A new academic year is on the horizon, and education leaders are preparing to encounter new laws, new budgets, and of course new students.
With each year comes change for students, educators, and school administrators. Oftentimes, that comes in the form of families beginning to utilize special education services for the first time.
Jamie Nold is the superintendent of the Sioux Falls School District, South Dakota’s largest. In an interview with SDPB's In the Moment, he said helping families accept and work with the services available is critical.
“Sometimes that’s a scary word for people, but that’s such a wide gamut," Nold said. "We’ve had kids who are AP scholars who still receive some special education services because they have a learning disability in a specific area or some type of support that is needed. We help them to get beyond that, they hear that word. There’s so many services and programs that are available for those that are much more severely handicapped to those that just need a little bit of support, and everything in between.”
At the same time, these programs are critically underfunded. After lobbying in D.C. during summer break, School Administrators of South Dakota executive director Rob Monson said that targeted specific items like ESL and special education.
“We ask for full funding, the federal government is only funding that at 17 percent," Monson said. "I believe their promise, or when the law was put in, was more of like 34-35 percent.”
A yearly challenge for leaders like Monson is figuring out how to fund specialty programs with this budget reality.
“Those services still have to be provided here in the state, "Monson said. "If they aren’t funding it, someone does need to fund it. We do not have the option to not provide services in public schools, so it ends up being out of the local tax dollars or local levees on special education that you have to raise those monies to cover those costs.”
Further, special education teachers are among the most common open positions for South Dakota educators.