More than $1 million worth of improvements to facilities for students with special needs is at the top of the priority list as Harford County Public Schools leaders develop their capital improvement program for the 2019 fiscal year.
The CIP, which is the list of capital projects the school system will submit to the state and county government for funding, is being developed throughout the summer.
The improved classroom accommodations were at top of the funding list under a scoring system discussed with Board of Education members during a Monday evening work session.
The classroom modifications are geared toward bringing more students with special needs back to schools in Harford County rather than having them in “non-public placement” programs outside the county, board members were told. By law, the local school system is required to pay for such placements, including the student’s transportation.
“Since we have, over the last three years, rebuilt our autism classroom we have been able to drastically cut our non-public schools [placement],” Susan Austin, director of special education, said.
In 2015, for instance, the school board approved spending up to $250,000 to convert a section of Fallston High School to accommodate high school students with autism. The new facilities were part of a plan to expand the number of sites for instruction of autistic students.
HCPS expects to serve 49 elementary students on the autism spectrum in the coming school year, along with 12 middle school students and about 12 high school students, Austin said.
“Next year, with additional students entering, we will need more space for our elementary students and our secondary students,” she sai
Austin said 33 students identified as being on the autism spectrum are in non-public placement. The per-student cost ranges from about $76,000 to $238,000, she said.
She said the number of students in non-public placement has been reduced by nearly 100 during the past three years.
According to the HCPS unrestricted operating budget of $456 million for the 2017-18 school year, almost $8 million is earmarked for non-public placement expenses out of a total special education expenses of $43.8 million. The non-public costs were reduced by $200,000 from the previous year, budget documents state.
Board member Rachel Gauthier said the capital funding request for the classroom improvements — which would have to be all locally funded — could save money in the long run and would be beneficial to special needs students and their families.
“It also impacts their same-age peers and helps them out as well, in terms of having more students around with differentiated learning needs,” Gauthier said.
The request of $1.086 million ranked first among capital projects that meet the “critical needs” of the school system.
It got a top score of 25 points, just above a request of $43.8 million from the state and county for the second year of funding for the Havre de Grace Middle/High replacement. That project, which has a total estimated cost of more than $99 million, got a ranking of 22 points, based on the scoring matrix used by HCPS officials.