Solutions to Track and Control ESE Costs... | FFOA Conference Presentation 17. Local MOE...

Solutions to Track and Control ESE Costs

Florida Financial Officers Association Conference in Ft. Meyers, Florida, June 2017

Facilitator

Will GordilloSubject Matter Expert,

Special Populations and Diverse Learners

[email protected]

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What Does PCG Education Do?

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Special Populations and Diverse Learners Consulting Services

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“Think cost-control NOT cost-cutting, effective cost-management doesn’t always mean finding

the least expensive.”

Nathan S. Collier


Introductions and Why Are We Here

Name

District/Position/Role

What do you hope to get out of this session?


AgendaI. The Special Education Budget - Balancing IDEA Requirements and ESE

Costs

II. Shaking the Money Tree

III. Knowing Your ESE Cost Drivers

IV. Using Technology/Data Tools to Manage Costs

V. Identifying Patterns and Making Assumptions for ESE Cost Increases

VI. Tips for Monitoring Your Cost Drivers

VII. Strategies to Help Control and Mitigate ESE Cost

VIII. Opportunities for Revenue Maximization

IX. Collaborating with Special Education Directors to Manage ESE Costs


Essential Questions

What are the sources of funding that support exceptional student education in your district?

Is there a gap in funding due to excess costs?

What are your district’s trends in special education enrollment and spending?

What are your cost drivers?

What are the benefits, features and attributes of using special education management, human resources and budget technology tools and how can these systems help you manage ESE Costs?

How can you collaborate with the ESE director to maximize revenue and manage ESE Costs?


The Special Education BudgetBalancing IDEA Requirements and ESE Costs

Special Education Funding and Financial Overview• Under IDEA, students with disabilities cannot be denied services

because of funding issues or constraints. The under-funded nature of special education has resulted in severe budget pressure for districts nationwide.

• A greater percentage of many district’s general budget is now required to serve students with disabilities.

• Increasing special education prevalence rates specifically in categories of students requiring more intensive services such as students with autism spectrum disorders, is in part a consequence of the combined impact of overall declining enrollment and increasing charter and private school enrollment.

• Maintenance of Effort has become a significant factor impacting Local Education Agency Representatives (LEAs) responsible for providing services for students with disabilities in accordance with IDEA since the most recent recession.

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Shaking the Money Tree


Multiple Types of ESE Funding in Florida (General/Federal/Other)

FEFPUnweighted

FTEProgram

Cost Factors

Small District ESE Supplement

Student Base

Allocation

ESE GuaranteeTransportation for Certain Disabled

Students

Other ( e.g. local taxes, etc.)

IDEA Part B & Part B Preschool

Medicaid

Admin Claim/FFS


Example of Funding to Support ESE in Florida – Mock District

13

FUNDING FROM STATE/LOCAL REVENUE

DOLLARS ALLOCATED FOR ESE BY STATE FY 16-17

ESE-(Basic-PCF 111, 112, & 113) $ 125,000,000

ESE-(Special-PCF 254 & 255) 30,000,000

ESE Guarantee-line item 150,000,000

MEDICAID 4,000,000

Additional funds allocated to ESE from local property taxes 7,000,000

TOTAL STATE/LOCAL FUNDING: $ 316,000,000

FEDERAL FUNDING TO SUPPORT EXCEPTIONAL STUDENT EDUCATION

IDEA PART B 60,000,000

IDEA PRE-K 1,100,000

TOTAL FEDERAL FUNDING: $ 61,100,000

TOTAL FY 2016-17 ESE DIRECT: $ 376,000,000


Actual ESE Expenditures FY 16-17

TOTAL FY 2016-17 ESE DIRECT = $ 376,000,000

TOTAL FY 2016-17 DISTRICT SPENT ON ESE = $378,500.000

TOTAL FY 2016 -17

Excess Cost Covered by General Fund to Provide

ESE Services = $2,500,000


Maintaining the Fine Balance of Providing SWDs Services Delineated in their IEPs

as Required by IDEA

Budget Drives the Services

VS

Services Drive the Costs


Maintenance of Effort - MOE

• IDEA funds help cover the costs of educating children with disabilities but cannot be used to take the place of state and local funding allocated to special education programs.

• IDEA’s local MOE requirements generally prohibit districts from reducing their expenditures on special education and related services below the level of the previous year.

• Districts are provided various methods for calculating their MOE amount: They can use only local funding or both state and local funding and can base their calculation on either the total or per-pupil amount.

• A district may be able to reduce its expenditures and still meet the MOE.

• Specifically, IDEA requires that school districts use federal funds to pay the “excess costs” of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities, and to supplement, not supplant, state, local, and other federal funding. 20 U.S.C. § 1413(a)(2)(A).

• If a district does reduce spending and is not eligible for one of several allowable exceptions to the requirement, the state is liable to return to the department, using non-federal funds, an amount equal to the district’s shortfall or its IDEA grant, whichever is lower. 34 C.F.R. §300.203(d).


Maintenance of Effort - MOE

• States reported that nearly all school districts generally met the local maintenance of effort (MOE) spending requirement for special education, but some districts faced challenges for various reasons.

• Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), MOE requires districts to spend at least the same amount on special education services for students with disabilities that they spent in the preceding year, with some exceptions.

• Many districts cited budget and cost reductions—such as state or local revenue declines and new state caps on benefits, which lowered the cost of a special education teacher—as key challenges in meeting MOE.

• MOE is one of several safeguards meant to protect special education funding, and while some districts reported positive effects, others said the requirement can sometimes create unintended consequences for the services provided to special education students.


Local MOE Requirements


Knowing Your ESE Cost Drivers

Cost Drivers

20

What are the major cost drivers?

Enrollment/Membership Increases/Decreases Growth in high service level SWDs Matrix Of Services trends in FEFP 254-

255 Students exciting to Charter Schools Students exiting to Private Schools

Personnel Allocations/Staffing/Continuum of

Services Teachers, Paras/Aides,

Substitutes,OT/PT/SLP, Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Behavior Specialists, etc.

Contracted Services (nursing, Psychiatric, Behavior Analysts)

Transportation Routing Staffing Bus aides Other IEP required supports

Litigation Contentious IEP Meetings Due Process Mediations/Resolutions Settlement Agreements Out of District Placements


National Special Education Membership Enrollment Trends

21

6

3

3

1

1


Florida’s ESE Enrollment

22

PK -12 Population Number Disabled Percent Disabled

2,791,531 366,379 13%


Source: Florida DOE’s BEESS SEA Profile 2016.

Using the FDOE ESE Data and Accountability Resources

DATABOOK & LEA Profiles

http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7672/urlt/Databook2016.pdf

http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7672/urlt/PalmBeach16.pdf

FTE Data ............................................................................................................ 43

Unweighted FTE by ESE Program, PK-12 Total, 2014-15....................................44

Percent Unweighted FTE Reported by ESE Program, PK-12 Total, 2014-15 .............................................................................................................................46

Unweighted FTE by ESE Program, DJJ Schools, 2014-15 .................................48

Percent Unweighted FTE Reported by ESE Program, DJJ Schools, 2014-15 .............................................................................................................................50

Unweighted FTE by ESE Program, Charter Schools, 2014-15 ............................................................................................................................ 52

Percent Unweighted FTE Reported by ESE Program, Charter Schools, 2014-15 ....................……………………………………………………………………………..54


http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7672/urlt/Databook2016.pdf

http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7672/urlt/PalmBeach16.pdf

Systems, Tools and Reports

Using Your Technology Systems, Data Tools and ReportsExamples:

State Reporting System

Student Information System

District Special Education Management Systems (e.g. IEP, Medicaid)

Human Resources/ Personnel Systems

Budget Management Systems

Data Integration between Systems, Data Entry and Reporting

Identifying which technology system each special education data element is housed and reported.

Aligning these systems (e.g. feeds/uploads) so that data elements match

Monitoring multiple data entry points in each of the systems for accuracy and verification purposes

Creating usable reports with a systems thinking approach help reduce and mitigate costly errors (e.g. SPED/ESE Student Count/ Membership, Matrix of Services, Essential IEP data elements reviewed during and FTE audit, personnel data, etc.)


Dashboards Web-Based IEP – Special Education Director


Dashboards – Web-Based Tracking Medicaid Coordinator or Special Education Director


Identifying Patterns and Making Assumptions

Membership Enrollment Trends• Is your membership enrollment trend when disaggregated for students with

disabilities increasing or decreasing?

• Are there patterns in the data that reflect specific membership enrollment trend increases or decreases by disability specific categories?

• Is the prevalence of students with disabilities requiring more significant supports such as autism spectrum disorders or other health impaired increasing or decreasing?

• Does the data reflect any disproportionality by race or ethnicity?

• What does the data say?

• How does it affect costs?

• What assumptions can be made?

• What strategy or action can be taken to address costs and improve efficiencies?


Educational Environment Trends

• Is the percent of students with disabilities served 80% or more of the day with non-disabled peers in the general education classroom increasing, flat or decreasing?

• Are there patterns in the data that reflect more students with disabilities are being served in resource rooms, self-contained and/or in substantially separate settings?

• Can this data be viewed and disaggregated by disability, grade, sex and ethnicity to examine patterns of increases in students served in least restrictive or more restrictive educational environments?






Personnel/Staffing Trends

• What are your district’s special education allocation formulas?

• Are they district determined?

• Is this process delineated in written policies and practices?

• Is there flexibility in the process to make adjustments to the allocations in accordance with procedures?

• What is the district's school staffing and budgeting process for special education?

• Are there adjustments that can be made to the allocation after count day?


Personnel/Staffing Trends

• What are the average caseloads of teachers and related services personnel providing services to students with disabilities?

• Are caseloads consistent with the allocation formulas?

• How are students assigned to case managers?

• Are there opportunities to improve the efficient use of existing personnel resources allocated to provide special education services through the scheduling process?






Transportation

• How many students with disabilities are receiving transportation services disaggregated by grade, disability category and school configuration (e.g. preschool, elementary, middle, high school, special school)?

• What are the costs for providing students with disabilities transportation services and trends over time?

• How are you capturing each student’s transportation needs, matching to codes in the IEP and communicating with other system(s) being used for scheduling and routing them to busses?

• How do you determine, allocate, assign and monitor bus aides to provide supports to students with disabilities in accordance with their IEPs?

• What are your costs for bus aides and trends over time?


Transportation

• Are you contracting out for special transportation services? If so, what are those costs and who are the students by grade, disability, sex, race and ethnicity?

• How are the school locations for programs serving students with disabilities determined and what processes are in place to route the busses, minimize travel time for students and maximize efficiencies?

• Are you logging services and billing Medicaid for allowable transportation for student receiving services?






Tips for Monitoring Your Cost Drivers

5 Tips for Monitoring Cost Drivers

1. Use your districts IT and special education technology tools to monitor your cost drivers.

2. Develop and use standard reports that will help you track trends in special education spending (e.g. Membership Enrollment Count, Personnel/Staffing, Allocations, Transportation, Litigation and IDEA Grant Management).

3. Consider migrating to proven web-based special education management technology (e.g. IEP, Medicaid Reimbursement, 504, Gifted and Talented) to better track your key performance indicators in real time.

4. Eliminate multiple entry points for special education data In technology systems for cleaner data and to also help you minimize errors that could impact special education funding.

5. Develop internal processes to meet with your district’s ESE director to review all budgets and expenditures for special education across multiple funding sources, plan for each year’s cycle of IDEA entitlement grant submission and develop joint strategies to effectively manage and monitor costs.


Strategies to Control and Mitigate ESE Costs

Strategies to Better Manage SPED Costs

Some of the most promising strategies for improving the cost-effectiveness of special education are as follows:

• Increase early assessment and intervention.

• Review and clarify referral and assessment policies and practices for determining special education eligibility.

• Build a strong foundation for multi-tiered systems of supports to address the needs of struggling students.

• Promote more integration for students with disabilities within general education through inclusive practices.

• Improve IT capacity and produce better special education management information (e.g. Web-based IEPs, Medicaid Tracking and Billing Systems, etc.).

• Control one-on-one paraprofessional utilization.

• Search for transportation efficiencies.

• Reduce costs of substitutes (e.g. Absenteeism & IEP meetings).

• Increase Medicaid reimbursement efforts by using the right solutions that are proven effective and audit proof (e.g.. Administrative Claiming, Fee-for service).


Strategies to Better Control and Mitigate Costs• Matrix of Services – make sure that you are capturing the value of the

services being provided to students with disabilities based on the rules and guidelines delineated in the Matrix of Services Manual.

• Make sure that ESE staff is capturing intense services being provided to students when in the IEP and maintaining the records and logs necessary to support students funding at the highest cost levels of 254-255; Failure to do so will adversely affect FTE.

• Rethink workload restrictions (e.g. allocations formulas) and closely examine if these restrictions are locally driven or required by state or federal guidelines.

• Maximize the use of the personnel resources allocated to provide instruction and related services to students with disabilities by scheduling, monitoring and adjusting the caseloads to better utilize the existing resources with greater efficiency.

• Have processes in place that require checks and balances for the allocation of paraprofessional assistance for SWDs (e.g. procedures and rubrics for making the determination, goals on the IEP with start and end date, a fading plan and a process for monitoring and reviewing progress on goals on a yearly basis).

• Explore and analyze the costs benefits of hiring versus contracting for special education personnel.


Strategies to Better Control and Mitigate Costs

• Have policies and practices in place that requires all related providers log services for Medicaid eligible students receiving services on a regular scheduled (e.g. SLP. OT/PT, Counseling, Nursing, etc.).

• Monitor the intent, flexibility and utilization of the IDEA grant that provides the district funds to support the “excess cost” of special education.

• Monitor any other discretionary grants awarded to the district (e.g. FDLRS) as fiscal agent to support special education for its intent, flexibility and utilization.

• Manage and control the maintenance of effort spending base.

• Strengthen and monitor practices for the discipline of students with disabilities with close attention to removals (suspensions) since this is one of the indicators that can result in a significant discrepancy and a finding of “disproportionality.”

• Monitor special education referrals, evaluations and eligibility that lead to prevalence by race and ethnicity since this is also one of the indicators that can result in a significant discrepancy and a finding of “disproportionality.”


Seeking Outside Help in the Form ofTargeted Program Reviews and Technical Assistance

When local cost containment efforts are not producing the desired results, data from external reviews allows districts and schools to identify specific areas for improvement and to utilize resources more efficiently and effectively to address needs and priorities focused on:

• Professional development to improve instructional effectiveness

• Consistent use of evidence-based instructional practices to improve student engagement and outcomes

• Operations and financial resource management

• Facilitation of family engagement in special education practices

• Infrastructure alignment to support systemic improvements

• Effective use of the IEP process to improve student outcomes

• Effective utilization of teaching and support staff to maximize impact of special education programs

• Development and implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)


Opportunities for Revenue Maximization

OPPORTUNITIES

43

Monitor Cost Drivers ESE Enrollment/Membership Trends ESE Allocation Formulas ESE Personnel Trends ( In-

district/Contracted) Substitutes (e.g. IEPs, PD, Absences) ESE Transportation Trends Litigation Trends (e.g. settlement

agreements resulting from mediations, resolutions or due process hearing decisions, out of district/residential placements

Review IDEA Grant Utilization Percent of grant funded personnel

and contracted services (e.g. types and services)

Private School Proportional Share Set-Aside Trends

Pass through dollars or services budgeted for Charter Schools assurances

Discretionary projects ( e.g. scope, utilization and trends)

Medicaid Consent and Eligibility Process Administrative Claiming Fee-for-Service Transportation as a Billable service Logging of Services Billing Practices

IT & Technology Systems implement new web-based software

for special education (e.g. Early Warning/ MTSS, IEP, Medicaid Reimbursement, etc.

Reduce multiple entry points for capturing and reporting special education data


Collaborating with the Special Education Director

Role of the Special Education Director

Most directors and coordinators will spend one to two hours or more each day attending to each of these areas.

1. Strategic Planning

• Special education administrators drive the programs and services provided by their school districts. Strategic planning meetings may cover a range of topics, including development of annual benchmarks, testing and compliance goals, opening and closing classes, program development, enrollment forecasting and compliance issues.

2. Support and Service Implementation

• Special education administrators are often responsible for providing support to individual principals and teachers at a single school or group of schools. They visit these schools regularly to troubleshoot issues and to support and mentor teachers and administrators, as well as to offer guidance to help schools and classrooms implement specific individualized education program (IEP) services.

3. Business Considerations

• Special education administrators also manage the business side of running a department. The director plans the budget and monitors costs. The administrative team is then responsible for verifying that services billed by all providers were actually delivered, and that those services are mandated by students’ IEPs.


6 Strategies for Collaborating with the Special Education Director

1. Develop expectations: Anticipate, think ahead, and predict outcomes,

2. Understand perspectives: Acknowledge that everyone sees the world through his/her own view duties and responsibilities for their position; recognize that comprehending this fact will serve to foster positive communication.

3. Understanding style: Know that special education directors have different styles and one style is not necessarily better than another,

4. Ask questions: Probe, seek more information about how special education costs are currently managed, opportunities for improvement, methods to build competency, seek feedback, seek to understand the process and the perspectives of others to better manage costs,

5. Learn to listen: Make a conscious effort to hear what is being said. Take time to reflect.

6. Speak clearly: Send a message that is received as you intend it to be, take responsibility for what you say, explain things fully, avoid hidden messages, avoid judgment, stick to facts, strategies and actions steps that are backed by meaningful data and a common cause which will serve positive for working together towards an identified goal.


Implement a Collaborative Business Like Approach


Be Realistic

• Look at all special education funding sources

• Staffing Ratios &

• Budgets

• Trends & areas of concern for managing costs

Be Flexible

• Look for mutual consensus on areas to jointly manage costs

• Identify strategies, methods to monitor and make adjustments

Be Knowledgeable

• Do your homework

• Know all budgets and sources of funding

• Know your personnel/staffing, budgets, reporting and timelines

Be Organized

• Schedule regular meetings

• Develop a joint plan for monitoring costs

• Punctually follow-up on the plan’s strategies & timelines

Going Forward and Next Steps

What support do you need to better manage your ESE costs?

What goals do you want to set for yourself or your team around

monitoring and managing such costs?

What did you hear during this session that stimulated your interest

to strengthen practices and better monitor and manage ESE

costs?

How can PCG Education help?


QUESTIONS


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Solutions to Track and Control ESE Costs... | FFOA Conference Presentation 17. Local MOE...

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