2015 Budget for Special Education

Department Overview

The Special Education department works collaboratively with school and District leaders, teachers,
students, and families to provide the tools, guidance, supports, and services needed to ensure
excellence and equity for students with disabilities. Primary functions include:

•  Assess students with disabilities from birth to age 21 to determine appropriate service levels

•  Support special education and general education teachers to develop learning plans for students with disabilities.

•  Provide therapy services to students with disabilities

•  Coordinate with Curriculum and Instruction to develop core content training for all teachers to

             insure that students with disabilities have academic success

•  Meet legal and procedural compliance required to document services

•  Work with private schools to use federal funds to support special education students that have

            been placed in private schools by their parents.

Notable Changes

 To address compliance issues, the Seattle School District developed a Comprehensive Corrective
Action Plan (C‐CAP). The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) approved the
C‐CAP in FY13‐14. The approved C‐CAP resulted in a mid‐year budget increase of $1.5 million
and 12.5 positions.
 The number of students receiving private contract placements more than doubled in FY13‐14
from FY12‐13. The FY14‐15 budget continues the $1.8 million contingency funding increase to
support student education needs that are beyond the scope of services offered by Seattle
schools.
 The FY13‐14 budget was increased mid‐year by $1.25 million to fund 25.5 Special Education
Instructional Assistant positions. These instructional assistants provide one‐to‐one support as
required by student Individualized Education Plans (IEP). These positions will continue in FY14‐
15.
 To provide additional support for teachers, 1.6 Program Specialist positions were added in FY13‐
14. The FY14‐15 budget maintains these positions and adds $512,000 for an additional five
Program Specialists.
 After the adoption of the FY13‐14 budget, funding was added for IEP required summer services
known as extended school year. The extended school year budget continues in FY14‐15 for a
cost of $849,000.
 Caseload limits for Educational Staff Associate (ESA) positions have been established per the
2013 ‐15 Seattle Education Association (SEA) Collective Bargaining Agreement. ESA positions
include Audiologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Psychologists, and Speech
61 |and Language Pathologists.

 S e a t t l e P u b l i c S c h o o l s A d o p t e d B u d g e t 2 0 1 4 ‐ 2 0 1 5

 The FY14‐15 budget continues funding for three positions added
in FY13‐14 and adds two more positions as required by the collective bargaining agreement.
 The FY14‐15 budget adds $459,000 for benefit, salary step, and collective bargaining increases.
 Special Education support for nursing transfers to Health Services for a reduction of $468,000.

Budget and FTE Changes, Special Education

Description                         2014               2015                 Change
Adaptive PE                      177,223           181,887                  4,664
Additional Support        3,281,056         6,431,700           3,150,644  Wow, whats in this bucket?
Assistive Technology        367,712            493,400              125,688
Audiology                         445,936             453,799                 7,863
Behavior Consortium     1,031,474          1,056,839               25,365
Birth to Three                 1,802,906          2,350,654             547,748
Deaf/Hard of Hearing       476,592              517,228               40,636
DSU                                  300,000              300,000                        0
DSU ‐ 4B                          250,000              250,000                        0
Extended School Year        849,425             849,425
Health Services                   468,736          (468,736)
Home & Hospital Education 358,563          358,563                       0
Information Management     713,048           631,204              (81,845)
OTherapy                           3,993,712        4,255,000             261,287
Preschool                           1,585,266         1,579,267              (5,999)
Private Schools                     126,163            437,633             311,470
Professional Development    479,628         1,373,629             894,002
Psychology Services          4,848,449          5,107,113            258,664
School Materials                    239,375            239,375
Speech/Language Services 6,731,467          7,169,664           438,197
Supervision & Admin        1,130,486           1,567,585           437,099
Vision Services                      646,060             615,952           (30,108)
Vocational/Special Education 471,853            488,582              16,728

Grand Total             29,686,331        36,708,499        7,022,168