Special Education Budget Request - FY25

Request 1: Inservice Training

Amount Requested: $174,421.31
Rationale: To provide additional inservice training for special education teachers and special education
paraeducators; to build in time for professional learning; to review of students IEPs and develop
snapshots for staff working with students; align schedules and services to meet needs; and determine
student groupings for interventions and in-class instruction.

Request 2: Itinerant Special Education Case Manager (11 months)

Amount Requested: $90,332 (This is based on current salary, including benefits.)
Rationale: To enable increased support for summer assessments, summer meetings, assist teams with
move-ins, and support ESY.

Request 3: Administrative Assistant (compliance) from 10 Months to 11 Months

Amount Requested: $7,300 (This is based on current salary, including benefits.)
Rationale: Currently this position supports 2 special education supervisors, when in the past, it only
included 1. As such the demands have increased to include financial management support (ordering),
organization of documents that are required by MSDE.

Request 4: SLP Compliance Support Specialist

Amount Requested: $125,000 (This is based on current salary)
Rationale: 1.5 SLP mentor/compliance support specialist (10-month) to allow for much needed
compliance, SLP assessment support, training, and development. Focus on G+O development and FAPE.
This position would serve to decrease WCPS SLP liability while increasing support to schools. WCPS is
currently experiencing a dramatic increase of students with significant needs, which requires intense
support with evaluations, disaggregation of data, IEP meetings, and training.

Request 5: School Psychologist

Amount Requested: $93,227 (This is based on current salary, plus benefits, allotted to the open
psychologist position.)
Rationale: 1 additional school psychologist (10-month) in order to decrease the ratio of school
psychologists to students. WCPS currently has the second highest ratio of school psychologists to students
in the State. The school psychologist would be assigned to support elementary schools with evaluations
and IEP meetings.
Request 6: Special Education Specialist
Amount Requested: $120,571 (This is based on the current average salary, including benefits.)
Rationale: To reduce the current workload of the specialists assigned to schools to approximately 10 each
which allow them to provide more intensive job-embedded coaching support for behavior and instruction
in the STEP and RISE programs.

Request 7: Autism Waiver Specialist (make it a 10-month PERM, part-time position, 0.75)
Amount Requested: $62,833 (or a difference of +$8,945) based on the current average 10-month
specialist salary, including benefits.)
Rationale: Increased number of students being assigned Autism waivers and to be able to manage and
coordinate the related services that are assigned to each student.

Request 8: Speech and Language Pathologists

Amount Requested: $534,000
Rationale: Six (6) additional school based Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) in order to service the
increased needs across WCPS which has long since out paced staffing, decrease the ratio of SLPs to
student ratio, integrate into schools to provide intervention services and supports such as RTI. WCPS
currently has one of the highest ratios of SLPs to students in the state with the closest county, Frederick,
promoting a caseload size of 55% less than the WCPS average. The additional SLPs would be used to
support middle and high schools where the district currently has over 90% of those positions filled
through contracted staff. Further the additional staff would also allow for much needed emphasis on
compliance, intervention services and G+Os aligned to FAPE with a heavy focus on the most sensitive
population who often requires 1:1 service. Similarly, the numbers and projected needs of services
throughout the county has outpaced WCPS current staffing. SLPs service over 95.84% of the Special
Education population and the needs continue to trend upward. Additional staff would allow for focus on
state and Federal standards, while providing much needed onsite support for middle and secondary
schools, and those with additional programs.

Request 9: O&M Specialist (0.5)

Amount Requested: $56,570
Rationale: O+M specialist this is a need for the district. Currently, this position is not budgeted, but it is a
need and has remained an open issue with securing a contractor either through an agency or through the
support of the State. This is a required service in providing FAPE to Blind/Low Vision students as
required. The district has routinely paid for this service through the use of agencies, which at times have
been impactful and even detrimental to student services.

Request 10: Physical Therapy (0.5)

Amount Requested: $ 56,570
Rationale: A point five (0.5) additional physical therapist in order to decrease the ratio of physical
therapists to students. WCPS currently has one of the highest ratios of physical therapists in the state of
Maryland. Currently there is one full time eleven-month physical therapist that serves the county for K-12
students. An additional part-time physical therapist would be assigned to support the ever-growing needs
of WCPS students with service, evaluations, and IEP meetings.
Request 11: BCBA for STEP Program
Amount Requested:
Rationale: 1 additional BCBA to support STEP due to an increase in anticipated student enrollment.

Cost (per teacher/para)

Salary FICA / WCOMP Total

Position Type FTE's Cost Cost Cost
10 Month Teacher 1.0 $65,000 $24,000 $89,000
1 7 hour paraeducator Grade 6 1.0 $26,000 $18,661 $44,661
Total Varies by School