Special education task force bill approved

By: 
Dana Hess, Community News Service
PIERRE — Despite opposition from the S.D. Department of Education, on Jan. 22 the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that would create a two-year task force to study special education.
Sen. Jim Bolin, R-Canton, told the committee that the need to create a task force was apparent after two summer studies concluded that the state faces a challenge as the number of special needs students in the state increases and schools are often hard-pressed to find the funding to meet the needs of those students.
The task force would consist of three legislators, the chairs of the House and Senate education committees and a member from the minority party; three school superintendents with one from East River, one from West River and one from a school with an enrollment of 400 or fewer; a special education advocate; a school board member; a special education director; a school district business manager; and two appointments by the governor, one of whom needs to be the parent of a special education student.
According to SB3, the main concerns of the task force would be to determine why special education numbers are growing and how school districts will be able to fund that education.
Bolin, who served as a vice-chairman on a summer study, said one of the things legislators learned was that the school districts often tap the Extraordinary Cost Fund for unanticipated special education funding. The fund is capped at $4 million.
Bolin said a school may tap the fund if a special education student moves into the district late in the summer and wasn’t a factor when the school budget was set.
Traditionally, larger school districts have not used the fund, Bolin said, but as the number of special education students grows, so does the probability that larger districts will tap and exhaust the fund.
Special education was mandated by the federal government in 1975, Bolin said, with a promise that the federal government would pick up 40 percent of the cost.
“They have never met that obligation under any political party,” Bolin said, noting that currently the federal government pays 18 to 19 percent of South Dakota’s special education costs.
“This is a good idea for looking for a solution to a very real problem,” Bolin said of creating the task force.
Wade Pogany, executive director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, said that school districts may use a special tax levy to fund special education. Currently 99 of the 149 school districts are using the maximum levy available.
“The costs for school districts have grown significantly,” Pogany said. “This will become the next big thing.”
Pogany shared statistics with the committee that said there were 15,540 special education students in the state in 1998. That number grew to 21,088 in 2017. Pogany said the numbers have increased 15 percent since 2013.
Brett Arenz of the Department of Education told the committee that the task force was not needed because the department already has a federally mandated 18-member committee that includes parents as well as members from higher education who teach special education teachers.
Sen. Blake Curd, R-Sioux Falls, asked if there was any indication about why the number of special education students was growing.
Bolin said, based on testimony he heard in the summer study, that there’s a rise in the number of students on the autism spectrum as well as medical advances that are allowing more students with severe disabilities to live longer.
“We should rejoice in that,” Bolin said.
State Director of Special Education Linda Turner said four years ago the state began using a broader definition governing the diagnosis of autism. This has led to about a 3 percent increase in the number of students who need special education, she said.
Turner explained that the 18-member committee meets quarterly and is tasked with making suggestions about the state’s federal budget application and setting priorities. Currently one of the priorities for the committee is bolstering parental rights, Turner said.
In voicing his support for the bill, Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, said, “We control the purse strings. The advisory board doesn’t have the ability or the skill set to do that.”
Casting the lone dissenting vote on the bill was Sen. Phil Jensen, R-Rapid City.
“I think this is simply an expansion of the size and scope of government,” Jensen said.
The bill was sent to the full Senate on a 5-1 vote.

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