According to spending reports released by the U.S. Dept. of Education, Delaware has obligated 42% of its IDEA Part B Recovery funds, or $13,891,550 as of September 30, 2010. The national average is 50%. Spending details by local school district are available at EdMoney.org.
Current spending reports are always available here. All IDEA Recovery Act funds must be obligated by September 30, 2011.
According to the August 27, 2010 spending report issued by the US Dept. of Education, Delaware has obligated 36% of its IDEA Part B Recovery Act funds – or $11,698,922.22. All funds must be obligated by Sept. 30, 2011. This compares to the national rate of 46%.
From the GAO report, States Could Provide More Information on Education Programs to Enhance the Public’s Understanding of Fund Use, released July, 2010, the following information was collected via a GAO survey between March and April 2010 and through follow-up communications:
Christina School District
Wilmington, DE 19801
Award amount: $4,954,517
Christina School District reported that it used its Recovery Act IDEA award to support Coordinated Early Intervention Services for students with disabilities who have academic or behavioral issues, to supplement funds to secondary schools for extended day and extended year programs for students with disabilities, to provide professional development to staff working with students with disabilities, and to expand birth-to-five activities for parents and students. These funds supported about 22 schools and 16,000 students. Specifically, the funds were used to: expand birth to 3-year-old parent and child programs in high-need areas; provide afternoon preschool programs for 30 children, construct an academic support center at one high school to assist and enrich students at a variety of achievement levels, hire academic and behavior interventionists to support student needs, conduct training in research-based instructional practices, and conduct formal-third party reviews of all schools to gather baseline information on the school’s performance, and create professional development plans for the staff and school leaders. As a result of these IDEA funds, district officials reported seeing a significant improvement in behavioral referrals this school year and expect student enrollment and retention rates to improve as well as improvement in academic achievement over time. Officials indicated that their Recovery Act IDEA award activities were less than 50 percent completed.
IDEA Money Watch comments: Funds used for Coordinated Early Intervention Services (more accurately called “Coordinated Early Intervening Services) should not be reported as part of Recovery Act IDEA funds and may not be used to serve students already eligible for special education services and supports. Reported activities funded with IDEA Part B funds should involve activities that support the excess costs of special education only.
Christina (Wilmington, Del.)
Christina School District plans to use ARRA stimulus dollars to support a pilot program proposed by the district’s early childhood leadership team that will allow 30 four-year-olds—who otherwise would not have had the opportunity—to attend preschool before going to kindergarten. The students were selected based on specific eligibility requirements focused on serving families with the greatest need.
In addition, a portion of the funding will be used to update kitchen facilities using the food services grant. Four Christina schools were slated for installation of new equipment during the fall of 2009. These updates will support improvements in cooking and holding hot foods, as a part of the National School Lunch Program.
For the full report Click Here.
IDEA Money Watch has obtained the determinations (ratings) given to every local educational agency (LEA) in Delaware for the 2007-2008 school year. Details about the rating process and the ratings are available here.
These ratings are important because they determine if LEAs may reduce their local level of spending on special education in light of the significant increase provided by the Recovery Act (see Recovery Act FAQs)
Delware is receiving $32,700,531 in IDEA Part B Recovery Act funds to improve services for its 17,171 school age students with disabilities.
We will report on how these funds are being spent.
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