Why does the money not necessarily follow the right students?

The Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP, is the formula for how elementary and high schools get their piece of $3,500,000,000 - that is 3.5 Billion dollars.  While the formula is complex, the concept of how the formula creates inequities across schools is simple.  Relative to the amount provided for students without disabilities, each student identified with a disability in a traditional public school system brings in 2.5 times as many dollars as a child without a disability.   The amount of money taken from traditional public schools and provided to charter schools run by BESE and other school choice programs is determined by a different formula - an average amount of money which is the same amount for every student -regardless if the student has a disability or not.

The amount for each student varies from school system to school system. Below is a table for illustration purposes with figures that are fairly close to actual average amounts associated with each student across the state.

When there is an imbalance of students with varying levels of need across traditional and certain charter schools or choice programs, whichever school has more than their share of students with high-cost needs is not receiving the funding necessary to cover the costs of the services for the students in their school.
 

Additional dollars are needed to provide services such as therapies (speech, occupational, Adaptive physical education, behavioral), services (e.g., nursing), devices (e.g., augmentative communication systems, medical equipment, adaptive equipment, etc.) and higher teacher ratios.  Of course, no two students with disabilities have the same amount of services, but on average, it costs much more to serve students with disabilities.  In today's world of competitive education, it seems necessary to ensure adequate resources are provided to schools based on student need and there should not be financial incentives for schools to avoid serving students with more needs.

Which school systems are not getting adequate funds to serve the students in their schools?

Typically, the imbalance works against the traditional public school system because it does not receive its fair share of funding; however, the funding inequity can work both ways.  A charter school wishing to serve a student with a disability may not be receiving an adequate amount of funds needed to provide services to that student.  Parents should not have to wonder whether the school received the right amount of funds to serve their student.

In addition, two years ago BESE was requested by the Legislature (Senate Concurrent Resolution 124 of 2012) to study and determine the most equitable funding methodology to address the individual needs of children with disabilities within the MFP formula and incorporate such methodology into the formula as soon as possible.

These funding issues are real.  Did you miss the webinar detailing the impact of Louisiana's accountability and funding systems on a school system's financial health and the impact of and to students with signficant disabilities?  News of Union Parish receiving a Fiscal Risk Assessment raised a flag, but this issue is not isolated to Union Parish, it is a result of our accountability and funding inequities related to students with disabilities.

Webinar of La Accountabiltiy and Funding Impact on Students with Disabilities  

Are you ready for a change to this inequitable way to distribute funds?