California educators have plans for special education money from this year’s state budget

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(The Center Square) – California educators say the $2.4 billion in special education funding that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law will increase per-pupil funding by nearly $500 a student in the program.

The bill, Assembly Bill 126, was signed in a press conference last month at Robert E. Willett Elementary School in Davis, Calif. The bill also allocated $215 million to literacy programs at schools throughout the state, as well as $4.4 billion in funding for a grant that can pay for transitional kindergarten, career pathways programs and community schools.

“It’s about the investments for these young children and their quality of imagination,” Newsom said during that press conference. “Everybody has the capacity to thrive. That’s the spirit that brings us here, and the spirit that defines the $2.4 billion investment in the needs of those with special needs.”

Newsom’s press team sent the link to the press conference video when The Center Square reached out for comments for this story.

The bill, among other things, also allocates $500 million into the public school system stabilization account, $1 billion to the California Community School Partnership Program and $757.3 million in expanded funding for the Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant.

Educators told The Center Square that the expanded funding helps cash-strapped school districts, which could be considered to be most of California’s school districts. The increase in funding amounted to $1,350 per student enrolled in special education programs in California’s schools, up from roughly $900 per special education student.

“This is helpful, as it will allow the district to lower the contribution from the General Fund, but is still not enough,” Leslie Reckler, a member of the West Contra Costa Unified School District board, told The Center Square. “So, I am grateful for the extra funding, but it is still not enough and we are pinching pennies and looking for every way possible to save money and stretch dollars.”

Reckler also expects that some of the literacy program money coming to her San Francisco Bay Area school district could likely total $1.5 million to $1.8 million. That money will help the school district hire literacy coaches to help students learn how to read.

“Literacy in the district and nationwide is not where it should be,” Reckler said. “Most districts need assistance to strengthen teacher professional development, implement evidence-based literacy instruction, and support English language learners.”

The bill also helps some of the most rural schools in the state. Small schools that are not part of larger school districts are also expecting additional funding from the state as a result of expanded school funding from Assembly Bill 126.

“The biggest thing for us is we are funded under ‘Necessary Small Schools,’ and that added a 20% bump to necessary small schools,” Grant Coffin, principal and teacher at the Omo Ranch School in El Dorado County, told The Center Square. “This funding stream really hasn’t gotten any kind of increase other than COLA [cost-of-living adjustment] for quite a long time, so this is a really big boost for us.”

The increase in construction costs after the outbreak of COVID-19, Coffin said, made it difficult to have the base funding to repair the school and maintain the property for the school’s nine students.

“That added funding assists our county office with a lot of our special ed needs,” Coffin said.

An education policy researcher who is familiar with the bill told The Center Square on Monday that while the state should adequately fund special education students, that money also needs to be spent responsibly for students to actually benefit.

“It all depends on how the schools are going to spend that money as to whether the students are going to end up being in a better place,” said Lance Izumi, senior director of education studies at Pacific Research Institute. “In a perfect world, there might be more money being allocated to special needs students. However, we’re operating in a fiscal climate where the state is looking at budget deficits in the coming years.”

Expanded funding for programs for special education students in a time of fiscal difficulty should be looked on more favorably by educators, Izumi said.

“Instead of looking at the glass half-empty, they should at a glass maybe 90% full,” Izumi said.

The Center Square also reached out to the California Department of Education to ask questions for this story. The department didn’t make anyone available for an interview.