The Administration recommends that the Board of Education authorize The School District of Philadelphia, through the Superintendent or his designee, to execute and perform an amendment of a contract, subject to funding, as follows to make payments pursuant to the Public School Code for special education placements outside of Pennsylvania, as follows:
To: Any out-of-state educational entity that provides a special educational program to students whose parents or guardians are residents of Philadelphia and who submit proper invoices for and documentation of the subject services.
Purpose: Payment of services for special education students
Start Date: 7/01/2019
End Date: 6/30/2020
Currently Authorized Compensation: $1,000,000
Additional Compensation: $600,000
Total New Compensation: Aggregate amount not to exceed $1,600,000
Location: Non-School District of Philadelphia facilities outside of Pennsylvania
Description: An estimated 40 Philadelphia students in residential institutions, partial hospitalizations, unpaid foster homes, and incarceration institutions are expected to receive their special educational programs in out-of-state facilities, school districts, intermediate units and other educational institutions which are non-School District of Philadelphia facilities. Each year students are placed by the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS), Community Behavioral Health (CBH), and the Juvenile Justice System and remain legal residents of Philadelphia. Pursuant to the Pennsylvania Public School Code (24 PS§§13-1302, 13-1306, 13-1306.2 and 13-1308), the District is responsible for payment of the educational programs for such students.
This proposal addresses payment for an estimated 40 out-of-state special education students placed by non-educational entities for the 2019-2020 fiscal year including some out-of-state placements. Payments for previous years and the current year are made to: Bancroft Neurohealth, Benchmark Behavioral Health Services, Devereux Colorado, Berlin Borough, Keystone Richland Center, LLC, Millcreek ofArkansas, Sequel of New Jersey, SP Behavioral, LLC, and Legacy Treatment Services, Inc. This request is to increase payments to out-of-state vendors. This is part of a larger Action Item for Other Educational Placements previously approved by the Board of Education on April 25, 2019, which included payments for in-state providers for both regular and special education tuition payments. The total cost for in-state and out-of-state vendors is not anticipated to increase overall; instead this is a shift in cost from in-state to out-of-state vendors.