PEC Budget Review DRAFT

1. PEC Budget Review DRAFT Dr. Phyllis B. Harris Executive Director February 2006 Non RBB Tool Version

2. Executive SummaryOUSD is a single district Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) and networks throughout the state. • PEC provides service and support through the public schools (charter and noncharter) to all students from 0-22 years of age throughout OUSD. The department specialists assess for eligibility, counsel ineligible students into other services, and provide support and services to eligible students under the specific guidelines mandated by state and federal law. • Our services range from resource support for general education students, special day classes for students with greater needs requiring more than 50% of their instructional day, and highly specialized therapies for students who are medically fragile or who have sustained severely disabling low incidence involvement that can be categorized as vision impaired, orthepedically impaired, deaf, blind or with multi-handicapping conditions. • PEC also runs programs for emotionally disturbed students under partnerships with outside agencies and our own mental health program under the provisions of a mental health contract with County Mental Health as a vendor (up to $526,000 but we bill between 400 and 425 thousand) • PEC provides significant levels of professional development and training for a staff of over 900 and, importantly, for support personnel and administrators within the district.

3. Department Priorities for FY 2006-2007 • To reach a 6.5 % June 2007 K-12 state compliance level for IEPs and TRIs through continuation of our Overdue IEP Corrective Action Plan. 05-06=10% Currently, at just under 7% for the December count • To lower the percentage of identified students with special needs through prereferral intervention and tighter control over the eligibility process. June 2005, there was a 12.8% identification; December 2005, there was an 11% identification. Our goal is to get under 10%. • To lower the over identification of students with Specific Learning Discrepancies through field specialist training and enforcement of mandated eligibility requirements. • To increase the knowledge and skill of PEC staff through in depth training and supervision leading to higher levels of student achievement in academics and functional academics and increase the graduation rate of non severely handicapped students.

4. FY 2005-2006 Initiatives Status of OUSD Response to FCMAT Recommendations Score 5 • Monthly site status reports on IEP compliance. • 310 teachers trained on web-based IEP system; remaining teachers to be trained in spring 2006. • Full implementation of web-based IEP system in 2006-2007. • Compliance training for new teachers in summer 2006; 50% of principals trained so far in 05-06. In Process • New handbooks distributed for administrators, teachers and parents on compliance and procedural issues. • Autism and Asperger model programs expanded successfully

5. FY 2005-2006 Initiatives con’t Status of OUSD Response to FCMAT Recommendations on LRE Score 4 on LRE (PEC Disagrees with this score) • Reduction of nonpublic placements from 268 (2005) to 216 (2005-2006). • Formal criteria and plan for non-public placements under development. • Best practices policies, curriculum and strategies developed for autism, Asperger’s and severely handicapped classes. • Standards-aligned curriculum developed and implemented in severely handicapped classes. Yearlong coaching in progress

6. Revenue Sources 2004-2005

7. Revenue Sources 2005-2006

8. TRANSPORTATION BUDGET Status of 2005-2006 Transportation Budget Durham School Services • Working Budget is $6,000,000.00 for 2005-2006 • Year to Date expenditures through December 2005 = $3,083,456.00 • This is 51.4% of working budget • Projected expenditures through the end of year with no changes $6,100,000.00 • Equal to last year’s expenditures even though Durham received an increase of 1.4% based on the CPI • Costs have decreased for the last four months when compared with last year • If trend continues total expenditures will be less than budget however second semester increases the number of SPED students and the decrease may not be as large as in the previous 4 months but there will still be a decrease due to a drop in enrollment compared to last year. • Expected increase for 2006-07 Durham Contract is 2.3% based on current CPI • This will change depending on the economy • This equates to an increase of $138,000.00 to their contract

9. Status of 2005-2006 Transportation Budgetcon’t Reimbursement Payments to Parents in Lieu of Transportation • Working Budget is $70,000 • Year to Date expenditures through December = $59,400.00 • Due to the April cut-off on new Purchase Orders no parents were paid from April 2005 through the end of the year and that will occur again as cut-off in April 2006 occurs. • Approximately $25,000.00 in payments made this school year were actually for services in the previous school year. • It is still cost effective to offer this reimbursement in lieu of Durham bus transportation • Projected expenditures through end of year =$125,000.00 • Department needs the ability to make payments through the month of June in order to correct this carryover problem. • We are paying at a significantly higher rate this year to get in line with the legal requirement of the IRS rate and more parents are submitting for reimbursement since gasoline prices have escalated.

10. Status of 2005-2006 Transportation Budgetcon’t Common Carrier Costs: AC Transit Passes, BART Passes, Para transit, Taxis • Adopted Budget is $252,000.00 • Working Budget is $137,000.00 • Year to Date expenditures through December = $125,100.00 • Increase in cost of AC Transit, BART, and Para Transit tickets • Taxi costs ($60,000)are being maintained at minimum levels • Need to purchase more AC Transit and BART tickets • Need access to remainder of Adopted Budget by end of February

11. TRANSPORTATION BUDGET FY 2006-2007 Durham Contract Budget for 2006-07 should be $6,138,000.00 Measures to Reduce Expenditures for 2006-07 • Reduce busing for Non-Severely Handicapped students at the Middle School level who do not have transportation on their IEPs-- requires pulling all IEPS on MS students currently with transportation—unknown as of this date • End after-school busing to sites outside of Oakland—currently we go to Stepping Stones which is 2 blocks off the district border and Ala Costa in Berkeley—possible litigation as transportation is in the IEPs and therefore requires changing the IEPs and consequently parents have a right to file for Due Process if they disagree • Trying to get agreement from Durham’s Corporate Offices to use Accountability GPS devices (to be leased by OUSD cost $5000 a year) to gain more efficient monitoring and higher performance levels of service delivery Proposed Parent Reimbursement Budget for 2006-07 is $150,000.00 • IRS rate for mileage has a great effect on this item • We are still paying at the old rate of 37.5 cents per mile, however, previously we paid well below the IRS rate at 21.0 cents per mile. • Current IRS rate is 40.5 cents and may increase Common Carrier Costs: AC Transit Passes, BART Passes, Para Transit, Taxis Budget for 2006-07 can remain the same amount as the Adopted Budget = $252,000

12. Transportation Budget Issue AC Transit Pass-Through • This needs to be placed in the budget and labeled as the pass-through. • Each year there are fewer District personnel who are aware of this requirement and a massive search must be undertaken to find the funds. • This is $2,500,000 that is identified in the Ed Code and is earmarked for this purpose.

13. Mediations 2005-2006 • 19 Mediations & Fair Hearings to date which represent .33% of the total special education population. • $28,800in payments to ADAMS Esq. • $313,379 reimbursements to parents • 329 hours of comp ed claims at a cost of $10,857 • 132 hours of negotiations without retaining outside counsel for the District. Current Cost of Mediations $353,036

14. Mental Health NPS Contracts forFY 2006-2007

15. NPS/NPA Projected BudgetFY 2006-2007

16. Planned Budget Accomplishments 2005-2006 • Reduced Transportation Budget by $1,000,000 as proposed and possibly more before the final bills are paid • Using 3 student workers to assist with office support covering unfilled or closed classified positions • Legal Costs for OUSD reduced from 100,000 to c.10,000 because the Ex. Director and 2 Coordinators handle Due Process themselves. Completions on 20 Due Process Filings through mediated agreements (1 Hearing) and about 20 Complaint filings in the past 6 months. Impact on administrative time is severe but done well. • Reduced 5.5 Voc Ed HS positions and closed 3 classes using the teachers to fill Teacher FTE vacancies—successful with just 1 disability case. • Parent Reimbursements Yearly based on established mediated settlements reduced by 50,000 successfully • Successful expansion of Autism STARS preventing litigation and NPS placements---Last Stars NPS returned saving c.80,000.

17. Planned Reductions/Constants to Budgets for FY 2006-2007 • Intervention Specialists save about $100,000 for every 10 positions on average; we have 17 currently • Nonpublic Schools MH Students--in process of being figured out to utilize Rock La Flesch 3 classes and Social Justice site for 6-7 classrooms + office and therapy rooms • Transportation Reductions • MS NHS students taken off busing as rising 9th graders__50______ • Elementary NHS Students taken off busing as rising 6th graders__50____ • Potential Savings at $50,000 per bus for every 13 students bused=c$350,000 • GPS devices >greater performance delivery accountability>less complaints>less Due Process filings>savings over 200 personnel/administrative hours plus settlement costs Savings in hiring • Hold constant on Teaching FTEs by re-resourcing FTEs from declining secondary/elem schools to Preschool expansion • Autism preschool classes potential increase of 3-4 Teacher FTE and 9 Intervention Specialists