Parents seek federal funds

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s parent leaders have launched a letter-writing campaign for more federal special education funds, while the district struggles to pay its highest-ever costs for students with special needs.

At the Monday meeting of the Harbor Council PTA, which oversees the Newport-Mesa district, President Nadine Turner distributed postcards for parents to mail to their representatives in Washington. The cards, she said, were intended to encourage the government to fund all mandated programs, but the focus was on special education — for which the district has committed a record $26.2 million this year.

The federal government set a goal in 1975 of funding 40% of per-pupil special education costs but has never come close to that mark. The Newport-Mesa district’s budget for this year covers 57% of expenses, with state dollars making up most of the remainder.

“We’ve been telling our parents that the buck doesn’t stop at Newport-Mesa because it hasn’t even gotten that far,” Turner said.

She added that she had given out multiple copies of the postcards — which argue that “all our students will suffer” without more federal support — in hopes that parents would mail them both to senators and to representatives. Next week, Turner and four other Newport-Mesa parents plan to fly to Sacramento to lobby their representatives for more funding.

The school district has dipped further and further into its own pockets to pay for special education, with costs ballooning 70% in the last four years. The $26.2 million allotted to special education this year amounts to roughly one-ninth of the district’s entire general fund.

Elsewhere in Newport-Mesa Unified, though, the signs are encouraging. The district, which two years ago was hit with 73 legal cases over special education and spent $5.6 million to send students to outside schools and agencies, has fought since then to strengthen its programs. This year, according to operations director Denise Knutsen, Newport-Mesa has 504 contracts with outside vendors, compared with 834 a year ago.

“We’ll continue to see a reduction as we return those services,” Knutsen said.

The district has added seven new autism classes for the current school year, has hired new speech therapists and occupational therapists and has begun training staffers to work with special-needs students at home after school. So far, the results have been mixed — the district reduced its legal cases to 27 for the first two quarters of the year but still tied for third most in the state.

In addition, Deputy Supt. Paul Reed noted, the reduced legal costs were somewhat offset by new employees’ salaries. In 2004, he said, the district spent $13.7 million on special education faculty, compared with $19.6 million this year. Reed added that he doesn’t expect costs to skyrocket as in the past.

“I think the huge run-up has leveled off,” he said. “I expect it to continue to increase, because all costs are increasing.”