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), and 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.  But 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.  Parents should not have to wonder whether the school received the right amount of funds to serve their student.

What can you do about it?

If you want to make sure the right amount of money follows (or stays with) your child, let members of the MFP Task Force know how you feel! 

Isn't there a high-cost pool of funds to cover the needs of kids with the highest-cost needs?

Yes - and no.  While there is a high-cost pool of funds that schools can apply for if a student costs more than $33,000, it is expected that the amount of funds in this pool will be inadequate to cover the cost of serving all the students with high-cost needs.  See the Council letter to Senate Education with an analysis of the distribution of high-cost funds in 2013-2014 and estimate for 2014-2015. 

What have LaTEACH members been advocating for?

LaTEACH members (parents) have participated in previous MFP Task Force meetings and shared recommendations for the funding formula to be consistent across all school systems and to consider the cost of services for students with significant needs.  See the LaDDCNews from March 1, 2013 Proposed Changes will not fix Funding Inequities.