The Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council does not support the current Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funding formula for 2014-2015.

The MFP is in Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 55.

The Council continues to advocate for the MFP to be based on student needs and equitable across all schools (i.e., traditional and charter schools) as was requested in SCR 124 of 2012. The MFP passed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education does not address these funding inequities and the high-risk pool increase appears woefully inadequate to provide the minimum cost to educate students with the highest levels of need.  Senator Claitor, the author of SCR 124, has already indicated to Superintendent John White that the current MFP formula does not satisfy the request for equity in SCR 124.  The MFP funding formula distributes about $3.5 billion dollars to schools but uses different funding formula for traditional public schools than for charter schools and course choice programs.  Until this inequity is addressed there will continue to be concerns as to whether funding for students with disabilities is being provided to the schools serving students with significant needs or whether too many funds are allowed to follow students without disabilities to these choice programs. 

Although the MFP Task Force convened in part to address the inequities created by the funding formula across school systems this issue was not addressed during any meeting nor in the final recommendations produced. A model for adjusting the funding formula based on student needs was passed for charter schools in Orleans parish under the Recovery School District. Unfortunately, neither the information collected related to actual student costs used to develop this funding model nor the model itself was presented as an option for the MFP Task Force to consider.

The MFP includes four million additional state dollars to the High Cost Fund, a traditional federally funded pool of resources. The Council agrees with increasing the amount of high cost fund and recommends further increasing the High Cost Fund to a total of at least $35 and up to $55 million dollars to adequately cover the minimum amount needed to educate students with highest cost needs. These figures are derived from comparisons of how these funds are currently distributed and the Department's plans to improve how school systems apply for these funds. 

High Cost Services Allocation

Analysis and Estimated Need for 2014-2015.

The High Cost Services Allocation pool provides supplemental funding for school systems demonstrating costs for single students with disabilities that exceed three times the most recent state average total expenditure per pupil amount (approximately $33,000). Allocations are limited by the amount budgeted for the High Cost Services Assistance Allocation. In the current, 2013-2014, school year only approximately 55 percent of each approved request was filled. Therefore, doubling the amount budgeted in the High Cost Pool would be expected to satisfy the amount of current approved requests. However, the proposed amount would not be adequate to cover the anticipated need according to current High Cost Pool allocation distributions and the Department's plans to ensure more districts understand how to apply for the funds in the future.

The pie charts below reveal the level of disproportional distribution of High Cost Services Allocations across school systems.  

Here is the distribution of students with disabilities:

Here is the distribution of High Cost/Risk Funds:     

The first chart indicates the percentage of distributions of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part-B 611 funds by school system in 2013-2014. IDEA funds are distributed based on school system special education child count (a per student basis).  The second chart indicates distributions of the High Cost Services Allocations in 2013-2014. While the Recovery School District (Louisiana) only serves 0.5 percent of the entire population of students with disabilities it receives almost 7 percent of the entire High Cost Services Allocation pool. Similarly, Charter Schools only serve 5.2 percent of students with disabilities but receive almost 45 percent of the High Cost Services Allocation. Assuming the Recovery School District is the most accurate source for completing the application for these funds appropriately and serves the same distribution of students with disabilities as traditional school systems, if the traditional public school systems received an amount from the High Cost Services Allocation proportional to the students served it would require over $55 million statewide in this fund to meet the need statewide.