Special Education Issues: Follow-Up.

Overview & Synopsis

This report is a compilation of responses to 11 questions from the Ohio Legislative Committee of Education Oversight concerning issues of special education funding and inclusion. Five questions on finance issues address: which special education funding mechanisms ensure that school districts are responsible for a portion of special education costs; possible changes to the state special education funding mechanism to provide for catastrophic cases of extraordinary expense; recommended funding mechanisms; whether taxes raised by county Boards of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities are used to provide special education; and trends in the number of children in special education as related to the total student population. Two questions on inclusion issues consider whether Ohio does more than required by federal law in special education, particularly in terms of inclusion, and the effects of inclusion on nondisabled children. Four questions address other issues, including: which children with disabilities are excused from the proficiency test; whether certain kinds of districts serve a larger concentration of special education students than others; whether any large city school districts are implementing the four new service delivery models; and how the legislature can ensure that the identification of disabilities is consistent across school districts. (DB)