Regional Programs
Why do Regional Programs exist?
Special education and related services for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities of “low incidence” are required under federal and state law. Low incidence disabilities include hearing impairment, vision impairment, deafblindness, severe orthopedic impairment, and autism spectrum disorder. Because these disabilities occur in the general population at such a low rate, it is cost prohibitive for individual school districts to employ specialized staff qualified to provide the full range of special education and related services required under federal and state law.
Oregon’s Regional Programs are structured to allow regionalized concentration of staff, services, equipment, and materials to provide a cost-effective mechanism allowing Oregon school districts to meet federal and state obligations for instruction and services for these children. While resident school districts retain the primary responsibility for providing required services, they rely on the expertise and economy-of-scale of the Regional Programs to recruit, train, and employ uniquely trained and certified teachers, therapists, and other staff to provide the required specialized services. Most districts need less than full time FTE for these specialized staff, and the Regional Program network allows for time and cost efficient sharing across district and county boundaries.
Regional Program services include, but are not limited to: specially designed instruction in academic areas, braille instruction, orientation and mobility instruction, low vision services, sign language instruction, audiology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, language development, use of technology for communication, instruction in developing independent living skills, assistive technology, and transition support services.
Statutory Authority and Program Description
Regional Programs are established in Oregon law (ORS 343.236), with program implementation outlined in Oregon Administrative Rule:
- OAR 581-015-0291
- OAR 581-015-0292
- OAR 581-015-0293
- OAR 581-015-0294
- OAR 581-015-0295
- OAR 581-015-0296
How have Regional Programs been performing?
Recognition of Quality
Regional Programs have statewide recognition and a strong history of providing quality services vital to districts. Numerous statewide educational, administrative, and advisory organizations voice strong support for Regional Programs, as identified below:
- A survey of Oregon School District Superintendents (Executive Memorandum 50-2002-03), was conducted in September 2002; results identified a clear statewide recognition of the need for and importance of Regional Program services
available to support districts in providing special education and related services to students with low incidence disabilities;
- Oregon Association of ESDs (OAESD): “supports strong low incidence regional service … systems.”
- Superintendents/ODE Forum II – recommends “full funding for …Regional Programs”
- Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA) “supports enhanced levels of state aid for the extra ordinary costs associated with programs required for students with the most severe low incidence, high cost disabilities...”
- COSA – recommends full state funding of direct and indirect costs to local districts and regional agencies resulting from state agencies’ or legislative motion. COSA's Education Policy Commission, responsible for making recommendations to the State Board Education, passed a resolution to continue the existing Regional Program structure for students with low incidence, high need disabilities.
- Oregon Legislative Special Education Task Force recommendation: “Develop a ‘safety net’ or risk pool management structure to protect local education agencies from the impact of unanticipated or disproportionately high needs and excess costs related to special education services. Utilize a regionalized structure for service delivery(emphasis added) and risk management pooling in order to increase capacity and maximize cost efficiencies for high need special education services. This should be modeled on the existing regional program structure for students with low incidence, high-cost disabilities.”
- Parent satisfaction with instruction, training, and supports provided through Regional Program services; statements drawn from parent surveys include:
- “My child’s expressive communication has greatly increased.”; “My child is making amazing progress.” ; “Receptive communication is incredible.” “My child now loves to play with other children.” “Gross motor skills have increased drastically.”
Regional Program Accountability
RegionalPrograms have established accountability systems to ensure cost effective delivery and management of services. Examples:
- OAR 581-015-0292 establishes a Regional Advisory Committee, consisting of stakeholders representing parents, administrators, educators, and consumers, that provide policy direction; this committee reports to the State Board of Education;
- A recent audit of Regional Programs documented efficiencies and appropriate uses of funds;
- Each Regional Program contractor conducts year-end satisfaction surveys in respective districts/programs served. Survey results are included in the annual submission of Regional Plans to ODE. Clearly, Regional Program services are of critical importance to districts and to parents; examples of the most recent survey results indicate:
- High satisfaction and demand for teaching and resource support by itinerant Regional specialists;
- High satisfaction and demand for support services and materials provided by educational sign language interpreters and braillists;
- High satisfaction with evaluation and consultation that reflects educational and developmental performance needs of children with low incidence disabilities;
- Strong agreement that inservice training and resources provided meet local staff needs.
- Disability specific assessment of program effectiveness and student outcomes is conducted to optimize statewide service delivery and use of resources; example:
- The Autism Outcome Study, begun in 1998, provides for longitudinal tracking of student and program performance. Present data identifies instructional strategies that lead to improved skill development in the areas of expressive and receptive language, self care, and appropriate behaviors. This information is used to inform and guide other statewide autism services made available throughout the Regional Program network.
How does the Regional Program use its budget?
A combination of federal funds (approximately 25%) and state general funds (approximately 75%) fund Regional Programs. 99% of the total Regional Program budget is allocated to the eight contractors, with these funds supporting direct services to infants, toddlers, children, and youth with low incidence disabilities. 1% of the budget is used by ODE to manage and administer the Regional Programs (fiscal management, development of policies and procedures, monitor compliance, and provide technical assistance).
Regional Program Structure
Regional Programs operate in collaboration with local school districts and Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) programs in providing required services to infants, toddlers, children, and youth with low incidence disabilities.
- Services to children with low-incidence disabilities are provided through eight regional contractors. The Superintendent of Public Instruction selects the contractors and establishes the boundaries for each region;
- Regional contractors are either an Education Service District (ESD) or a local school district;
- Each Regional Program employs highly trained and appropriately licensed staff to provide the specialized instruction and services required under federal and state law;
- The regional service delivery model provides access to required services regardless of where the children live in the state and without regard to the size of the resident school district;
Number of Eligible Students
The numbers of students eligible for and receiving specialized services from Regional Programs has continually grown over the past 8 years, as identified in Chart 1 below.
Since 1994, Oregon has experienced a 51% increase in the number of students eligible in one or more of the 5 low incidence disability areas. Between 1994 and 2002, the number of eligible students increased from 4560 to 6900.
Funding Trends
The level of State support for critical special education and related services provided by Regional Programs has eroded significantly over the last 6 bienniums. This has occurred despite the identified increases in Regionally eligible students. As a result, Regional Programs have experienced significant increases in caseload sizes for staff and decreases in the amount and frequency of services available for students with low incidence disabilities.
Chart #2 below, and the bulleted information that follows, demonstrates that while the number of Regionally eligible children has increased significantly over the past decade, the amount of State funding per Regionally eligible child has decreased over time.
- During the time period 1991-2003 there has been a 68.6% growth in Regionally eligible students while Grant-in-Aid state funding for Regional Programs has increased by 17.9%.
- From 1991 – 2001 there has been cumulative inflation of 36.1% based on U.S. Department of Labor CPI-U Portland data (most recent available).
- The detrimental effect of inflation is the reduction of “real purchasing power” for these services. Consequently, when the 2001-03 Grant-in-Aid budget of $47,590,067 is adjusted for cumulative inflation, there was a decrease of 24.6% in Regional program funding compared to the “purchasing power” in 1991.
- Combining the increase in the number of Regionally eligible students with the decrease in inflation-adjusted funding (using the 1991-basis of $30,410,052) results in a 55.3% reduction in inflation adjusted funding per Regionally eligible student.
Using a 1991-dollar basis, funding for each Regionally eligible student has decreased from $5,051 per student in 1991 to $2,258 per student in 2003. The reductions in State funding has resulted in a “cost shift” of $2,793 to resident districts and the state’s EI/ECSE program during this time period. The actual “cost shift” amount is much greater than $2,793 per student since resident districts do not have the economy of scale necessary to employ qualified staff to provide specialized instruction and related service to these low incidence students as cost effectively as a Regional Program.
What can be expected in terms of outcomes with this budget?
The Regional Program budget allows for cost effective delivery of mandated special education and related services to students with high need, low incidence disabilities, as required by federal and state law. None of the Regionally provided services are “optional” to the school district. Typically, services and supports necessary to address the low incidence disability areas of hearing impairments, vision impairments, deafblindness, severe orthopedic impairments, and autism spectrum disorders are high cost services. These services are a critical factor in promoting continued high standards and achievement of academic and life skills for these students.
The budget allows Regional Programs to:
- Continue providing economy-of-scale: the structure of Regional Programs provide cost effective and tax conscious services;
- Continue supporting partnerships with resident districts, allowing a cost effective means for the districts to meet their federal and state obligations in providing FAPE to students with low incidence disabilities by:
- Decreasing incidence of district challenges in fulfilling legal responsibilities in meeting the student’s highly specialized needs;
- Providing regional staff with the depth of knowledge required to provide specialized services and training to local staff not typically available through local districts due to the low incidence of the disabilities and nature of the highly specialized services required in meeting individual student needs.
- Provide necessary support and services for districts in the ongoing implementation of new federal requirements under No Child Left Behind, including:
- Delivering instruction to address educational needs of all students, including specialized instruction provided by qualified staff for students with low incidence disabilities;
- Encouraging and facilitating strong academic standards in reading, math and science for elementary, middle and high school students with low incidence disabilities;
- Providing access to appropriate Oregon statewide assessment options and reporting requirements;
- Helping to ensure education and services are provided in the least restrictive environment for students with low incidence disabilities, as required by federal and state law;
- Regional Program services support Oregon students with low incidence disabilities to live and attend school in their local communities. Without the special education and related services available through the Regional Programs, many students would be under-served. Many students would need to leave their local communities to receive appropriate educational programs. In both cases, there is great potential for an increase in emerging special education litigations.