Special education costs, especially midyear hikes, frustrate fiscal planning

By JENNIFER MANN
The Patriot Ledger

Administrators across the South Shore are wringing their hands over the spiraling costs of private special education placements.

The most recent hikes in tuition – some taking effect in January, others at the start of the next fiscal year in July – threaten to squeeze school budgets like never before, they say.

The cost to send one autistic student to the Boston Higashi School beginning July 1: $166,539.

The price tag will be even higher at the New England Center for Children: up to $275,697, depending on the child.

The local school district is mandated to pick up these costs under state and federal law. A commission under the state’s Operational Services Division sets the rates, effectively deciding what taxpayers contribute.

“We are all faced with a very difficult economy, but apparently no one has notified the (state) that cities and towns cannot afford the ongoing increases while living with the realities of the worst economy of our lives,” said Bob Sherman, Plymouth’s director of pupil personnel services.

Sherman expressed his concerns in a letter to the superintendent of schools after news of the tuition hikes began pouring in from private schools. He lamented that “there is no forum for public input” with the state’s rate setting process.

“The students in these programs are arguably the neediest of our children and my position has always left me in the dilemma of advocating for the needs of these children while maintaining a reality-based budget,” he said.

Today, one in six children in Massachusetts receives at least some special education and a growing number are diagnosed with disabilities rarely seen 30 years ago. Increasingly, this is eating up school spending.

In a special report last year, The Patriot Ledger discovered the state has the fourth-highest rate of out-of-district placement in the nation, with one-third of special ed spending statewide going out of district.

But in some South Shore communities, private placements accounted for up to half of special ed spending.

Cities and towns, which are limited by state law in their ability to raise new taxes, pick up most of the cost for special ed. The state kicks in about 35 percent. The federal government kicks in a smaller percentage in grants.

Randolph School Superintendent Richard Silverman said districts try to control special education costs by serving as many students as possible in-district. They also try to keep money in reserve in the event that a new special ed student moves into town and requires outside placement.

“We don’t have many students in residential placements, but it only takes one or two to create a significant problem,” he said.

Susan Dupuis, Marshfield’s director of special education, said tuition increases that come mid-year pose “an enormous challenge” because the budget has already been set.

“It’s not about a student with learning needs,” added Marshfield Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin. “The frustration is that in times of fiscal constraints and limited resources there is little restriction, or appears to be little restriction, on other private schools being able to have increasing needs and put that toward us.”

Jennifer Mann may be reached at jmann@ledger.com.