By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
According to KASB analysis, across the state of Kansas in the 2022-2023 school year, districts spent $382 million of funds that could have gone to general education on special education to backfill for funding not provided by state and federal officials. According to Leah Fliter with KASB, there is work on the House side to comply with the formula...but not spend any more money.
"The House K-12 Education Budget Committee has been having some discussions and having some hearings on bills," Fliter said. "That committee seems to be focusing on its own bill. They haven't bundled it all together yet, but the bill that they spent a lot of time on in committee was a bill that basically just tried to rewrite the current special education formula."
There is a little more hope for more money on the Senate side.
"They stripped out a line item for special education funding for fiscal year 2025," Fliter said. "They said they want to look at that again at omnibus, when they come back in April, after they hear consensus revenue estimate updates. What we have right now is, I think, the possibility on the Senate side, of some significant funding next year."
The special education statute is separate from the overall school finance formula, which the Kansas Supreme Court has said is funded constitutionally to the point that they dismissed the Gannon case earlier this year.