California school districts carry a rising share of special education costs

Federal and state laws require school districts to provide special education services to all eligible students. Dedicated state and federal funding covers some of the cost, but a growing share is paid from general-purpose funds of school districts (LEAs).

District general-purpose funds are unrestricted revenues used to cover special education costs not paid by dedicated federal or state funding. These revenues can originate from state aid or local sources. Pre-LCFF figures include unrestricted contributions and revenue-limit transfers; beginning in 2013–14, this support was generally recorded as unrestricted contributions. State support is calculated as the residual. Figures represent selected actual expenditures, not total appropriations.
Chart: Ed100 Lesson 2.7Source: Ed100 analysis of CDE SACS unaudited financial dataGet the data Download image