As school officials work through the proposed 2017/2018 Board of Education (BOE) budget, one of the standout features this year is the expansion of special education services aimed at keeping Guilford students in Guilford schools.

Starting next year, Guilford will have a complete specialized education program for students pre-K through age 21 as the district prepares to add a new program at Elizabeth C. Adams Middle School.

The expansion of this particular education program was the subject of discussion at the BOE budget public hearings held Jan. 23 and 24. School officials have been working for the past several years to expand specialized education services to keep students in district who might otherwise be placed out due to their specific educational needs, according to Director of Pupil Services Virginia Brown.

“One of our main goals and focuses was to really try and boost the programs in district and also boost our staff’s ability to deal with students that have more severe disabilities,” she said. “Before that, most of the students were mostly placed out, often at a very young age, and really the intention of an outplacement is for the student to go out, receive the services that they need, and then come back in district.”

Schools are legally required to educate students in the least restrictive environment possible. According to Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman, around 11 percent of all students in Guilford require some level of special education services, but the majority remain in general education classes. This specialized Pre-K to 21 program focuses on a select group of close to 88 students who require more specialized assistance.

To bring the program to Adams and complete the service offering, Freeman said the district is looking to change a few spaces in the school. Most additional staffing has been achieved by shifting around current staffing.

“We use the word ‘program’ rather broadly,” he said. “What it means is we are expanding the school and the staff capacity to service kids who have more significant needs than we may have had in that school in the past.”

Changing the specific spaces at Adams can include things such as altering the lighting, bringing in different furniture, and building a quiet space. While Freeman said the primary goal of expanding this program is that it is often in the best interest of the student to educate them in their home district, there is also a cost savings associated.

“As a side effect, we can offer enhanced services here in the district and do it for less than the combined tuition and transportation cost would be to send them to a remote location,” he said. “I often refer to it as a cost avoided. I wouldn’t suggest for a minute that we are spending less on special education than we have in the past, but we have avoided the cost of other students that would have been placed out.”

Outplacement costs for students can reach into the six-figure range, according to Brown.

“The outplacements are getting more and more expensive and there is no control over that,” she said. “They are private schools so they make their own rates…Probably 20 percent [of the current special education students] would be outplacements if we didn’t have these programs.”

Even with the complete program in district, special education can be a budgeting challenge as student needs can change and students can move in and out of district each year. Costs for special education are spread over a number of budget lines including tuition—listed in the budget proposal for $2,622,684—and transportation, and Freeman said he is not completely confident with the figures as they stand now.

“We were very confident with the tuition line we put in this budget about five weeks ago; we are less confident with that budget line item as we sit here tonight,” he said. “Guilford is not unique in how we have struggled to provide services for these students in a way that is fiscally manageable.”

Special education funding did not increase when the BOE voted the budget proposal on Jan. 30, with Freeman saying he will watch those budget items carefully. Freeman said the district also has to be wary of possible shifts in the Excess Cost Grant. The grant says that once a district spends 4.5 times the amount spent on an average student to educate one student, the state will pick up the rest of the tab. Historically, however, the state has only covered close to 70 percent of the excess cost in years past. Additionally, districts are not notified as to the rate of contribution until after the budget has left the BOE’s hands.

“I can’t be as comfortable relying on the Excess Cost Grant as maybe I could have been in the past,” said Freeman.

Despite possible cuts in state aid, BOE Chair Bill Bloss said this is a program the district can be proud of.

“We don’t want to give anybody the idea that there is an asteroid heading for the education system,” he said. “The state doesn’t give us that much money. We will be OK. It would be better if the state kept its word. The state cuts will have some impact here, but they will not have the impact they will have in some other places.”