011510 Special Education Funding

Air Date:01/15/2010

By Jenifer Jones

The State House Education Committee voted unanimously in favor of a bill that allows some extra money in a school's special education fund to be used for another purpose. The Individuals with Disabilities act allows schools who receive an increase in IDEA funding to transfer 50 percent of the increase, but South Dakota statutes require funds to stay where they are.

Tammy Darnell with the South Dakota Department of Education says in the past increases have been so minimal it hasn't been an issue. But special education funds in South Dakota have received more than $31.5 million in stimulus money, and Darnell says schools need to transfer unused funds in order to keep them. 

"In order to use the IDEA funds, you have to have an eligible expenditure," Darnell says. "If we don't give the districts this flexibility and if they don't have eligible IDEA expenditures, special education expenditures, these funds would revert back to the federal government."

Darnell says schools can only transfer the funds if all of their Individual Education Plans are met. She says schools that utilize the transfer can no longer request money from the extraordinary cost fund. The bill next moves to the House floor.

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