It’s the wild card that every district worries about: One summer after the budget for the coming school year had already been cut, a family moved to Glen Ridge with triplets, all of whom were severely disabled and in need of intensive special education.
The small district had to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars. A single student with cerebral palsy or severe autism can cost more than $ 100,000 a year.
“It can be a very difficult topic, a very polarizing topic because the money has to come from somewhere,” said Betsy Ginsburg, who heads the Glen Ridge school board and the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents about 100 counties.
We are far from the dark days when children with severe disabilities were put into storage; Now we are spending a lot of money giving them the tools to live full lives. New Jersey should be proud of that. But the downside is the cost, Ginsburg notes – in order to give children the care they need, the districts need more government support.
“We never want children in general to be pitted against children in special schools,” agreed Sharon Levine of the Arc of New Jersey, a group that works for children with disabilities. “Nobody is doing well.”
The only answer is for the state to step in and help to ensure that these costs are shared, a principle that leaders of both parties support. By law, Trenton is supposed to cover 85 percent of “extraordinary” special expenses, defined as more than $ 40,000 per student in the district or $ 55,000 in a private school. However, the state ignored this law and failed to pay its share in budget time as it fell below 50 percent in recent years.
This is now finally being remedied with this year’s budget. Governor Murphy proposed an additional $ 25 million in aid for these students, and lawmakers added an additional $ 100 million – a motion from Senate President Steve Sweeney. It was the largest single budget added by lawmakers.
Sweeney and his Republican partner in this reform, Senator Joe Pennacchio, say they will not stop until it is 100 percent the responsibility of the state.
In this way, Sweeney said, “all school districts can do the right thing.” Without adequate government funding, districts are effectively punished for caring for these children in need. The most competent and caring districts become magnets for these families.
This is a significant cost burden even for larger districts, said Christine Fano, a member of the Montville school board and mother of a severely autistic student. “People moved to Montville, they moved to Livingston because they had a very good reputation for special service; and if a child couldn’t be accommodated, it would find accommodation somewhere, which is beautiful, which is great – but everyone has experienced it, ”she said.
Montville now spends millions of dollars each year sending children with special needs to private schools outside of the district. In the past year, 31 schools were listed, some of which had four or five students enrolled. Two went to Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey for $ 83,000 a year each, with an additional $ 40,000 for one helper each. Three went to Spectrum360, a school for students with autism, for about $ 77,000 per year each, with $ 31,000 for each helper. And so on.
None of this includes transportation, which can cost $ 60,000 for a medically vulnerable student with an assistant, or summer programs that could cost $ 13,000. Forcing locals to pay these bills is absolutely unfair.
“It’s almost a punishment for school districts for doing the right thing,” added Fano. “When the state picks up the money, it protects these students with special needs. It protects your interests, period, and we should all stand behind it. “
Her son, Christopher, now 21 years old, attends Spectrum360 and has needed personal attention since preschool. He has a knack for fixing things around the house and loved his apprenticeship at TJ Maxx, she said, where he helped assemble lamps.
People with disabilities are much less likely to be lifelong dependent on social services when they receive professional training, but many never get the skills and support they need. “70 percent of the disabled are unemployed. But it shouldn’t be, ”said Sweeney, whose daughter Lauren, now 28, has Down syndrome and has worked in a daycare center. “She wants to live a full, productive life, and education is key,” he said.
Families shouldn’t have to contend with the districts for decent education that trains their children for jobs that will help them live the most meaningful lives. “We are not planning to have a child with a disability. It happens, and what do you do at that point – are you giving up or are you trying to make a difference? ”Sweeney said.
He added, “I’ll do this for the rest of my life until I die.”
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source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/a-budget-milestone-for-njs-special-needs-kids-editorial/
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