School Finance: School Choice

How Special Education Costs Are Factored Into School Choice Tuition

3/17/09

School choice special education pupils' tuitions are intended to reflect the actual costs of their specific services. These "sped increments" are added to a receiving district's base regular education rate, to determine any special education pupil's total school choice tuition. The sending district pays the full tuition cost.

December 2008 and March 2009 school choice calculations for FY09 relied upon the October 1, 2008 Student Information System (SIMS) submission. The Department estimated annual FY09 increments for the December and March distributions as follows:

1. if a pupil had a special education school choice increment in FY08, that amount was used as the estimate, or

2. a pupil's increment was estimated based upon statewide averages for his or her special education placement type (SIMS element DOE034)

If special education pupils are submitted in April with no associated sped increments on the claim form, their June tuitions will not reflect any of the earlier estimates. They will not be credited with any additional costs other than their regular education tuition rate. Any pupil with a sped increment must have an associated special education placement code in column J of the claim form.

The School Choice Special Education Increment Template

The template is similar to the one used to determine circuit breaker costs. However, unlike the circuit breaker, it does not count a base cost for regular education in the template calculations. School choice regulations specify a separate calculation for the regular education base cost, which is combined with the sped increment and any related transportation costs stipulated by the iep, to determine total tuition. This slight difference in the templates means that districts should download the school choice sped increment template and use it for the determination of costs. To properly fill out the sped increment template the preparer should have had circuit breaker training.

Significant changes in Individualized Education Plans during the year may mean that some pupils will need to have at least two "placement" records even though they remained in the district all year. The template is designed to add the two costs for a combined increment covering the student's entire period of service over the course of the year.

Districts should save the template on their own pc's or networks, and have each pupil's specific information available for sending school districts or auditors. Each pupil's increment can be found in the "sum_all" sheet of the increment workbook, in column L ("FY09 adjusted total cost"). That amount should be added to any iep-stipulated transportation cost and the result placed in column L ("Special Ed Cost") of the school choice claim form.

The increment can now include the costs of any summer 2008 SPED programs, if those services are stipulated on a pupil's IEP. This is a school choice policy beginning two year's ago..

Reporting of increments to the Department.

Each district claiming increments must upload its completed SPED increment spreadsheet to the School Choice drop box on the security portal. Beginning last year, this applies to any level of increment, not just those eligible for Circuit Breaker reimbursement.

Circuit Breaker staff include the school choice sped increment form in its annual audit process. and will continue to do so this year and in the future.

Contact info:

Questions should be addressed to Phyllis Rogers of the Office of School Finance, at 781-338-6534 (progers@doe.mass.edu).