Presentation Shows Where, What Special Services Funding is Going Toward

The state of special services at the Madison Public Schools was the main topic of discussion at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night at the Madison High School library.

Director of Special Services Nancy Novak gave a presentation to the board and attendees, much of which detailed where funds are coming from and what the money is going toward.

Novak said that ever since the the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was created in 1975, the funding called for by the legislation would only ever pay for a portion of the special education needs budgeted by each public school district.

"One hundred percent funding would have funded districts at  40 percent," Novak said. "We never saw more than 18 percent of what was to be full funding."

Last year, with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) the district had received additional stimulus money.

This school year, Novak said 50 percent of the ARRA money was going toward special education funding.

"So half of that money was given to support special education staff," Novak said, "and help critically to offer services we need without reductions to staffing."

The other half, Novak said, was to go toward one-time cost initiatives.

"This was a two-year grant for this year and next year," Novak said. "The idea was don't start programs you won't be able to support with local funds, because that wouldn't really make sense. So the idea was to use it for technology, for staff development, for increasing local capacities to handle certain situations so that these were seen as one-time investments rather than ongoing costs."

Novak spent much of the remaining presentation talking about what the money was being spent on. One use of the money was 350 licenses of FASTT Math, a math software which helps mastery in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through a game. The program is to be used three days a week for 10 minutes a day.

Another software, SOLO, is a literacy tool that is used for writing, word prediction, reading back text, and has a draft builder which allows for graphic organizers. The read-back software is available to students for home use.

Novak also said funds are going toward continued training for staff, including for Wilson Reading, and working with students with Asperger Syndrome and high-functioning autism.