After deliberation over multiple sessions, the Kansas Senate passed the 2025-2026 school budget on March 27. The Kansas State Board of Education recommended $84 million for special education but legislators only allocated $7.5 million. While the cuts will affect students in the special education program, the impacts will be felt across district programs.

By law, schools are required to provide special education services. When districts are underfunded, money is cut from salary, activity and equipment budgets to maintain funding for special education services Former President of the School Board Shannon Kimball, said that the board is advocating for adequate special education funding at the state level so that the district can continue its support of other activities and programs.

The special education budget is also used for ‘related services’ such as speech pathology, social work, occupational therapy, physical therapy, music therapy, adaptive physical education and 18-21 transition services. Special education teacher Angela Wilson said that related services will be the first to go when the program is forced to shrink, leaving those services to fall to the hands of special education teachers like herself.

“Not only would I be responsible for a student’s academic and school learning but I would also need to provide the related services for which that student qualifies,” Wilson said.

Full funding for special education programs in Kansas has not existed since the 2010-2011 school year. To fill this gap, school districts across the state are forced to take from their overall funding to keep programs afloat. In 2024 alone, USD497 took $1,345 of the $5,100 per-pupil government funding to special education services. Kimball said that if special education were fully funded the money could be spent on salaries, extracurriculars, and equipment.

“We’re having to take money away from all of that to provide services that we absolutely must and should provide for students in special education,” Kimball said.