$82.99 Million Special Education Budget and Service Plan Up For Review Thursday

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education is set to consider approving the district’s special education spending blueprint for the coming year, a roughly $83 million annual budget and service plan that federal and state law require the district to adopt each year.

The item is on the agenda for the board’s regular meeting Thursday, June 25, at 5 p.m. at the district’s Education Center in Pasadena.

The Special Education Local Planning Area, or SELPA, plan sets out how Pasadena Unified expects to fund and deliver services to students with disabilities in 2026-2027. District staff recommend approval and report that the action itself carries “no financial impact,” because the board is being asked to adopt an estimated budget and services plan. The plan arrives as the district works to cut $30 million to $35 million from its overall 2026-27 budget under a county-monitored fiscal stabilization effort.

Pasadena Unified is a single-district SELPA, meaning it operates its own special education planning area rather than sharing one with neighboring districts. As the Local Plan puts it, “Pasadena USD is a single district SELPA, therefore all funds are allocated to the LEA.” The plan projects total revenue and total expenditures of $82,991,011 each for special education in 2026-2027.

On the revenue side, the largest single line is listed as “Other Projected Revenue” of $60,752,093, or about 73%, which the plan identifies as including LCAP, transportation, Workability and a contribution from the district’s unrestricted revenues. State Assembly Bill 602 aid accounts for $13,669,339 and federal IDEA Part B funding for $5,364,053, with a mix of state and federal infant, toddler and mental health funds making up smaller shares. Summarized by source, the plan attributes $16,769,284 to state special education revenue, $5,614,864 to federal revenue and $60,606,863 to local contribution.

On the spending side, services and operations is the largest category at $31,425,887, or about 38%, followed by employee benefits at $18,657,386 and certificated salaries at $18,260,276. Classified salaries account for $12,895,057, with smaller amounts for supplies, capital outlay and other outgo and financing. The plan budgets $990,727 for students with low-incidence disabilities and lists $0 in projected spending on supplemental aids and services for those students in the regular classroom.

The service plan covers a range of supports — including speech and language services, occupational and physical therapy, counseling, behavior intervention, and services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing — delivered at district sites, charter schools, non-public schools and other settings. The plan lists the SELPA’s average caseload for speech, language and hearing specialists at 55, the state’s standard ceiling, and answers “no” to whether the average exceeds 55; in the explanation field, it states, “We are at average in SELPA Pasadena.”

Special education is mandated by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which the district’s report describes as originally passed in 1997 and revised in 2004; the report states that IDEA, federal regulations and the California Education Code require each SELPA to submit budget and service plans annually. The report says failure by a local educational agency to remedy required noncompliance could result in withholding of funds from the entire SELPA and/or a reduction from the superintendent’s salary. District staff recommend approval; the report’s recommendation reads, “The Governing Board of the Pasadena Unified School District approve the SELPA 2026-2027 Annual Budget and Service Plan.” The plan reports that it was submitted to the district’s Community Advisory Committee on April 1 and that the SELPA collaborated with the committee during its development. After board approval — along with sign-off from the superintendent and the Los Angeles County superintendent of schools — Sections A, D and E are forwarded to the California Department of Education. The plan’s originator is listed as Julianne Reynoso, Ed.D., assistant superintendent for student wellness and support services and the district’s SELPA liaison; the report is submitted by Helen Chan Hill, Ed.D., chief academic officer.

The board meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room at 351 S. Hudson Ave., with public comment taken near the start; meetings are broadcast on KLRN-TV and streamed online. The district held public hearings on the plan May 7 and May 28 and made it available for public inspection from May 7 through June 25.

The vote comes during a difficult budget year for Pasadena Unified. The district’s own budget materials say it is reducing $30 million to $35 million from the 2026-27 budget as part of a fiscal stabilization plan, with the reduced budget taking effect in July. EdSource reported in November that the district faces the shortfall because of a structural deficit, rising costs, declining enrollment and uncertain federal funding. The SELPA budget and service plan is a separate, state-required compliance document and is not itself part of those reductions.

If the board approves the plan Thursday, the required sections move to the state for final approval.