Issue Position: Rep. Turner assists in saving DY Special Education Money

Issue Position

After being contacted by the Special Education Director at Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School about a special education student and that student's extraordinary physical and educational needs, Rep. Turner assisted in getting the student admitted to the Massachusetts Hospital School.

Schools are responsible for a student's special education costs. When a special ed student needs placement in a residential program, the sending school is required to pay the residential facility costs. Very often, schools are faced with a student entering the district with special needs after the budget has been set and the school year has begun. In that case, the school has had no opportunity to anticipate the costs and include those costs in the budget. Nevertheless, the school is required to fund the special needs requirements. In this case, because there was no state residential facility available, the student was sent to an out of state private school at a cost of $300,000 per year. That cost would have been borne by DY until the student turns twenty-two.

Rep. Turner called, wrote to, and visited the Massachusetts Hospital School in Canton and was able to assist DY in getting the special needs student into that state facility. The difficulty was that, because of funding and the Governor's 9C budget cuts, many rooms at the Mass Hospital School could not be filled. As a result of Rep. Turner's hands on approach, when a room became available at the school, the DY student was accepted. The DY special needs student will turn twenty-two in two years.

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