I don't know the answer to this, because if I had a child who needed special ed, I'd fight ferociously for her, but is this sustainable?

not your grandfather’s one room school house

Stamford schools special education, English-learning populations are spiking. Now the budget is too.

The proposed special education budget for next school year is $62.7 million, an increase of roughly $3.5 million compared with the current budget.

A big driver of that increase is the amount the school system spends on tuition for students who need extra support at specialized out-of-district facilities. That number is expected to rise by $843,340 to a total of $18.6 million.

The average cost to Stamford Public Schools per out-of-district student is $104,270, Fernandes said, more than three times the average cost for an "in-district" special education student, which is $31,000, and five times the cost of a general education student, which is $20,500 on average.

The amount spent on out-of-district tuition per student varies drastically, with the lowest total being $43,867, and the highest reaching $464,090.

He said the district's early childhood educational center Apples has seen "booming" enrollment overall as well as in special education students. This year, the number of students in the program increased by about 50 percent, for a total enrollment of more than 300 students.

Over the past eight years, the number of students with disabilities in Stamford has increased by more than 700 students, including an increase of 200 students this school year compared with the previous year.

“Enrollment is a real driver for special education costs,” Fernandes said.

Special education spending in Stamford has risen by 16.8 percent over the past five years.

The most recent surge in special education students likely stems from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fernandes said. The loss of learning and social isolation students felt during that time has resulted in an increase in the intensity and quantity of student support, he said.

Another driver is the increase in staff to address enrollment growth. The proposed budget includes the addition of two speech pathologists, three social workers, one school psychologist and three contingency positions to address an even larger increase in enrollment.

And then there are our new friends from south of what was once a border

The district also has seen a spike in English language learners, which is used to describe students who cannot communicate fluently in English.

As of Jan. 22, there were 3,024 English learner [sic] or EL, students in Stamford, representing 18.2 percent of the total student population, nearly one out of every five students. Of the 1,197 new students screened for this year — which includes the entire kindergarten class and any newcomers in other grades — the rate of EL students is a whopping 64 percent.

Since Oct. 1, approximately 200 EL students have joined the district.

The growth of the EL population over the past decade has been massive. In October of 2012, the number of non-English-speakers was just over 2,000, representing 12.7 percent of the district. Today, the number of students in that demographic is 3,024, which represents 18 percent of the school system.

Over that time, the budget for the English Learner program has grown from $5.2 million to $8.9 million, which is the amount proposed in the school budget for the 2024-25 school year. That amount is an increase of $640,000 compared with the current budget.

Greenwich, too, has problems: In pre-K alone, Right now, about 60 percent of any given pre-K class is general education students and 40 percent is special education. And I found this 2018 article on special education in all Greenwich schools — it’s expensive.

Add in federal law requirements and many Greenwich residents having the wherewithal to sue, and win cases involving their children’s needs, and Houston, we have a problem. I’m glad I’m not on the Board of Education and charged with coming up with a solution to all this.