Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials
TO:
Members of the House of Representatives
FROM:
Hannah Barrick, Director of Advocacy
SUBJECT:
PASBO Supports House Bill 2138
DATE:
April 29, 2014
The PA Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) strongly supports House Bill 2138 as it represents the
culmination of months of careful and thorough work by the Special Education Funding Commission. The bill
recommends a new formula for the distribution of new special education dollars to school districts and makes
needed changes to the current charter school special education tuition calculation.
Six years of a level-funded special education line item that distributes special education dollars based upon the
invalid assumption that all school districts contain an identical and constant special education population, has
resulted in significant inequities in state special education funding across districts across the Commonwealth.
Currently, the per student special education funding across districts ranges from $1,400 to $7,300.
The Special Education Funding Commission, authorized by Act 3 of 2013, examined current special education
funding, heard from stakeholders on every aspect of special education and conducted a survey of school districts
and charter schools in conjunction with the Independent Fiscal Office. Their bi-partisan work resulted in a new
formula for the distribution of new special education dollars to school districts and modifications to the current
charter school special education tuition calculation.
PASBO fully supports the new formula in House Bill 2138. Driving out additional resources based largely upon
the actual population of special education students and the cost of those special education students in each
school district, the bill takes an important step forward in beginning to alleviate the inequity that currently exists
across the Commonwealth.
PASBO fully supports the changes to the charter school special education tuition calculation in House Bill 2138.
The current charter school special education funding formula is based entirely on the costs of the sending school
district and generally at least doubles the tuition a school district sends to a charter school for a regular education
student regardless of the costs of the special education student. Based on 2011-12 data, the charter school tuition
calculation drives—on average—over $18,000 per special education student to a charter school. Charter schools,
however, spent—on average—only $8,500 per student on special education instructional costs.
House Bill 2138 modifies the tuition calculation to alleviate this general overpayment and reduce the financial
incentive to over-identify special education students. By factoring in the general cost of educating each special
education student in the charter school, charter schools will get a special education tuition rate tailored to the
special education costs of each student. This means that a charter school would get significantly more in special
education tuition than they do now for each high cost special education student and that they would get less than
the current rate for their lowest cost special education students, which simply do not cost double the regular
education tuition rate.
House Bill 2138 provides a solid new formula for the distribution of new special education dollars, focusing on
actual costs instead of on assumptions, and works to ensure that all school districts and charter schools have
the resources necessary to provide high quality special education services to their students.