District 95 weighs impact of taking back special education students

Lake Zurich Unit District 95 would save money by taking back its special education students from a Lake County cooperative, and instead creating programs in-house or sending those students to private placements, officials said.

The school board got its first look this week at what it would cost to educate 19 special education students now served by Special Education District of Lake County programs throughout the county. District 95 could save $867,572 by quitting SEDOL, said Nancy Rosenfeld, District 95 assistant superintendent for special education

That's because District 95 would receive 100 percent of more than $1 million in state and federal grant monies that now go to SEDOL. Only $402,068 of that money is now refunded to District 95.

District 95 would also save money by not having to pay for SEDOL's administrative, operations and maintenance and employee retirement costs, Rosenfeld said.

Yet, finances aren't the primary incentive to pull out, said District 95 Superintendent Brian Knutson.

"Our number-one priority is to provide the appropriate programming to meet children's needs, and if we can do that inside, on our own, for comparable costs then that's absolutely a great way to go," Knutson said. "We believe we can do it. But we've got a lot more work to do before we get there."

It took roughly six months of preparation before the district took back its early childhood program from SEDOL four years ago.

District officials have been touting the success of that program and other special education programs gradually taken back from SEDOL as reasons to quit the cooperative.

Parent Paul Pike, whose daughter was in District 95's early childhood program the first year after SEDOL, says the district should take its time before bringing back the rest of the special education students.

"It (the program) didn't live up to the billings of it," Pike said. "There was no program in place. We worked through the problems."

Pike said his daughter had to go to seven district schools to get services. His daughter starts second grade this fall in a regular classroom and will receive special services, such as physical therapy, for her cerebral palsy.

District 95 is the only one of the 36 SEDOL member public school districts that opted to pull out as of next year.

That's because district officials were upset by SEDOL'S hasty decision to push through a $26.5 million building project for a new school and renovations to existing facilities.

Even if it pulled out, District 95 would be liable for making bond and interest payments to SEDOL on past and future construction projects, under the original membership agreement. The district must pay $3.3 million for the new building project over 10 years.

It has until July 1, 2009, to fully withdraw with approvals from SEDOL's governing board, the Lake County Regional Office of Education, and the Illinois State Board of Education. That process takes nine to 12 months.