Through years of advocacy and support for autistic individuals and their families, the
Autism Alliance of Michigan (AAoM) has made education a main focus. After seeing firsthand the inequities in educational services for students with disabilities and the frustration families face when those services fall short, AAoM's team of education and policy experts decided to take action.
“We show up in spaces on behalf of the families and individuals we serve as a statewide organization, but not always in a lead role. We don't want to replicate work that's already happening,” says AAoM Director of Statewide Education Heather Eckner. “We look at the ecosystem, and ask ‘What's happening? Who's leading on things that we can align with?’ As we continued to show up in the education space, especially related to addressing the needs of students with disabilities, we felt a responsibility and call to act."
In response to a state mandate in the 2024-25 School Aid budget, AAoM was tasked with developing the
MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint, a legislative project that aims to ensure that Michigan adequately and equitably funds public special education. AAoM currently is collaborating with educators and stakeholders across the state to ensure students with greater needs receive a greater level of financial support. Insights from the 900 respondents to the AAoM’s
2023 Special Education Experience survey indicated that inadequate and inequitable funding were top of mind for parents of kids with disabilities.
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Heather Eckner"The current system wasn't built for today's students, and the outcome data shows it's failing them,” Eckner says. Michigan's special education funding structure, primarily the result of court decisions, is based on a patchwork approach that has reinforced local community income disparities. Michigan is one of only a few states that uses a reimbursement approach at currently the lowest rate, 28.6%, in the nation.”
Michigan’s graduation rate for students with disabilities is among the lowest in the nation— only 61% earn an on-time high school diploma compared to 71% nationally and 86% of their nondisabled peers. And the drop-out rate for Michigan students with disabilities is more than twice the rate of their non-disabled peers.
“This isn't a funding gap. This is a crisis,” Eckner says. “It has resulted in a reinforcement of location-dependent wealth to dictate the degree to which funding support can be utilized for kids with unique needs that are required to be met under the law. Over time, those location-dependent disparities have really impacted the level of both identification of students with disabilities and the quantity and quality of services that a school team can provide.”
As a basis for the Blueprint, AAoM affirms that all Michigan students have the right to a free, public education that prepares them for life beyond the classroom; students with disabilities deserve adequate support and services; all children learn differently and have diverse needs; and student outcomes, historical funding patterns, and qualitative and quantitative data illustrate a need for systems change regarding Michigan’s funding approach.
“The zip code of a child should not dictate what type of education they receive in Michigan. Disability knows no bounds. Disability crosses with geographic issues, wealth disparity issues, race, language,” Eckner says. “Those compounding needs multiply for marginalized kids. So, it gets complex pretty quickly, which I think is one reason why it's been a very challenging area of education policy to address.”
Current funding practices shortchange urban schools
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Denina Goings
Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) teacher consultant Denina Goings works across that district with students in its autism and cognitive impaired program. The GRPS district serves many students from families with income challenges — 62.5% of all GRPS students are eligible for the federal free and reduced price meal program, significantly higher than the state average of 49.8%.
Goings says that current funding falls short of meeting the needs of kids receiving special education.
“You can see that the funding is not meeting the needs by the amount of services that our kids are able to get,” Goings says. “Autism affects communication and social reciprocity. You really see the shortfalls in those areas, as well as behavior and sensory needs. Our classroom staff don't have the expertise to be able to support those areas. It’s a really big barrier to inclusion for our kids, them not having that sensory support or the communication skills that they need in order to be successful in a general ed setting. So, our programs get more and more specialized because we're not able to provide the service to help them build their skills and generalize across contexts.”
Goings sees teachers trying to close the gaps by buying instructional materials out of their own pockets and seeking unpaid professional development. Even so, children do not receive the services and supports that they need to thrive. Goings says the district cannot fund enough auxiliary service providers — occupational therapists, speech pathologists, social workers, and teachers certified to work with autistic kids.
“It puts a huge financial and workload burden on our teachers because it's impossible for one person to do all those things — that’s why they are different fields. The special ed teacher can't be everywhere and do all the things,” Goings says. “You see it being a real barrier, both academically and in the students’ life skills. We’re not just teaching for the school context. We want them to be able to go out and live productive and safe lives.”
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Arlyssa HeardAlyssa Heard is a parent of two children with disabilities and a founding member of
482 Forward, a Detroit-based coalition that aims for every student graduated ready to become a fully engaged participant in the world. She and her children have experienced first-hand the impacts of special education funding inequities.
“We did a bus tour. The whole point of this bus tour was so that parents and community can see what are the differences in schools in one area versus another. We started within the city of Detroit, and then we worked our way out,” Heard says. “By the time we got to Grosse Pointe South Schools, I distinctly remember my son, he plays football, when we pulled up to this particular school, he stood up and he said, ‘My God, is that the football field? Wait a minute!’ He ran off the bus and he was calling off all of the things that he saw on the field. It wasn't until that moment that my son really understood what inequities were all about.”
Disappointed with the services available for her son in his first years of elementary school, she moved him to a different school where adequate funding provided him an environment where he made progress academically and fit in socially.
“Third through eighth grade, there was something happening for him. That school made him feel it was worth taking the chance to try. And that's what I didn't see in the other places,” Heard says.
Because that school did not offer high school, he next went to a high school with inadequate special education resources.
“I feel like high school did something to his mood, his spirit. It made him not really embrace why education is important. It also made him feel something about himself, a sense of failure.”
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Special education funding should be designed with greater intention, equity, and responsiveness.
Parents, students and communities need a funding formula that works
Heard notes that even though she was pouring hours of her life into advocating for children and education, in hindsight, she still did not have all the information she needed to be a successful advocate for her own child.
“I am just floored at the stuff that I didn't know, and I’m finding out now,” she says. “If I'm in the fight, I'm, quote, connected, and know all the things, how are the regular folks who a don't have time to go to meetings, who are just trying to keep the lights on, trying to keep the kids fed, and just sending them to school, how are they doing?”
The bigger question is why should parents have to take on the responsibility of navigating such a complex and undersourced system? A better and more fairly funded education system would create an environment where all children have their needs met without constant parental worry, supervision, and intervention.
The MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint will ensure that Michigan adequately and equitably funds public education in Michigan — and that special education students at every school benefit from access to the resources they need.
“We're trying to champion a whole-child, student-centered vision and approach because that, fundamentally, is how we should be doing it,” Eckner concludes. “We then need to embrace that mindset that all students are first and foremost general education students, and some students with disabilities require additional supports and services. For those students, special education funding should be designed with greater intention, equity, and responsiveness.”
Visit
MI Special Education Finance Reform Blueprint to learn more and advocate for public education finance reform.
Estelle Slootmaker spends most workdays as a freelance solutions journalist and book editor. You can contact her at [email protected].
Photos courtesy Autism Alliance of Michigan and Julia M. Cameron and CDC Library via Pexels.com.
Autism Alliance of Michigan (AAoM) was founded with the vision that people with autism will lead lives that meet their greatest potential. AAoM leads efforts to raise expectations and expand opportunities for people touched by autism across the lifespan.