New Hampshire: One in every five students receives SPED services; costs causing conflicts
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Feb 19, 2026, Keene Sentinel: Cost of special ed causes conflict in small towns
The funding mechanism for special education in New Hampshire puts the majority of associated costs on local taxpayers. In small towns, those costs can pit people against each other.
In Stoddard, population 1,400, the issue was raised in a recent heated public meeting and in social media posts, and was cited in a longtime school board member’s decision to step down.
According to the N.H. School Funding Fairness Project, the state and federal governments covered only about 17 percent of the cost of special education services at New Hampshire schools in the 2023-24 school year.
The School Funding Fairness Project is a nonprofit organization that advocates for equitable school funding in the Granite State.
About one in five New Hampshire students receives special education services. The extent and cost of those services vary, but due to how New Hampshire funds public education, they invariably fall predominantly on local taxpayers.
That’s a challenge for school districts trying to keep budgets tight as affordability concerns grow across the state. And in small towns where there are fewer students, it can also become a source of social friction when taxpayers blame rising costs on one or a handful of kids.
Stoddard School Board Chair Lisa Davenport described this tension, among other issues, in deciding to resign last month after 14 years of service.
“The current system of how special education services are funded and provided has only succeeded in pitting neighbors against neighbors, and parents against parents, tearing apart the social fabric that holds our communities together,” she wrote in a resignation letter she shared with The Sentinel. . . .
The Stoddard School District as a whole serves about 120 kids, with a budget of about $4 million. According to Davenport, the majority of that covers costs local officials have no control over, including transportation and service for special education. Those services are legally required of public schools by state and federal law, but not covered by state and federal funding.
She said people in Stoddard are rightfully upset at rising property taxes, but they’re “pissed at the wrong people.”
Davenport said she’s asked the town’s representatives in Concord and Washington to come to Stoddard to see the impact of the current special education funding mechanism and other decisions first-hand.
The local school board is working “with both hands tied behind our back and a blindfold,” she said.
With Davenport’s resignation, two board seats are set to be filled in the annual March elections.
Difficult conversations
Davenport described Stoddard as “a tightknit, welcoming community.” That’s been threatened by discord over education funding.
At the end of January, a parent’s post on Facebook critical of special education’s role at Faulkner quickly gathered likes, comments and shares.
In response, Davenport, then chair of the school board, called for a public meeting, hoping to give parents a forum to share concerns and engage with the board.
Instead, she said it became a platform for vitriol and raised voices.
“People are just really upset, because not only is it costing us a lot of money, but costing us in other ways,” Davenport said.
The financial side, as well as the impact on other students of what meeting attendees described as insufficient resources for students with special needs, were top concerns at that meeting. Davenport said it became so heated, it ultimately led her to resign, feeling she could no longer make a difference.
Bearing the cost
Education costs are the largest contributor to property taxes, so when those costs go up, it has a direct and tangible impact on people.
Special education services for students in local schools can be expensive. Out-of-district placements, when students’ needs can’t be met in the district, can cost about $100,000 or more, according to the School Funding Fairness Project.
Shifting a student out of district is a decision made by the student’s IEP team.
Whether in district or out, those costs can lead to difficult conversations, and not just in Stoddard.
In 2018, Marlborough residents saw their taxes go up about 20 percent, according to previous Sentinel reporting.
At the Marlborough School District’s annual meeting that year, residents questioned what they described as large sums going to support a handful of students in the special education program.
One meeting attendee suggested families of students receiving those services chip in for their cost — an idea school district officials were quick to explain wouldn’t be legal.
Then-school board Chair Michael Briggs told residents at that meeting that the budget before them was “probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make as a school board member ... because I’ve said all along that I would never let the costs of special education be pitted against the cost of regular education, that is K through 8. That creates distrust and animosity.”
About 30 percent of the Stoddard School District’s operating costs — or about $1 million — came from special education spending in 2023-24, according to the School Funding Fairness Project. That’s on par with ConVal, Hinsdale, Keene, Fall Mountain, Jaffrey-Rindge, Marlow and Surry.
In the Monadnock and Winchester districts, special education accounted for more than one-third of operating costs that year.
“While the cost to educate students with disabilities can vary widely, so can the ability of communities to pay for such services,” the School Funding Fairness Project wrote in the 2024 report.
Larger school districts with bigger budgets can sometimes more easily absorb new special education expenses. But in districts like Stoddard, where the draft budget proposal for 2026-27 is about $3.9 million, a single additional cost, like hiring a one-on-one support person, can feel significant for taxpayers.
In that draft budget, contracted services for special education total more than $180,000, in addition to salaries and benefits for special education staff, which come to about $168,000.
According to school board minutes from a budget work session in early January, special education costs were a “primary cost driver” in the district’s proposed budget, which is about 9.6 percent over the current year.
Those minutes attribute the increased costs to “needs articulated in IEPs.”
At a Feb. 5 school board meeting, community members said they want the school’s special education program to be audited — something the board agreed to pursue.
Resident and former selectboard member Bob Fee, who has been outspoken about special education funding and other local school funding issues, told The Sentinel he feels it’s unfair to expect a rural school to have the resources to provide extensive special education services.
The School Funding Fairness Project said the cost of special education services can negatively impact how people view kids with disabilities.
“These students deserve to be seen as more than just a financial burden to their local communities.”
Davenport said that’s what’s happened in Stoddard.
“They’re being demonized, and their families are being demonized ... It’s heartbreaking to see this happen in a small community.”
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