Funding to special education will be increased this year, in part to fund the city’s reform of the special education system.
Members of Community Education Council 27 (CEC 27) discussed the Department of Education’s (DOE) proposed budget for the 2013 fiscal year at their last meeting on May 21.
According to a power point presentation shown at the CEC meeting, the DOE’s total budget for 2013 is $24.4 billion, with an operating budget of $19.7 billion. This total budget includes about $9 billion from the city of New York and $4.7 billion that’s slated to pay for interests and pensions related to the education
debt service funds, which is not a part of the actual operating budget.
Schools get funding in a certain number of ways, one of which is called the Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula. The formula, which the city has used since 2007- 2008, determines the amount of money a school receives based on its students and their needs. According to the DOE’s website, about $5 billion in FSF dollars will be used in the upcoming school year to cover basic needs. All of the money that a school gets through FSF is used at the principal’s discretion.
To put it in simpler terms, if a child that enrolls in a public school is both a special
education and an English as a second language student, that school would receive funding for both of that child’s needs. That child would also require an allocation based on what grade he or she is entering.
Other ways schools get funding are through state and federal programs and internal programs that are not a part of FSF.
Michele Lloyd-Bey, the superintendent for District 27, and Matthew Melchiorre, a
representative from the DOE, talked about the budget. The budget presentation served as Lloyd-Bey’s monthly report she gives at every CEC 27 meeting.
One of the two changes in next year’s budget compared to this year’s is that more FSF money will be given to special education, as part of the DOE’s special education reform.
The reform is designed to have more kids attend their locally zoned schools and get the education and services that they need at those schools, rather than being forced to travel to schools that may be farther away.
Melchiorre said that this adjustment is needed to support the special education reform.
“It’s important to look at special education weights, because the special education initiative is changing those weights,” he said.
According to the presentation, the additional money will provide more flexible programs to build support for students with disabilities.
The Panel for Education Policy (PEP) voted to approve the budget on May 23.
By Luis Gronda
