Minneapolis: Declining student pop.; $3M more for SPED

Mar 6, 2025, KMSP, Minneapolis teacher says district will cut special education staff

Minneapolis schools to cut special education staff, teacher says

The backstory:

Minneapolis Public Schools will make cuts to special education staff next school year, a longtime teacher said. 

The cuts were announced in an email to educators in February, the teacher said. The teacher, who did not want to be identified, said the cuts will drive up student-teacher ratios from 8-to-1 to as high as 12-to-1, something she fears will adversely impact learning. She said the cuts include teaching positions as well as critical support staff, which she said will put vulnerable students at risk.

The teacher did not share the email with FOX 9, citing advice from her union.

What they're saying:

"We’re not going to be able to give our students that immediate one-to-one attention that students in our specialized classrooms need," said the teacher, who has taught elementary school students for nearly a decade. "They will unexpectedly run out of school buildings, run out of classrooms. They might engage in self-injurious behavior such as biting or pulling their hair, and special education assistants are sort of our frontline folks that intervene when those behaviors happen."

School district didn’t deny cuts; says special education budget will get extra $3 million

The school district responds:

In an email exchange on Thursday, a district spokeswoman did not deny that there would be cuts, pointing out that the budget had yet to be finalized. The district, however, did mention that the special education budget was projected to grow by about $3 million, though it did not specify how that money would be allocated.

The backstory:

The school district faces a $75 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year. It has faced severe economic headwinds in recent years, which it has blamed on inflation, the loss of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funding and declining enrollment.