Watertown School Officials Struggle to Get a Handle on Special Education Costs

With students moving in and out of the special education program all the time and with the state funding still unsettled, that portion of the budget is tough for Watertown School officials to nail down.

The lack of clarity with the cost of services for students with special needs has frustrated School Committee members. Chairman Anthony Paolillo asked when the budget would solidify, to which Director of Business Services Allie Altman responded, “It won’t.”

She illustrated the difficulty by pointing out that the day of the School Committee Budget and Finance Committee meeting, May 19, two students were placed into the special education program.

“Twice today it changed,” Altman said.

As of May 19, the total projected cost of special education tuition costs for fiscal 2012 was $4.99 million. Those dollars pay for students to attend programs outside Watertown. In fiscal 2011, those tuition cost $5.18 million.

The district has made an effort to keep students in Watertown, to reduce special education costs, said Superintendent Ann Koufman.

Town Councilor Vincent Piccirilli said he was glad to see the money invested in build in-district special education programs has paid off, with the tuition costs dropping nearly $200,000.

“When we allocated $500,000 to special education in-district programs we hoped to control costs,” Piccirilli said. “This is a positive trend.

Another key part of special education funding is the state’s Circuit Breaker funds, which helps pay for high-cost services needed by students.

The State Senate included a 55 percent increase over last year, which would provide approximately $300,000 for Watertown, Altman said. This is lower than the House’s budget, which would provide $500,000.

Asked if they could do anything to increase that figure, Altman said people could call their state senator, Steve Tolman.

Paolillo said Tolman has been very supportive of the Watertown schools, but added it would not hurt for parents to call.

Watetown’s share of the Circuit Breaker will not likely be settled until after the School Department presents its budget to the Town Council on May 31, Koufman said.