Michael Wiltfong Oregon Department of Education Office of Finance and AdministrationSchool Finance and Pupil Transportation, Director

In 2003, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 550 which created the High Cost Disability Grant. This measure transferred $12 million per year from the State School Fund to pay for approved special education costs exceeding a threshold of $25,000 per high cost student.

The first year’s rate for 2003-04 was .71¢ per dollar.

In 2005, House Bill 2450C raised the annual threshold to $30,000 per high cost student, which reduced the number of eligible claims and resulted in an increase in the rate.

This change raised the payment rate to .78¢ per dollar for the 2005-06 school year, up from the .60¢ per dollar paid in the 2004-05 school year.

In 2007, the Legislature revised ORS 327.008(8) and increased the amount in the fund to $18 million per year, which again resulted in an increase in the rate per dollar. The $30,000 threshold remained the same.

This change raised the payment rate to .76¢ per dollar for the 2007-08 school year, up from the .60¢ per dollar paid in the 2006-07 school year.

Since 2007, there hasn’t been any changes for the High Cost Disability

Grant…

In the 2003-04 school year, there were 1,898 eligible students with $16,998,166 in total allowable claims above the $25,000 threshold. This resulted in a prorate of $0.71 per dollar.

Nine years later, in the 2012-13 school year, there were 2,774 eligible high cost students and the total in allowable claims above the $30,000 threshold was $44,550,768.

This is a 46% increase in eligible students and a 162% increase in allowable dollars.

The prorated payment in 2012-13 was .40¢ per dollar.

School year Claims

Thresho

ld Claim Amount

Allowed Grant Award Rate

2003_04 1,898 $ 25,000 $ 16,998,166 $ 12,000,000 $ 0.71

2004_05 2,183 $ 25,000 $ 20,054,272 $ 12,000,000 $ 0.60

2005_06 1,339 $ 30,000 $ 15,388,920 $ 12,000,000 $ 0.78

2006_07 1,739 $ 30,000 $ 19,894,981 $ 12,000,000 $ 0.60

2007_08 2,127 $ 30,000 $ 23,686,156 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.76

2008_09 2,365 $ 30,000 $ 28,697,349 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.63

2009_10 2,509 $ 30,000 $ 35,887,006 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.50

2010_11 2,569 $ 30,000 $ 35,795,306 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.50

2011_12 2,701 $ 30,000 $ 42,805,920 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.42

2012_13 2,774 $ 30,000 $ 44,550,768 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.40

2013_14* 2,804 $ 30,000 $ 42,454,423 $ 18,000,000 $ 0.42

* Estimate at this time

In the 2012-13 school year, there were 29 high cost students with costs above $100,000.

In that same year, there were 761 high cost students with costs of $50,000 or more, which is $48.41 million in total costs. 761 students is a little over 27% of the HCD population.

Of the $48.41 million in high costs for those 761 students, school districts received approximately $10.23 million from the HCD grant. This left a donut hole of about $28.93 million, or about $38,000 per student after you account for general and special education revenues from the State School Fund.

Subcommittee Recommendation:

The recommendation from the High Cost Disability Grant Subcommittee is to raise the reimbursement rate to 80% without further diluting State School Fund disbursements.