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Our View: Special Ed Needs More Attention

Unfunded mandates, products of the federal and state governments, do not sit well with local-level units of government.

Neither do those mandates sit well with school districts and institutions of higher learning, especially as they are trying to prepare and balance new budget packages.

Depending on the scope of such a mandate, an unfunded or weakly funded edict can wreak havoc on the most well-thought-out of spending plans, not only for a year but possibly extending far beyond.

Why is it a good time to be reflecting on budget challenges, especially in regard to upper-levels-of-government mandates? The answer rests in special education.

The 1970s-era federal law that created the necessary special education system authorized federal funding for only up to 40% of the costs to provide the special services — a figure at least 10 percentage points lower than the amount that should have been authorized.

Even so, according to an article in the June 21 Wall Street Journal, “the federal contribution has always fallen far short” of the 40% figure, and that is worthy of being dubbed unconscionable.

The Journal, referring to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, reported regular federal funding for the special education law has fallen since 2010.

However, the Journal article was more than about numbers and percentages. More importantly, it was about the fact that special education in the U.S. is outgrowing resources — and that should not be happening.

How that information might factor into special ed services in schools in the six-county Southern Alleghenies region is unclear, but it would be good if school officials in the region would brainstorm the issue.

The aim of that study should not only be about telling the local public whether or not there is a special education problem here like the one that exists in many locales on the national landscape. But if there is, what is being done to address it both now and for the years going forward.

“More U.S. children than ever are qualifying for special education, but schools are struggling to find enough teachers to meet their needs” is the way the Journal began its June 21 report. The report continued: “As of 2022-23, a record 7.5 million students accessed special-education services in U.S. schools, including children with autism, speech impairments and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. That is 15.2% of the public-school population, up from less than 13% a decade earlier, the most recent federal data show.”

Under federal law, children in public schools qualify for special education services if they are identified as having certain disabilities that hinder educational performance. Among the resources that benefit students with disabilities are specialized reading lessons and speech therapy.

Yet many school officials across America are reporting that their schools are understaffed on the special education front and that their recruiting efforts are not producing the results that they want and need.

Coupled with that is the growing pressures school district budgets are destined to face as the result of this fall’s expiration of federal Covid-19 relief aid.

Are financial incentives and professional-advancement incentives two good options for attacking the current shortages facing special education? Special education’s most knowledgeable minds need to evaluate all of the problem’s reasons and possibilities, moving forward, and develop recommendations.

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