{"id":661435,"date":"2026-03-08T08:17:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T12:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/?p=661435"},"modified":"2026-03-07T10:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:07:24","slug":"school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"School aid funding formula bill may get consideration for special needs funding this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLESTON, W.Va. <\/strong>— The budget bill, which has passed the House of Delegates and state Senate, has no additional funding for county school districts to deal with a growing number of special needs students.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dale Lee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Education West Virginia Co-President Dale Lee said he’s disappointed but he said he remains hopeful because the 60-day session doesn’t end until Saturday at midnight.<\/p>\n

“There’s still an opportunity with House Bill 5453 (school funding formula bill) that’s still active in the Senate and there could be parts of that you could make available immediately,” Lee said.<\/p>\n

The bill as it left the House includes language where the changes in the formula won’t be made for three years. Lee said county school districts can’t wait that long in the special needs costs area.<\/p>\n

“I would like to see amendments made where you could at least fund the special needs part in this next school year because our counties are going under a ton with coping with the needs of these special needs students,” Lee said.<\/p>\n

The decades-old school aid funding formula doesn’t provide additional revenue for special needs. The numbers of those students have grown in recent years. Lee said there’s a variety of reasons for that growth including the impact of the opioid epidemic. County school systems have lost student enrollment but the overall percentage of special needs students has grown.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jason Barrett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, acknowledged on MetroNews “Talkline” Friday a Senate bill calling for additional funding for special education needs further review. He said it carried a price tag of $45 million. Barrett left the door open that he House-passed bill, HB 5453, may good a look this week that Lee is hoping for.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to take a really hard look at that bill over the next week and see if there are some things that we can work on and tweak where we can have an affordable price tag with it but also help our public education,” Barrett said.<\/p>\n

Senate Education Committee Chair Amy Nichole Grady, R-Mason, told reporters Friday that she’s received a proposed amendment from Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, the chief sponsor of HB 5453, to help with special education costs through the bill.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sen. Amy Grady (R-Mason)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This would take care of those Tier-II and those Tier-III students right away,” Grady said. “I wasn’t a huge fan of the bill waiting until 2029 (for funding). I think this will make it a lot better.”<\/p>\n

The bill is on the agenda for Grady’s Senate Education Committee meeting set for 9:30 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

Lee said even though lawmakers have passed the budget bill he believes they can still find money for the special education issue. He said it could be done through a budget supplemental.<\/p>\n

“It’s all about priorities and you can find money if it’s a priority and this really should be a priority for the legislature to address the needs of our counties with the special needs students,” Lee said.<\/p>\n

Barrett sounded hopeful Friday.<\/p>\n

“I think in the last week we’re going to make a push to see what can be done as it relates to some modifications in the school aid formula,” Barrett said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House-passed bill on agenda for Monday morning’s Senate Education Committee meeting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":661436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[536,575],"class_list":["post-661435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-news-top-story","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\nSchool aid funding formula bill may get consideration for special needs funding this year - WV MetroNews<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from wvmetronews.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/661435 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:46:21 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=_-41.html \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"School aid funding formula bill may get consideration for special needs funding this year - WV MetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"House-passed bill on agenda for Monday morning's Senate Education Committee meeting.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WV MetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T12:17:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-07T15:07:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2026\/03\/Ellington_education.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1093\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"687\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff Jenkins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JeffJenkinsMN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff Jenkins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/\",\"name\":\"School aid funding formula bill may get consideration for special needs funding this year - WV MetroNews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tk-wv-metro.beforewegolive.dev\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2026\/03\/Ellington_education.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-08T12:17:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-07T15:07:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tk-wv-metro.beforewegolive.dev\/#\/schema\/person\/ead06ef2567a5001a5251f869258e7ae\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/school-aid-funding-formula-bill-may-get-consideration-for-special-needs-funding-this-year\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2026\/03\/Ellington_education.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2026\/03\/Ellington_education.jpg\",\"width\":1093,\"height\":687,\"caption\":\"Del. 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