Southern Arizona school districts could soon place special education students in a Tucson Unified School District program while keeping the benefits of their enrollment.
The TUSD governing board unanimously approved a tuition schedule for student placement Tuesday night. This allows surrounding districts that cannot meet the needs of some special education students to send them to TUSD rather than private schools or programs that might cost more, according to Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo.
Neighboring districts, such as Sunnyside Unified or Tanque Verde school districts, could pay TUSD tuition based on state-approved rates so that all of a student's costs would be covered. If TUSD spent more than the approved rates, the district would tell the state, which would decide whether the home district or the Arizona Department of Education would cover the remaining cost, Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernandez told the board Tuesday.
People are also reading…
Trujillo said Pima County Superintendent Dustin Williams has been pushing for the program, along with neighboring districts "who run into programmatic jams."
"The idea of TUSD being able to provide this is very popular," Trujillo said. He told the board other districts wanted to send students to a place "they could trust, where folks are going to be certified, where there's fingerprinting. I believe this is going to be a very popular option."
Tucson Unified already has programs set up for blind and visually impaired students at Morgan Maxwell K-5 and Pueblo High School because of student rollover from the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and the Blind's move to Oro Valley, said Sabrina Salmon, senior director of exceptional education. There are currently four students enrolled in the program at Morgan Maxwell, with one pending, and three students at Pueblo High School.
"The cap in these programs is 12, so (at Morgan Maxwell) we have potentially five students, so that would leave potentially seven seats for TUSD students or maybe other students in neighboring districts if the districts would want to pay us," Salmon said. There is also one former ASDB student at University High School and one at Henry Elementary School.
Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet School and Harold Steele Elementary School each have 24 open seats for special needs students with the approval of this program, and Mary Meredith K-12 has 10 open seats.
"I don't think we're going to fill every single seat in a year, but I do think we'll have a good shot at it this school year and the next," Trujillo said.
Teens turn to AI chatbots for advice, experts warn of risks
