SCHENECTADY COUNTY Counties howling as state squeezes More program costs to be absorbed BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com
Schenectady and other counties across the state will now be responsible for paying 100 percent of the administrative costs of pre-kindergarten special education services, in the latest shift of state and federal fees to local municipalities. The change affects the 2008-09 school year and the current county budget. In Schenectady’s case, the county will have to absorb $30,000 in unanticipated costs this year, bringing the total it will have to pay for these school-based services to $300,000, said Finance Commissioner George Davidson. Officials from the state education department said they are following federal guidelines and that the state will pre-approve the amounts districts can bill counties next summer. Cost breakdowns for other counties were not available. However, the cumulative cost to counties is expected to equal approximately $3.8 million, said state Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario. Counties pay for the complete cost of state-mandated pre-kindergarten special education program, which serves children ages 3-5 who have disabilities, he said, but they have no oversight of its costs. The program includes psychological services, speech and language improvement services, curriculum and instructional modifications and academic intervention services. In Schenectady County’s case, it has budgeted $7.9 million in preschool education program costs this year, up from $7.4 million in 2007. The total includes the $300,000 in administrative costs for which it is responsible. Mark Lavigne of the state Association of Counties called the $30,000 “a new cost to the county. Before, it did not have to pay for it.” The state Education Department took administrative action June 10, saying it would no longer provide school districts with nearly $10 million in federal funding to cover the preschool special education administrative costs, Acquario said. School districts used to get the federal money and apply it to their own administrative costs, Acquario said. They would then bill counties for the remaining costs, which in the past represented about 41 percent of the total. Counties, however, received a reimbursement from the states of about 60 percent. Now, counties will pay 100 percent of the school district’s administration costs, as the districts no longer have the federal money, Acquario said. Counties will still receive the 60 percent reimbursement under the policy change, he said. “So, in very basic terms, schools will now bill counties for all of their ... administrative costs,” Acquario said. He called it a cost shift to counties. Lavigne said the state could have found a pool of money to offset these new costs to counties. Instead, “the state government decided to shift that cost.” Davidson said school districts are responsible for the costs in fi rst instance and have “no incentive to control these costs.” The federal government created the pre-kindergarten special education program and offered it to states 20 years ago, Acquario said. When New York opted into the program, it created a mandate for every county to have the program and now to fund it as well.
Schenectady and other counties across the state will now be responsible for paying 100 percent of the administrative costs of pre-kindergarten special education services, in the latest shift of state and federal fees to local municipalities.
what the hell......compulsory age is 6......no one has to pay it and it doesn't need to be done......so special ed kids are what? discriminated and treated 'different' and made to go at 3-5years......
maybe the $$ the feds were supposed to give will now go to fund the Patriot Act and Homeland Security for all those stinkin' mandates to supposedly make us safer........what a farce....either way--no tax decrease and the merry-go-round still turns.......IT'S ALL THE SAME FREAKIN' $$
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Hey, maybe we can put some Metroplex money towards this...nope How about some of the extra sales tax since it got bumped up to 8% (double what it used to be in Rotterdam)?...nope. IDA's? Sorry, they're already doing what they're supposed to (supposedly). Maybe the Metroplex successes will donate some money towards this? How about a pay cut at the county level? Any other ideas?
Logged
