East Brunswick, NJ: One in five students receive SPED services; "needs of that population are changing"
EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — About one in five East Brunswick students was receiving special education services by the end of the 2025-26 school year, according to Superintendent Dr. Evelyn Mamman, a shift district officials say is affecting both the amount of school space they need and their conversations with state officials about funding.
Mamman disclosed the figure during the East Brunswick Board of Education's Sept. 24 meeting while demonstrating a new public dashboard that will track district data and progress on its strategic plan.
The dashboard currently relies in part on the state's 2024-25 School Performance Report data, which Mamman cautioned is a year behind current district information. The displayed state data put students with disabilities at approximately 17%, she said.
"I could tell you that at the end of '25-'26, we're up to 20%," Mamman told the board.
The increase matters because the district's enrollment picture cannot be understood simply by looking at its total number of students, Mamman said. The dashboard showed enrollment of 8,179 in the older state data, down slightly from the previous year, even as the needs of the student population have changed.
"It is not just a matter of enrollment numbers," Mamman said. "It is about who our kids are, what their needs are, the spaces and resources that we need."
That distinction also surfaced during a lengthy discussion of school capacity earlier in the Sept. 24 meeting.
Mamman said some student populations require additional space, specialized programming, staffing and services. As a result, a classroom that appears empty cannot necessarily be counted as available space for a conventional class.
"Are they usable ones? Instructionally usable? Or are they just empty?" Mamman said, referring to claims about empty classrooms or seats in district buildings. . . .
According to Tanious, Gopal's office was surprised by East Brunswick's special education percentage.
"They were actually shocked to hear that we have 20% special education as part of our population," Tanious said.
Tanious described East Brunswick's percentage as high compared with many other New Jersey districts and questioned whether state funding sufficiently accounts for differences in special education populations among districts.
Board leaders also explained to Gopal's office how the district's special education population affects facilities, including the amount and type of instructional space required.
"We have a moral and legal obligation to serve our students, and we're happy to do that," Tanious said. "But it's just the state numbers need to match up with what the mandate actually is." . . . .
Mamman, meanwhile, said the district intends to continue updating its public dashboard with more current information, providing residents a clearer picture of not only how many students attend East Brunswick schools, but how the makeup and needs of that population are changing.
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