The Cost of Special Education in San Mateo County School Districts Issue | Background | Findings | Conclusions |

The Federal government, as legislated, agreed to cover 40% of the cost of Special Education services. The actual reimbursement to each school district is between 15%- 20%. The 20% reimbursement rate was achieved in the 2009-2010 school year when federal stimulus funds earmarked for special education were distributed to school districts.

San Mateo County schools have an Average Daily Attendance of approximately 86,000 students of which 12% are in Special Education. The Consortium percentage of special education is slightly lower at 11.5%. For the four North County Consortium elementary school districts (Bayshore, Brisbane, Jefferson, and Pacifica) that have participated in the Consortium since its founding in 2006, the general fund contribution average is 7.7% compared to the average for the non-Consortium elementary school districts at 11.8%. (Appendix B, San Mateo County SELPA, General fund Contributions to Special Education Services, 3/25/2010)

Some districts are supplementing a high proportion of their Special Education fund with general funds (Appendix B).

The County Office of Education educates the most severely disabled students because these students need teachers with advanced credentials, modified facilities and specialized equipment.

The North County Consortium has substantially reduced the number of placements in county operated programs for students with less severe disabilities at a minimum savings of $14,000 per Special Education student. The districts forming the Consortium banded together and offered their own Special Education programs with reduced personnel and overhead costs.

The SELPA provides the following: a. Individual Education Plan (IEP) Training of Trainers Modules. The training is focused on applying the eligibility criteria consistently and writing compliant IEP’s that provide educational benefit. b. Ongoing meetings with the San Mateo County Behavioral Health Division of the County Health Department and The Golden Gate Regional Center to foster interagency collaboration. The meetings with the Regional Center have improved the transition from Early Start to preschool so that Regional Center caseworkers are not demanding that Early Start services continue when the child transitions to preschool, which is very costly. c. A redesign of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process. Each district will designate three parents who will be trained as resource parents. They will be trained in effective communication skills, collaboration, and the IEP process so that they can help other parents new to the system. The SELPA also offers trained facilitators to mediate at a difficult IEP. 4 d. Analysis of the results of the recent Autism Survey to develop trainings for best practices in the delivery of services to students with autism. e. Meetings with NPA/ABA providers to discuss accountability issues concerning billing, fading (the reduction of services over time), and professional conduct of in-home ABA providers. The SELPA is looking at hiring ABA providers through the COE or a district so that there is more control over the services. f. The completion of guidelines on the use of Special Circumstance Instructional Assistance (SCIA) aides. These guidelines are intended to provide districts with a step-by-step process on how to determine if a student needs an SCIA. There is also a fading of services process to ensure that the SCIA does not prevent the student from becoming independent. Training on the SCIA Guidelines will be conducted in the fall of 2010. g. A master contract with Non Public Schools (NPS), and Non Public Agency providers (NPA) that sets uniform rates for all school districts h. Guidance in the plan to establish a legal fund from the SELPA Contingency Fund to defend against high profile and precedent setting special education legal cases. A legal costs survey indicated that districts tend to settle in mediation rather than going to a due process fair hearing before an administrative law judge. Judges make rulings that are non-binding and can be appealed to a federal court. Sometimes, it is less expensive for a school district to settle than to take the risk to go to due process. For example, if a school district looses in due process they become liable for the legal expenses incurred by the parent. With the backing of the proposed Legal Costs Pool, a district would have some financial support to go forward with a case that they think might have a precedent setting value for the other districts in the SELPA. Conclusions The 2009-2010 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury concludes that: