WPR

Earlier this year, school leaders across Wisconsin asked the Republican-controlled Legislature to boost funding for special education services in public schools. The biennial budget included a reimbursement rate from the long-standing 32 percent to 42 percent this year and 45 percent next year. In exchange, public schools are not receiving an increase in general aid over the biennium. Gov. Tony Evers praised the bipartisan deal as the largest increase to special education in the state’s history. But some education advocates, including the Wisconsin Public Education Network, said the budget remained “woefully inadequate to meet school districts’ needs.” An email sent to school officials on Nov. 17 by the Department of Public Instruction shows that this could be correct. School districts are going to receive about $140 million less than they originally expected to provide special education services this year. The state will be reimbursing the services — which public schools are legally obligated to provide — at 35 percent, instead of the expected 42 percent. That’s because school districts spent more on special education than the Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated, according to DPI.