Severe Budget Cuts to Special Ed Threaten Wake County’s Most Vulnerable Students
Written by Jessica Barry
The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) Board of Education will hold a specially called meeting on Tuesday, March 24 from 5:00pm-9:00pm to discuss the budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. The Special meeting was called after administrators announced a proposed $18 million cut to the special education budget. Chair of the board, Tyler Swanson, said in a Facebook post that he called this meeting regarding the proposed budget cuts in hopes it will “begin to provide clarity, answer questions, and take meaningful steps toward restoring trust with our community.” Himself a former special education teacher at Enloe High School, he agrees that the cuts are far more meaningful than just numbers on a page; they concern “real support, real services, and real outcomes for children who depend on us.” The meeting will be open to the public, as well as livestreamed from the WCPSS Education Board YouTube channel.
Such a devastating cut to the special education budget would effectively eliminate 130 teaching positions in Wake County. These crucial positions allow special education teachers to provide instruction to special education students, as well as develop and implement each of those student’s Individual Education Programs (IEP). Under federal law, special education students must receive an IEP in order to safeguard their access to free and appropriate public education, and adequate special education teaching positions are imperative for ensuring this adherence.
In an interview Friday, Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor insisted that there will not be a change in current special education services offered as a result of the proposed cuts. Quite the contrary, it could be argued that eliminating 130 special education positions will increase the caseload for remaining teachers to unsustainable levels. Furthermore, the services affected by these proposed budget cuts do not end with cuts to teachers. The county also plans to eliminate Cross-Categorical Kindergarten (CCK), a program that is in place to assist in determining whether students with disabilities can transition into regular classrooms. Middle School Essentials would also be phased out, a program that gives small-group educational reinforcement for special education students needing additional instruction in math and language arts. No plan has been offered that indicates how these students will be served.
News of the proposed cuts to the special education budget sparked rightful outrage in parents, educators, and students across Wake County. Members from the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) staged protests at schools around the county on Thursday to advocate for the county’s most vulnerable students. The Wake County chapter of NCAE is pushing for the proposed budget cuts to be dropped, and instead for more funding to be allocated to special education.
Emily W. King, PhD is a child psychologist, and former school psychologist, who is a graduate of WCPSS, parent of WCPSS students, and provides professional development to WCPSS educators to better understand the needs of neurodivergent learners. She raises concerns about how similar cuts could look in other parts of the state. “If WCPSS—the largest district in the state—is having to make this decision, then I can only imagine the lack of resources in more rural parts of the state. WCPSS should be considered the canary in the coal mine, sounding the alarm that we are about to fail our most vulnerable children,” she said. Because of its status as the largest North Carolina school district, the WCPSS Board of Education should join with parent and educator voices in ensuring such cuts do not go into effect, here and elsewhere.
Take Action!
If you want your taxpayer dollars to reflect your priorities as they apply to special education students in Wake County, you can make your voice heard at the specially called School Board Meeting on Tuesday at 5:00 pm. Sign up to speak during public comment here, or send a written call to action. Either direction you take, consider making public records requests for Fiscal Accountability and IEP Services; in-person speakers can hand these requests directly to their Board members during the meeting. See the suggested records request template below, provided to us by a reliable source:
To: Superintendent WCPSS and [YOUR BOARD MEMBER]
5625 Dillard Drive
Cary, NC 27518
1. Public Records Request for Fiscal Accountability
Pursuant to the applicable public records laws, I am requesting access to and copies of records related to the school district’s budget.
Specifically, I am requesting the district to provide the following
Provide approved annual budgets for the district for the fiscal years 2023-2026
Provide any proposed or draft budgets for the current and upcoming fiscal year
Provide detailed expenditure reports, including line-item spending for the same period
Provide records showing funding sources, including state, federal and local contributions
Provide any audit reports or financial reviews conducted during this time
I am requesting that these records be provided in an electronic format (PDF or Excel). If any portion of this request is denied, please provide the specific legal basis for the denial and release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. If there are any fees associated with fulfilling this request, please inform me in advance if the cost will exceed $25.00. Please confirm receipt of this request and provide an estimated timeframe for completion.
2. Public Records Request for IEP Services
Pursuant to the applicable public records laws, I am requesting access to any existing plans to deliver services to students with IEP.
Specifically, I am requesting the district to provide the following
Provide an explicit plan for staffing reduction (130) positions
Provide an explicit description of impact on school level teaching positions, impact to students and impact to central level positions
Provide Special Education Staffing plans by school for the 2026-2027 school to include any reductions in staffing, increase to teachers in caseload (by how many students) and how the teachers are expected to meet the IEP needs of students with disabilities
I am requesting that these records be provided in an electronic format (PDF or Excel). If any portion of this request is denied, please provide the specific legal basis for the denial and release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. If there are any fees associated with fulfilling this request, please inform me in advance if the cost will exceed $25.00. Please confirm receipt of this request and provide an estimated timeframe for completion.
Sources:
https://www.wcpss.net/about-us/school-board
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article315132865.html