend to utilize the funds to increase the services for students with IEPs.

>> So, Tiffany, there are already skeptics saying that schools are going to push more kids into this category to try and grab more state dollars.

Should we expect to see an increase in the number of kids that have this definition applied to their IEP?

>> I don't think you'll see an increase in the number of students.

I think what you're going to see in future years is an increase in the number of districts that are applying for high cost, special education aid.

Now that the the percentage is increasing, there's more of an incentive for districts to apply for that aid.

So I don't think you're going to see a student increase, but tely additional districts applying for those funds.

districts before that weren't providing all the services that potentially they could have to some of these students because they couldn't afford it or what was the rationale there?

>> So in the last fiscal year, there were about 270 organizations or school districts that applied for this funding.

And there's more than 400 school districts in Wisconsin.

So for many of them, they determine that the reimbursement level that was coming back wasn't significant enough for the investment in the time to go through and file the claim.

For others, they may not have identified students that were $30,000 or more and above.

Tiffany and I are partnering with our professional organizations this year to help provide professional development across the state.

We do expect more schools to learn about this system, how it works, and because of the increased investment from the state, we are expecting more districts are going to be willing to spend the time necessary to really apply for and manage these funds.

>> So the state budget also included a jump in the reimbursement rate for regular special education om 32% to 42%.

Is that a bigger number overall for most schools than this high cost?

>> Yes, it's a significantly bigger number for most schools than the high cost.

In our case is an example.

It's an over $800,000 increase in additional funding for l ed students in 2526, and it's the largest increase I've seen in my career.

So it's significant and what it's going to allow most schools to do is to benefit all students.

I think it's important to that an increase in funding for special education students benefits the entire school system.

Students, both with and without IEPs, because when a school special education fund is not funded correctly, the fund ten or the general fund has to reimburse, which removes opportunities for students who don't have IEPs.

So it truly benefits all kids for special ed funding to be at a more appropriate level.

>> And Tiffany, working with these kids can be very rewarding, but it can also be very challenging.

And there's a lot of turnover in some of these paid staffing positions.

Could you see an increase in funding for wages to try and keep more consistency there?

>> Yeah, I think that I think that could be a possibility.

I think it will.

Increasing wages definitely helps you to recruit people and be able to keep them.

I mean, just example, for our district alone, we had 12 full time positions open this summer and we're very close to being full staffed.

But it's definitely difficult to keep people, especially in our paraprofessional positions, who are really working with some of our highest needs students.