Same Funds, More Disabled Students Federal Help Spread Thin Because Of Increased Numbers
The good news for school districts is: The federal government didn’t cut back on the amount of money it sent to Idaho this year to help disabled students.
The bad news is: More students need help. So the amount of money available for each has dropped, said Laurance Carlson of the state Department of Education.
“District after district is calling to tell us they have many more students than they thought they would,” Carlson said at a special education forum on Monday.
The forum was one of a series held throughout the state. The audience consisted mostly of teachers and special education directors for area schools.
The state spends no more money on disabled students than on the others. Rather, the Special Education Section distributes funds from the federal government. For 1996-97, that amounts to $2 million for preschool children and $9.5 million for students age 6 through 21.
School districts will get $347 per student, Carlson said. There are 23,652 students who qualify for special help with mental, emotional or physical disabilities. That’s more than 9 percent of Idaho’s public school students.
Among other information shared at the forum:
The Department of Education is working on a plan to provide services for disabled adult inmates at the eight adult correctional facilities. Carlson said the state was in danger of losing federal funding because it did not provide for adults as well as juvenile inmates.
In October, the department plans to distribute to schools the first Idaho resource guide on attention deficit disorder.
The state’s new coordinator of gifted and talented programs, Gary Marx, found that 29 percent of the state’s school districts offer no special programs for gifted students. Nolene Weaver, special education supervisor, said Marx is visiting with districts throughout the state.
Twenty-five pages of special- education regulations have been condensed to five pages in the proposed revision of the state’s rule book for local schools. But there are few significant changes, Weaver said, because most of the existing state rules simply repeat federal regulations.
, DataTimes