Wayne school board petitions NJ for more special ed aid
WAYNE — The school board is demanding that the state provide more financial aid for special education as prices for salaries, supplies and tuition continue to soar.
Trustees approved a letter to be sent to New Jersey education officials, imploring full funding of those necessary expenses. They say the disparity between ever-rising costs and meager bumps in state aid has forced the K-12 district to make “impossible choices.”
Special education expenses increased this school year by 6.2% — from $40.3 million to $42.8 million.
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That chunk eats up about one-fifth of the Wayne district spending plan, mirroring its classification rate. Most recent available state figures show that 20.5% of students enrolled are in special education.
“Current funding levels continue to be grossly inadequate and place an unsustainable burden on our ability to provide essential education to our special needs students,” reads the letter, signed by Donald Pavlak Jr., the school board president.
The letter also states that special education is the main cause of the district having to shift money away from other important items in its budget.
Special education extraordinary aid, as it is known, is regulated by the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.
Wayne K-12 district offices on Nellis Drive.
The program offers additional financial aid to districts with classified students whose education costs exceed certain thresholds. The limit is $40,000 for those taught by in-house staff and $55,000 for those taught in private schools.
Using that formula, the local district applied for $7.5 million in additional financial aid to offset the costs of special education students for last year. However, the school board letter says less than $4.7 million was received and that the state has not fully funded its requested amount of aid in at least five years.
“Our district is being financially strangled,” the letter says. “This situation not only jeopardizes the educational outcomes of our special needs students, but it also undermines the overall stability and effectiveness of our educational system.”
Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news in your community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wayne NJ schools implore state for extra special ed aid
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