West Virginia

IDEA Money Watch has obtained the information submitted by the West Virginia Dept. of Education to the U.S. Dept. of Education regarding reduction to local spending (maintenance of effort or  MOE) and use of federal IDEA funds for Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) for each school district for the 2009 fiscal year. Get West Virginia information here. (PDF,  10 pgs).

This information is important because it indicates if school districts reduced local spending in light of IDEA Recovery Act funds in FY 2009. IDEA does not require that local districts replace these funds when the Recovery funds run out, putting services for students with disabilities at risk.

The U.S. Dept. of Education has granted the waiver request made by West Virginia to reduce its state financial support for the excess cost of special education to local school districts.

According to the letter issued to the state by USED (available here in PDF), the state is allowed to reduce its state support by $491,580, or 2 percent of the state’s special ed budget for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2010.

The waiver is good for one year and the state must request a new waiver if it cannot return to the previous level of financial support in the year following the waiver.

Waivers to reduce a state’s financial support from one year to the next are allowable under the IDEA in limited circumstances. The statutory provision is available here.

IDEA Money Watch continues to monitor state requests for waivers to reduce support for special education.

June 16, 2010.

According to a memorandum released June 15, 2010 by the U.S. Dept. of Education, the state of West Virginia has made a request for a waiver allowing the state to reduce its state aid to local school districts in support of special education. This waiver is allowable under IDEA Part B under certain circumstances.

According to the request, WV wants to reduce the size of a special fund recently established by its state legislature to help local districts with high cost special education students – something like the risk pools authorized by IDEA. The West Virginia waiver request is available here.

IDEA Money Watch has obtained the annual ratings for school districts in West Virginia. These ratings – available here – are important because they determine the district’s eligibility to shift local funds out of special education. All but five districts in West Virginia earned a “meets requirements” rating based on 2007-2008 performance and compliance data.

West Virginia will receive $75,951,991 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to improve services for its 42,006 school-aged students with disabilities.

We will report on how local school districts in West Virginia are using these additional funds and how the academic achievement of students with disabilities is improving as a result.

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