Possible reductions in federal funds for special education could put more stresses on Arlington Public Schools’ budget proposal.
“There are questions, concerns, uncertainties” about the Trump administration’s plans for special education funds, said Kenneth Brown, the school system’s director of secondary-level special education, at an April 10 School Board meeting.
As of that meeting, “the Office of Special Education has not received any information other than what everyone else has received through the news,” Brown said.
APS staff is preparing its annual request for funding through the federal government’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education on May 9.
School officials anticipate receiving about $6.1 million in IDEA funds supporting students from kindergarten up to age 22, and an additional $128,000 to augment services to preschool students. Most of the funds support staffing costs.
Adding to the uncertainty: Local school districts across the commonwealth still are waiting to receive word on the final allocation of state budget funds for the coming year. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and the Democratic-controlled legislature are wrangling over the total amounts.
APS will submit its application for IDEA funds by the May 9 timetable, Superintendent Francisco Durán told Board members. If funding questions still remain unresolved, “we can revise” the figures later, he said.
In a worst-case scenario in which the school system ends up with less than expected from the federal or state levels, “we will be working … to come up with solutions,” Brown said.
State and federal law requires local school districts to certify their special-education programs each year in order to qualify for funding. The state requires “a really strong explanation of how we utilize [the] funds,” said Erin Stone, a supervisor in the school district’s Office of Special Education.
State and federal requirements mandate that IDEA funds be used on top of, rather than in place of, local funding for special-education services, and that special-education education is funded at a level at least as high as the average per-student cost.
Special-education funding is just one of several unresolved key issues as the superintendent and School Board attempt to wrap up action on the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
At the April 10 meeting, Durán said he may request that final action on the $845 million budget plan be moved from May 1 to later in the month, in hopes of having more clarity.
Board member Bethany Zecher Sutton said the special education issue is “an example of what we are potentially looking at in the event that federal funding to APS is cut.”
She asked staff to keep the Board and the public up to date on any possible impacts.
“The more specific we can be about where we might be headed is helpful,” she said.
