In the 2027 legislative session, set to begin in early January, lawmakers will determine the state’s next two-year budget, and leaders at Indianapolis Public Schools are already preparing their requests.
The district wants lawmakers to close a special education funding gap and change how the state funds high-need students. It is also seeking to lift a cap on what IPS can charge charter school partners, expand pre-K funding and cover the cost of students’ advanced coursework exams.
This comes as the distric plans to announce school closures in November as it addresses a $20 million deficit for next school year.
IPS’s most pressing request for lawmakers is to close the approximately $24 million gap between what the state provides for special education and the cost of those services for students with disabilities. IPS enrolls about 3,600 special education students, or 18% of enrollment, in the district’s directly managed schools.
IPS has dealt with the special education funding gap for years, but Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said that if the state fully funded the district’s special education needs, it would free up other funding for the general education population.
“We’ve just reached a point now where, again, that funding pie has continued to shrink, has continued to be divided into many pieces and so we believe this is the time to really push on making sure that our special education students are served well,” Johnson said.
IPS faces a strained financial reality going forward in the coming years due to a decline in enrollment,Indiana’s property tax reform that restricts local revenues, and a requirement to share more property taxes with charter schools.
Rachel Santos, executive director of IPS’s office of deputy superintendent, said she hopes to build more support at the Statehouse because many school districts across the state face the same issue.
“I think the only way it’s going to be successful is if no one knows who’s leading because we’re all leading the same issue,” Santos said.
IPS also wants to change how the state allocates complexity funding, the money for a district’s highest-need students. The state bases that funding on the percentage of students who receive SNAP, TANF or foster care services. IPS says the formula should also consider English Language Learners.
Lawmakers have shifted school funding over time, by giving more dollars to the base per-pupil amount that all schools get and less to complexity funding.
A 2024 state law limits what IPS can charge Innovation schools for services such as utilities, food services, janitorial maintenance and transportation to no more than what each school receives in local property taxes. The district says it should be allowed to recover the actual cost of services it provides to its 30 partner schools.
IPS recently said it’s considering charging its Innovation schools for certain services to recoup the anticipated $20 million deficit it will likely face in the coming years.
IPS would also like the legislature to increase funding for pre-K and expand the funding pool for On My Way Pre-K, which helps low-income families pay for pre-K programs.
It’s final request is for the state to fully cover the cost of exams for all advanced coursework programs, like Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge testing. It also wants the state to maintain its reimbursements to teachers who earn credentials to teach those college-level courses.
This article was written by Caroline Beck for WFYI.
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