Learn more: Special Education Funding

By WASBO Research Director Anne Chapman • October 12, 2022

As many of you are aware, I started as the new WASBO Research Director on September 1st. I have enjoyed seeing many of you in person at conferences and meetings over the past few weeks and look forward to meeting all of you soon!

In support of WASBO’s advocacy mission "to advocate for funding that ensures outstanding educational opportunities for all children in Wisconsin", my chief role is to conduct and communicate data-driven nonpartisan research to educate our members and public education stakeholders. A key aim is to provide resources that help school districts tell their stories about the impact of school finance policy, whether their audience is school boards and legislators or parents and community members.

I am reaching out today in that capacity for the first time! You may be aware of a report on special education funding that I authored in my previous role at the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Yesterday, the national Education Law Center released a new report that builds meaningfully on that research. Its main findings are:

  • After accounting for state and federal special education funding, Wisconsin’s school districts spent $1.25 billion in resources intended for general education of all students to cover unreimbursed special education costs (2019-20 school year).
  • The impact of the state’s underfunding of special education hits high-poverty districts especially hard. Because high-poverty districts often enroll a higher share of students with disabilities than low-poverty districts, on average they pull $552 more per pupil from their general education budgets to cover unfunded special education costs.

The report includes links to interactive data tools that offer useful images and talking points:

  • A map of Wisconsin and its school districts (with demographics) shows where underfunding of special education is especially concentrated. Hardest-hit districts are scattered throughout the state in urban, rural, and suburban areas alike. The impact is particularly pronounced in the northeast.
  • You can see disparities between districts by choosing any two districts to compare their demographics, current special education funding levels, and dollar amounts in unfunded special education costs.
  • A slider tool provides instant visuals of the impact on districts of a given increase in state reimbursement.

SAA sent out a blog about this report including talking points about the state of special education funding in Wisconsin. The Wheeler Report email also covered it and included a link we provided of a 50-state comparison of special education funding mechanisms that puts Wisconsin’s policy in a national perspective. Wisconsin is one of two states that takes a hybrid approach combining reimbursement and high-cost services methods.

The report concludes with a call to increase state funding for special education. Key implications of such a policy shift would address both adequacy and equity concerns:

  • An increase in Wisconsin’s special education reimbursement rate is the proverbial tide that raises all boats. It would help every single school district in the state, no matter what share of their students are getting special education services.
  • Higher state special education reimbursement would be especially beneficial for the districts that serve the most vulnerable students in terms of economic disadvantage.
  • More special education state aid would help students with disabilities specifically by enabling school districts to stabilize and improve their special education staffing and programming capacity.
  • Students with disabilities are general education students first, in many cases, learning alongside general education students in the same classrooms and accessing much of the same instruction, programs, and facilities. Higher state support for added special education costs frees up critical resources in districts’ general education budgets for investments that serve all students in the district (for example, classroom staffing and early interventions that could help districts avoid or reduce special education costs in the longer term).

Given the central role special education plays in Wisconsin school finance, please let me know your thoughts about the report. What other key conclusions do you draw from it? How useful is it to help you tell your district’s story?

Please let me know too if you have any ideas about how to use emails like this to help you in your work, topics you would like us to cover in the future, or other communication avenues you suggest we use.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be developing and refining our research agenda. Our goal for this new chapter in WASBO’s advocacy work is to become a go-to resource for relevant explanation, information, and analysis on the most important school finance issues in Wisconsin. Your input will be instrumental in this work. I will be reaching out, and I am always eager to connect. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.