Over 200 students with disabilities have enrolled in the Concord School District since last summer, an influx that has far exceeded the district’s projections and strained its support services.

The unexpected increase will cost the district about $600,000 more than anticipated in special education expenses this year, district administrators told school board members last week. Last spring, the board had allocated $28 million, or about a quarter of the district’s $107.9 million budget, to student services for this school year.

The increased cost – which will primarily be spent on hiring more support staff – is not expected to materially affect taxpayer’s rates this year. Rather, it will primarily be covered by deferring the planned full payment on district transportation and HVAC bonds, Business Administrator Jack Dunn said.

The number of Concord students with individualized education programs, or IEPs, has increased by a total of 124 since last summer, according to data from the district. Two hundred eleven students with IEPs moved into the district, while only 87 left.

“Typically over years that balances,” said John Fabrizio, the assistant superintendent for student services. “Well, we’re unbalanced.”

Last year, 20% of the district’s nearly 4,000 students had IEPs. Because enrollment data for this year has yet to be publicly released, the exact percentage increase is not yet clear.

Concord is not alone in experiencing a special education bump. Statewide, the percentage of students with IEPs has risen 40% between 2016 and last year – from 12% of all students to 17%, according to Department of Education data.

The factors behind the rise are multi-faceted. Among them, medical professionals are screening children more closely and diagnosing them with disabilities at younger ages, according to Fabrizio.

In the past, students would “come to school, they’d have issues, they’d be referred,” Fabrizio said. “Now that’s happening a lot earlier. Kids are coming to us with already medical plans and things like that that are already in place.”

The growth Concord has seen – at least up until last year – actually slightly trailed the statewide trend. In Concord, the number of students with IEPs increased 23% from 2016 to 2023, compared to 40% for the state as a whole.

However, Concord remains above the statewide average for the overall portion of its student body that has disabilities. Among other reasons, Fabrizio attributed that to Concord’s geographic location.

“A lot of companies that have behavior interventionists and occupational therapists, things like that on the private sector side, have established in the Concord area,” Fabrizio said. “So students can receive services both in school and out of school in a pretty local way.”

He also said the district’s positive reputation in special education circles likely has some effect on who moves into the district.

Much of the increase in students the district is seeing has hit its lowest grades, meaning the impact – and the cost – will likely trickle up through the district’s schools. 

The prospect of that long-term budgeting prompted school board members last week to contemplate spearheading more inter-district collaboration to keep expenses down.

“This not only our taxpayers but taxpayers of neighboring communities that could benefit from us taking steps to start moving in that direction,” board member Jim Richards said.

Special education is the most volatile section of a school district budget because even one student’s services could cost over a $100,000 and a district often has no warning before students move in.

Last year, the state’s school funding formula kicked in an additional $2,000 per student on an IEP, as well as about two-thirds of any expenses after they exceeded $75,000. During the 2022-23 school year, that amounted to 17% of the cost of special education services statewide, according to the NH School Funding Fairness Project.

This means the burden falls on school districts like Concord to foot the bulk of the bill – often after the budget for a school year has already been set. The additional $600,000 the district has allocated will cover hiring seven more educational assistants, as well as covering additional special education costs for district students at charter schools and for behavioral services and nursing expenses. The behavioral services are primarily for students with autism, while the nursing expenses are for students who are medically fragile, Fabrizio said.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com