Idaho: $100M shortfall in SPED budget

Sept 3, 2025, Idaho Press: Critchfield requests $50 million special ed budget increase 

https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/critchfield-requests-50-million-special-ed-budget-increase/article_1d44c05f-7463-4252-b743-d76f1df006e4.amp.html 

State superintendent Debbie Critchfield wants $50 million to cut into Idaho’s special education budget gap.

The grant program is the one big-ticket item in Critchfield’s 2026-27 budget request, submitted to Gov. Brad Little on Friday. The budget would push general fund K-12 spending above the $3 billion mark for the first time in state history, an 8.9% increase.

But most of this 8.9% increase would meet Idaho's legal obligations — covering, for example, teacher pay raises spelled out in state law — or cover increased health insurance costs. This week, two of Critchfield’s top aides said the special education line item is the sole increase in a hold-the-line budget.

“This is the one area that deserves the Legislature’s attention, the governor’s attention,” said Greg Wilson, Critchfield’s chief of staff.

A partial solution

The special education shortfall went unaddressed during the 2025 legislative session. Critchfield pushed a bill to rework Idaho’s aging school funding formula, and earmark additional dollars for special education students, but the proposal stalled in the House after passing the Senate. The Senate narrowly killed a bill to create a $3 million “high-needs” fund, for students who might need a full-time aide.

The $3 million wouldn’t have covered the special education funding shortfall. The $50 million won’t either.

The shortfall — the gap between state and federal special education dollars and local program needs — came in at $82.2 million, according to a March report from the state’s Office of Performance Evaluations. But the report did not address charter schools, Critchfield’s office says, and that pushes the shortfall above the $100 million mark.

The $50 million would go out as block grants, and Critchfield’s staff is looking at a two-step formula.

The first $30 million would go out based on special education enrollment. Districts or charters with a higher percentage of special education students would receive a larger share of the money, said Gideon Tolman, Critchfield’s chief financial officer.

The remaining $20 million would go out based on districts’ and charters’ special education costs, he said. In other words, schools with high-needs students would get a larger share of this money.

The special education grant program represents Critchfield’s one big line-item request — and a policy shift. She is not going to propose changes to the funding formula, Wilson said, focusing instead on the grant bill.

Idaho has about 33,000 special education students, accounting for about one-10th of K-12's overall enrollment, according to the OPE report.

Harsh budget realities

But the $50 million request comes as the state is facing its most severe budget crunch in five years.

Little has already imposed a 3% budget holdback, a midyear spending cut, across most of state government. K-12 was exempt from the holdback.