Districts must account for all revenue

(From the WSSEC Listserve-August 19,2004)

Dear Friends of Special Education:

After a number of meetings with some of the school superintendents and their announcement that they would be filing suit in September, 2004, the WSSEC responded with the letter that is available on our website signed by our president, Mary McKnew and our advisor Bill Dussault.

In addition we are providing the following information (below) in response to the most recent attacks on special ed and the superintendent’s data referring to unfunded special ed costs but once again, not mentioning anywhere, the basic ed revenue.

You may be interested to know that most school districts do not spend all their special ed generated funds on special ed costs. The state uses formulas to generate funds to school districts but expenditure decisions are made locally by elected school boards. Some districts spend as little as 10% of these funds on special ed costs.

Please read the information provided below, and visit the WSSEC website (http://www.wssec.org) for our Open Letter to School Superintendents, Washington Citizens and Legislators.

Donna Obermeyer
Parent/Community Coordinator
Washington State Special Education Coalition

http://www.wssec.org