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Kansas K-12 Awaiting Finalized SPED and Gannon Funding Bill


Posted Date: 04/12/2024

Kansas K-12 Awaiting Finalized SPED and Gannon Funding Bill

In the early hours of Saturday, April 6, Kansas House and Senate negotiators agreed to a conference committee report on House Sub for SB 387 after it failed in the Senate on April 4. This bill appropriates Gannon and special education funding. 

KASB and other K-12 organizations were present for the entire conference committee meeting on April 5-6. Our conclusions from the meeting and agreement include:  

  • $528M for the KSDE budget, which constitutes full Gannon funding. 
  • The legislature will provide a total $75.3M in special education state aid above the $528M appropriation for the base state special education budget.  
  • Districts will be required to transfer LOB funds attributable to their SPED weighting to their SPED fund and must use that funding for SPED expenses. This local effort is NOT counted as state aid for SPED. 
  • KSDE will determine how to distribute the $75.3M in new special education aid. 

The legislature adjourned following the conference committee meeting on April 6 for a break scheduled to last until Friday, April 26. 

“We are grateful to the conference committee for their work to fund Gannon and also add more than $75M of new money to the state’s funding of special education,” said Dr. Brian Jordan, KASB executive director. “We look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to approve this bill when legislators return from their break on April 26.” 

The early morning April 6 agreement is not yet finalized or published on the Kansas Legislature website. For that reason, it may be subject to misunderstanding or misinterpretation.  

Until a signed agreement is available for public review, KASB members are encouraged to: 

  • Become familiar with the verbal agreements made early on April 6, which are available on official video of the committee meeting. Start the video at 1:52:59 to view the special education funding agreement that was made. 
  • Be vigilant in conversations with lawmakers over the weekend of April 13-14, should there be statements suggesting a different version of the agreement. 
  • Request prompt publication of the conference committee report agreed to on April 6.