NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Haven USD 312 Superintendent Craig Idacavage said the five year phase in proposed by Gov. Laura Kelly to fund Special Education to the statutory 92 percent of excess cost would help his district.
"Currently, we pay out of general fund around $200,000 of excess costs," Idacavage said. "Some districts will probably hear that and think that's extremely low. For a district our size, it's a big chunk. It could go toward salaries. It could go toward our general ed students, so having that fully funded would be huge."
The reason Idacavage said that money could go toward general ed students is because, with federal regulations, it's general ed money that is being siphoned off to fill in the special ed gap. Special ed kids are still getting services as required by their Individualized Educational Plan.
"It would go toward the normal everyday operations of teacher salaries, programs, athletics, anything that we'd take out of our general budget," Idacavage said.
There are so many areas that schools have dollars that can't go straight to the classroom because of the way other laws are written that this might be one of the quicker ways to increase that number for everyone, if the governor's proposal passes the legislature.
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