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Account	Description	FY07 GAA	FY08 GAA
7061-0012	Circuit Breaker - Reimbursement for Special Education Residential Schools For the reimbursement of extraordinary special education costs under section 5A of chapter 71B of the General Laws; provided, that reimbursements shall be prorated so that expenses of this item do not exceed the amount appropriated in this item; provided further, that upon receipt by the department of education of required special education cost reports from school districts, the department shall reimburse districts based on fiscal year 2007 claims; provided further, that not more than $9,250,000 shall be used to continue and expand voluntary residential placement prevention programs between the department of education and other departments within the executive office of health and human services that develop community-based support services for children and their families; provided further, that of this $9,250,000, not less than $8,000,000 shall be made available to the department of mental retardation for the voluntary residential placement prevention program administered by that department; provided further, that $800,000 shall be expended for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic to provide books in accessible synthetic audio format made available through the federal NIMAS-NIMAC book repository, to do outreach and training of teachers and students for the use of NIMAS-NIMAC and human speech audio digital textbooks, and for human voice recording of MCAS exams; provided further, that, of this $800,000 $285,000 shall be expended for the costs of borrowing audio textbooks by special education students; provided further, that $200,000 of said $800,000 shall be targeted toward underserved communities in Barnstable, Bristol and Plymouth counties; provided further, that of this $800,000, not less than $25,000 shall be expended for the continuation of a pilot program for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic to provide the tenth grade math and English learning arts MCAS tests in audio digital format; provided further, that no funds shall be expended for the MCAS pilot program until the department of education examines all security issues related to the pilot program and certifies to the legislature that the pilot program may be carried out without jeopardizing the security of the MCAS exams; provided further, that the report shall be completed not later than November 15, 2007 and shall be forwarded to the house and senate chairpersons of the joint committee on education and the chairpersons of the house and senate committees on ways and means; provided further, that $300,000 shall be expended for the continued funding of the costs of 3 incentive start-up grants to educational collaboratives to provide partial funding for transportation coordination, administrative support, software updates, maintenance and training; provided further, that the funding shall be expended for the purpose of implementing a pilot program to demonstrate that transportation of students to out-of-district special education placements can be accomplished at a lower cost and with improved quality of service by delegating the planning and contracting for such transportation to education collaboratives which would be responsible for the transportation of students to all out-of-district programs located within the pilot program collaborative catchment area; provided further, that $300,000 shall be expended for the start-up costs for no more than six inter-collaborative transportation networks to provide funding for transportation coordination, administrative support, software upgrades, maintenance and training; provided further that the funding shall be expended for the purpose of replicating the pilot program model of delegating the planning and contracting for student transportation to educational collaboratives for the transportation of students to all out-of-districts programs located within the transportation network catchment area; provided further that the special education transportation task force shall submit a report, detailing the reduction in routes, vendors, and savings for participating districts and also a cost model for regions served by the collaborative network, by June 30, 2008 to the Joint Committee on Education, and the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means; provided further, that not more than $1,000,000 shall be expended for the monitoring and follow-up activities of the department's complaint management system, review and approval of local educational agency applications, and local school districts' compliance with the part B requirements of the federal Special Education Law, known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in the provision of special education and related services to children with disabilities; provided further, that these monitoring activities shall occur in each school district in cycles of not less than 3 years; provided further, that in order to facilitate such monitoring, the department may allocate funds from this item to item 7061-0029, as necessary, pursuant to allocation plans submitted to the house and senate committees on ways and means 30 days prior to any transfer; provided further, that not more than $500,000 shall be expended to administer the reimbursements funded herein; provided further, that notwithstanding said section 5A of said chapter 71B, the department, at the discretion of the commissioner, may expend up to $5,000,000 to reimburse districts for extraordinary increases in costs incurred during fiscal year 2008 which would be reimbursable under said section 5A of said chapter 71B; provided further, that reimbursements for current year costs shall be limited to school districts which experience increases of greater than 25 per cent from costs reimbursable under said section 5A of said chapter 71B and incurred during fiscal year 2007 to costs reimbursable under said section 5A of said chapter 71B and incurred during fiscal year 2008 or other cases of extraordinary hardship where special education costs increase in relationship to total district costs as the department may define through regulation or guidelines; provided further, that reimbursements for current year costs shall be allocated as one-time grants and shall not decrease reimbursements in the following fiscal year; provided further, that the department shall conduct audits of fiscal year 2007 claims; provided further, that if the claims are found to be inaccurate, the department shall recalculate the fiscal year 2008 reimbursement amount and adjust the third and fourth quarter payments to the districts to reflect the new reimbursement amount; and provided further, that the department shall file a report with the house and senate committees on ways and means not later than February 15, 2008 on the results of the audits	207,700,000	220,000,000

 
 

HISTORICAL SPENDING CATEGORIES ($000)

SPENDING CATEGORY	FY04 Spending	FY05 Spending	FY06 Spending	FY07 Spending	FY08 GAA
Wages & Salaries	595	815	1,286	1,628	1,315
Pensions & Benefits	4	13	17	27	23
Operating Expenses	54	180	164	243	398
Public Assistance	120,546	198,559	190,687	202,508	218,064
Aid to Cities & Towns	0	0	300	300	200
TOTAL	121,199	199,568	192,454	204,707	220,000

* FY07 Projected Spending includes the budget plus nearly $1 billion in spending from FY06 supplemental budgets.

 

 

Earmarks

EARMARK DESCRIPTION	FY08
Borrowing audiotaped textbooks - Barnstable, Bristol and Plymouth counties	200,000
Borrowing audiotaped textbooks by special needs students	285,000
Costs of 3 incentive start-up grants to educational collaboratives	300,000
For the monitoring and follow-up activities of the dept's complaint management system	1,000,000
Recording for the blind and dyslexic pilot program for 10th grade math and English MCAS	25,000
Start up costs for 6 collaborative transportation networks	300,000
To administer the reimbursements funded within this line item	500,000
To continue and expand voluntary residential placement prevention programs between DOE and other departments within EOHHS that develop community based services for children and their families	1,250,000
To continue and expand voluntary residential placement prevention programs that develop community based services for children and their families at DMR	8,000,000
To provide books for recording for the Blind and Dyslexic	290,000
To reimburse districts for extraordinary increases in special education costs incurred during FY07	5,000,000