Budget Cuts And Intermediate Units

This paper focuses on the Response to Intervention. As educators we are hearing RTI more frequently in the school districts than ever before. Many educators and state officials agree that all teachers should know and get to know the benefits and importance of RTI. The most crucial aspect to know is the RTI takes place into the regular childhood classroom; this is not something that just special education teachers need to know. This paper explains the purpose and a brief history of RTI. The paper offers ways that it is beneficial for school districts to implement this research based program. However, as in many systems there are always challenges, the paper briefly discusses some of the challenges that educators

Since last spring, Philadelphia school district leaders have been sounding the alarm about this year’s fiscal budget. Even after months of discussions and headlines, schools have opened with fewer resources than last year. On March 28th the School Reform Commission approved a lump sum budget which showed a need for an additional $220 million in revenue in order to provide schools with same resources as the “wholly insufficient” 2013-14 school year (McCorry). There will be many inadequate funding impacts on the quality of the education. Classroom resources would be stripped to untenable levels. The district would reduce as much as $2.2 million funding to the districts’ multiple pathways to graduation program which affects estimated 300 students. Another $1.5 million could be reduced from the elimination of preparation and professional development time for teachers at the district’s high needs promise academies. The district’s building maintenance budget could have reduction in amount of $9.6 million. Schools will be cleaned less frequently as a result. Building maintenance will also be curtailed as a result. District’s school police budget could also have reduction in amount of $2.4 million. School police officer vacancies will be unfilled, leaving an additional 27 elementary schools to share an officer.

In response to various court cases relating to services for students with special needs, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted to mandate to the states that data regarding overrepresentation of race and ethnicity must be collected and monitored. If it is determined that a disproportionate number of students from a minority background are receiving special education services, a review of policies and procedures is required to

“Shrinking state and local education budgets matched with the added pressure of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which sets rigid standards in reading and math that schools must achieve in order to receive federal funding, have created a new challenge for districts” (Van Harken).

Due to financial issues, any districts hardest hit had no choice but to move around resources to make up the difference in their actual spending and funds provided by the state due to the Class Size Reduction (CSRe) experiment in California. While accountability was not intended to so strongly influence what

“California has cut $18 billion, one-third of state school funding, from money for kindergarten through high school over the past three years.” USA Today (Welch, 2011). Budget cuts to the California Public School System, which is the underlying factor in the deterioration of the quality of education, has had a negative impact on every facet of society. From students to teachers to employers, all have felt the effects of decreased funding of schools. The state of California is headed in the wrong direction by reducing school funding and unless a solution is found to minimize or put a halt to these reductions, our children will bear the

Over the passed fifteen years, the Bush and Obama Administration have cut spending in the education department dramatically. This translates into decreased pay for teachers, limited expenditures for each student, and limited expenditures within the classroom. This decrease in pay roll for teachers has even gone as far as laying off hard working teachers. With the contraction of spending allotted by the government, the absence of quality teachers has emerged resulting in the decline of student’s standard of education. The federal governments limiting budget has added to the universal achievement gap and should be attended to as soon as possible.

Oklahoma as of today is ranked 49th nationally in per-pupil expenditures and ranked 48th in teacher pay (Klein 2). Putting Oklahoma as one of the worst states to be educated in the United States. “Oklahoma is consistently ranked near the bottom for education funding and teacher pay” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth And Job Creation” 3). When there are state cuts that need to be made, the departments of education are one of the first that usually tend to suffer. Since the 2008 economic crisis, Oklahoma has continued to cut the budget for education; even though the economy has since then gotten better (Perry). Budget cuts in education affect all parts of the education process for the students. “Some school districts have ordered teacher layoffs and shorter sessions” (“Oklahoma Makes the Poor Poorer” par 4).Schools are now struggling to keep their heads above water. Each year from the budget cutting, schools have had to lay off teachers, cut entire programs, and have limited resources used to educate the students. Even the teachers’ retirement system is suffering, being one of the top poorly funded pension programs nationally (Ash par 3). Seeing as that the schools have to cut down classes and programs, administration has had no other choice than to increase class size, overwhelming teachers tremendously. “Oklahoma has 1,500 fewer classroom teachers and 40,000 more students since 2008-2009” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth

During the 1970s, it is estimated around 20% of students with disabilities were receiving an education from a public school (Yell, 2012). Children with special needs were first provided access to public education programs with the signing of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975. The reauthorization of EAHCA changed the name to Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and included the ideas of free appropriate public education (FAPE). FAPE should be defined in a child’s individual education plan (IEP) (Freedman, 2012).

In a 2014 report from McCann, special education services were federally mandated for the first time in 1965 by the Education of Handicapped Children Act, and a two-year $3.5 million program was created to provide formula grants to states for funding education of special needs students. According to the website, www.understandingspecialeducation.com (2009), in 1975 Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act which guaranteed a “free and appropriate public education” (FAPE). This act was later modified and became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. IDEA requires individual states to provide children with special education services as a condition of receiving federal funding for education. The largest portion of IDEA is called IDEA

Budget cuts in schools cause turmoil and stress among the students and faculty. Drastic changes in the budgets have caused schools to negatively impact the people around them. With the lack of funding, schools are facing difficult decisions on what to do to stay within their budget. Supervision is facing much scrutiny on how to handle the lack of funding in their school districts. A solution needs to be made to improve the distribution of funding to our schools in order to keep them operating and thriving for our children to obtain their education. Budget cuts in schools have shown negative effects on employee positions, supplies, extracurricular activities.

School districts are facing increasing pressure to adopt universal screening, progress monitoring, and data based assessments (Civic Impulse, 2016; Every Student Succeeds Acts, 2015; Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 2004;). States are complying with these mandates by use of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework. MTSS uses data based decision making to inform instruction and interventions that target academic, social, emotional, and behavioral skills from early childhood to secondary education (Jimerson, Burn s & Van Der Heyden, 2016). An important component of MTSS is delivering interventions and instructions based on student’s needs. After school programs are increasingly being researched as targeted academic,

In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,

Having sources for special education is important to meet the needs of the students. It is important for schools and the districts to know how to find these sources when they are not available to them. Per the National Legislative Conference Special Committee on School Finance (1971), funding alone cannot cure all the troubles of our public education system, but advances cannot be complete until the way educational capitals are elevated and allocation is reformed. There are many people in the schools besides the administrator that can apply for funding to support their classes. If they know where to look and how to go about it, they will receive what is needed. The teacher must ensure they comply with the stipulations that

All school districts have a wide range of students who are each unique and with Round Lake that is still the case. In this district we have students that have learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental disabilities, autism, add/adhd, communication disorders, and emotional/behavior disorders. When it comes to these students my district follows the rules that have been put in place through the IDEA Act that was started in 1975 and revised in 2004. One thing that I struggle with in my district is their use of teacher assistants. Some special education classrooms have teacher assistants which is helpful to meet the needs of the students, but at my district they will not put a one to one aide on a student’s IEP. I feel that this is a disservice to the students and I feel that they do this in order to save some money. Some students don’t