TOMS RIVER – Every school day, hundreds of students are bused to private special education schools because their home schools don’t have the resources for them. Toms River, in the middle of the county, wants them to come there instead.
Superintendent Michael Citta pitched the idea for a regional special education hub at Intermediate North during a meeting of the Senate Education Committee.
He said that this plan, if it went through, would be at least a year out. There are eight counties in New Jersey that already have a county-based special education system.
If you add up all the public schools in Ocean County, there are currently 882 special education students that are sent out of district, he said. The 29 school districts spend $109 million in tuition per year, averaging $137,000 per student.
Toms River has 118 out of district students, Citta said. They spend about $9.5 million per year, plus another $3 million on busing. Tuition for a single student might be $90,000, upward to $200,000.
These students are sent out because the districts don’t have the resources to care for the students in the way that their education plan requires. They might specific medical and behavioral needs.
A central hub that has all the medical, behavioral, and other needs for these children would benefit them, Citta said. It would also be more cost effective. He estimated it would bring the average student cost from $137,000 per student to $85,000. The county would be saving approximately $47 million per year.
Additionally, there would be a reduction in transportation costs, he said. The schools throughout the county spend $12.8 million on transportation costs, but that could be lowered if they are all going to a centralized location. The students would benefit because they would not be spending as much time on a bus in the morning and afternoon.
This assumes that every parent and school currently enrolling their children out of district agree to a change in schools.
Citta was asked by a senator how the district would make space for them.
In Toms River, all sixth graders would be taken back to their elementary schools to create space for the new students, he said. Intermediate North has the most space, as the district has declining enrollment, particularly in the northern section of town.
Intermediate North is also near major roads, such as the Garden State Parkway, Route 9, and Route 571. It would be relatively quick for other schools to send students there.
The Senate Education Committee meeting had a number of things on the agenda. Citta testified during a discussion on regionalization.
The bill in discussion, S4861, would require the executive superintendent (there is one per county) to come up with a plan to consolidate schools in their county. If a district has fewer than 500 resident students, a plan would be made to make it part of a larger district. Other districts would become regional to absorb the smaller ones. The education commissioner would have to sign off on them.
The bill was just under discussion and no action was taken at the meeting. Citta was one of a number of speakers to address the issue.
