U.S. school districts redirect stimulus money intended for special education

From The Wall Street Journal. In the picture, Students near Boyd H. Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., Jan. 4. The school is part of the Broward County district, which shifted funds to save jobs.

Florida's Broward County Public Schools saved as many as 900 jobs this school year. Nevada's Clark County School District just added more math and tutoring programs. And in Connecticut's Bloomfield Public Schools, eight elementary- and middle-school teachers were spared from layoffs.

These cash-strapped districts covered the costs using a boost in funding intended for special education, drawing an outcry from parents and advocates of special-needs children.

A provision in federal law allows some school districts to spend millions of dollars of special-education money elsewhere, and a government report indicates many more districts plan to take advantage of the provision.

School administrators say shifting the money allows them to save jobs and valuable programs that benefit a wide range of students.

"We absolutely need this," said James Notter, superintendent of the Broward County Public Schools, the sixth-largest district in the country. He said the provision is "an absolute salvation for us," because the $32 million reduced from the local budget for special education allows him to save between 600 and 900 jobs that would likely have disappeared this school year.

The budget for Broward County's Exceptional Student Education program grew to $503.7 million this school year, $50 million of which comes from the extra stimulus funding for special-needs students. That makes current-year levels 10% higher than a year ago.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office, which surveyed a "nationally representative sample" of school districts, says that about 44% of them plan to use the provision that allows them to shift funds.

But supporters of special education say special-needs students are being shortchanged. The biggest rub: To shift the funds, schools must show they have met certain criteria, which may include graduation and drop-out rates of special-education students. To allow more districts to qualify, some states are ignoring or lowering the standards.

"This is a slap in the face," said Candace Cortiella, director of the Advocacy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-area nonprofit that advises students with disabilities. "This is historic funding that could have had a huge impact with [special-education] students, and states and districts have instead chosen to minimize the amount of good."

At the heart of the debate is a provision in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, a version of a statute originally enacted in 1975. The provision says that in years in which there is an increase in federal funding for special-needs students, districts already meeting certain standards can choose to reduce their local spending on special education by as much as 50% of the federal-funding increase -- and, in turn, divert the freed-up money to other uses.

In past years, increases, if any, in IDEA funding were generally small, so the provision -- intended to give districts some flexibility -- wasn't used much. But the Obama administration's economic-stimulus plan boosted IDEA funding by an unprecedented $11.3 billion over this school year and the next -- roughly equal to the total amount states received a year ago.

Use of the provision to redirect funds has prompted a letter from Education Secretary Arne Duncan urging states to refrain from relaxing their requirements to allow more districts to take advantage of the provision.

At the same time, state education officials say many of their districts are struggling to keep their heads above water. "I do have great respect for Secretary Duncan, but I felt we were left with no choice," said Heidi Atkins Lieberman, Missouri's assistant commissioner in charge of special education. Missouri says it will temporarily suspend tracking graduation and drop-out rates of special-education students so that more districts can take advantage of the flexibility provision. Michigan and Illinois have taken similar steps.

There aren't immediate consequences: Through next school year, districts using the provision will continue to enjoy increased special-education funding, thanks to the stimulus. But newly lowered local-funding levels will become the new threshold districts are required to maintain to keep receiving federal funds, which is likely to result in lower local special-education spending.

Mark Halpert, president of the Learning Disabilities Association of Florida, said that is a reason he spoke up at a recent meeting against Broward County reducing its local special-education budget to save jobs. He said he would have liked to see the funds spark "new and innovative programs" for special education.

Mr. Notter, of the Broward County schools, said federal stimulus funds still allowed him to add programs to the special-education department, such as teacher-training workshops and school-to-community transition programs for students that he said were much needed -- and are likely to continue well into the future.

While aware that the funding shifts could pressure local special-education funding in the years ahead, the current budget situation is so dire, Mr. Notter says, that he is in a position of trying to rescue what he can for the current school year. "It's about getting to the next day," he said.