John Mooney of NJSpotlight.com is covering recent revisions to the Extraordinary Aid Program, in which the state pays a sizable portion of the costs of district’s special education services for children with severe cognitive, physical, and other needs.
From the article:
…extraordinary aid is back in the spotlight. In a funding report presented to the Legislature last month, state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf proposed adjusting some of the thresholds used to determine the amount each district receives, essentially shifting some of the funding to the more extreme cases.
NJDOE Commissioner Chris Cerf is suggesting raising the spending thresholds that trigger additional aid by $5,000.
But Cerf’s Education Adequacy Report that includes these changes is already under fire from special education advocates, saying that it adds more problems to a flawed and underfunded program.
Peg Kinsell, public policy director for the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network, said she had little faith in the state’s reasoning, describing the additional funds in categorical aid as “negligible” given that districts can use that state aid for anything in their budgets, special education or not.
It may sound nice, but since none of that money is dedicated, districts can use it to fill any gaps they have…to have an arbitrary number [for a threshold] and never even fully fund it, it’s another pipedream. This does nothing to support districts.
-Peg Kinsell
