Wyoming’s flawed funding model puts special ed preschools at risk

A Cheyenne child development center that has helped more than 10,000 families is celebrating its 50th anniversary … and facing a ticking clock.

“STRIDE Learning Center, unfortunately, at this stage of our history, we have four years left,” Director Tricia Whynott told the Joint Education Interim Committee last Tuesday in Casper. “And then we will have to close our doors if we don’t have a funding structure, systemic change in Wyoming.”

STRIDE is one of 40 nonprofit child development centers in the state that serve families with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who have special needs, including autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Neurofibromatosis and developmental delays. 

The state funding mechanism that supports them, however, is fundamentally flawed. Fixing that system, and ensuring that the CDCs can continue their critical work will require the help of the Legislature and state agencies.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act says eligible children from birth to two years old with disabilities must receive intervention services. Those determined to have special education needs at age 3 are entitled to “a free and appropriate” general education until they’re 21. The CDCs must provide these services, including for students who are enrolled at other preschools.

“You can’t have special education without general education,” Whynott reminded legislators.

In every other state besides Wyoming, IDEA’s general education provision for special needs students was wrapped into their public school system.

“Wyoming wanted to do it differently,” Whynott said. “We wanted local control, so we went with this nonprofit system [of CDCs] to set it up.”

That unique set-up also contributed to some multi-layered funding problems. Let’s start with general education money from the state.

There is none for preschools. Whynott noted centers like STRIDE must have a general education curriculum, general education teachers and educational assistants. They’re on their own for those expenses.

The same holds true for other general education costs that aren’t considered part of special ed. School districts get reimbursed 100% for transportation, but CDCs get nothing. Ditto for buildings, salaries, infrastructure, maintenance, phones, utilities and many more expenses.

Wyoming CDCs do receive funds for special education, but 50% less than what K-12 schools receive. 

Under state law, the centers receive $8,600 per child for special education. That’s nearly $10,000 less per child than Whynott said STRIDE needs for preschool classes, special education, speech therapy, occupational therapy, vision and hearing and other services.

Whynott said the CDCs have not had a funding increase in the past 13 years. “It’s running a business in 2023 on a revenue source from 2010,” she said. “It’s impossible.”

Special education practices have improved over the years, Whynott said, as “our sophistication and knowledge of children’s needs grew and evolved.” And with those innovations have come increased costs. 

STRIDE has been using its reserve funds to stay afloat for about a decade. Several other CDCs are in the same boat. 

“We’re really operating with about half of the funding necessary to run a program like ours,” Patti Boyd, executive director of Children’s Learning Center in Teton and Sublette counties, told Cap City News. “It’s no longer working for people.”

In March the STRIDE Learning Center announced that because it must cut operating expenses, special ed students will be transferred to other community or private preschools in August. STRIDE will send its special ed staff to the preschools to provide services. Meanwhile, for the past few years STRIDE has been cutting the number of preschool classrooms it offers.

And who has to pay the tuition so the students can switch preschools? The CDCs do. Remember, under federal law special needs students must receive an appropriate general education that’s free to parents. The state offloaded that responsibility to the CDCs, but won’t pick up the tab for preschool tuition.

Boyd said one of her center’s biggest financial burdens is paying preschool tuition for children outside its program. “That has been the extra nail in our coffin,” she said.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a $4 million, temporary external cost adjustment for the centers to help deal with inflation, adding 7% to the one-size-fits-all funding model. But Whynott said several years of operating expense increases combined with inflation have created a need of at least twice that amount.

The extra funds will end in 2025. Whynott said she wants to see the Legislature make the special ed external cost adjustment permanent.

The CDCs are under three separate state departments. The Department of Family Services is responsible for licensing the facilities, and the Department of Health is the direct supervising agency responsible for contracts. The Department of Education, meanwhile, supervises the entire system.

The good news is this trio has expressed interest in working with state lawmakers to develop funding solutions. The Joint Education Committee was assigned the issue as one of its interim topics, and appears to also be on board. Hopefully, the Joint Appropriations Committee will recognize the system is in danger of sinking and step in to approve funding for major improvements.

But money alone isn’t the only concern. It’s time for Wyoming’s “compassionate conservatives” to come to the aid of families counting on the state to help them negotiate the complexities of a system they never expected to need.

“We have a population of families who are very vulnerable. They are oftentimes grieving with coming to terms with some very serious diagnoses of young, fragile children,” Whynott said. “They lack a political voice because they just don’t have the energy. I feel passionate that I need to be that voice.”

Whynott doesn’t stop at asking lawmakers for support. STRIDE supplements its government funding with fundraisers, including culinary cookoffs, the motorcycle STRIDE Ride, and child “jumpathons.” She hopes the annual golf tournament at Cheyenne’s Little America on June 2 will bring in about $20,000 for the cause.

Despite the myriad financial challenges STRIDE and several other CDCs face, Whynott is optimistic solutions can be found to keep them operating.

“Wyoming takes care of its own,” she said. “And Wyoming cares very much about children and families in need. But we are running out of time.”

STRIDE serves about 600 children per year, and has been a fixture in the capital city for five decades. It’s the type of essential educational and health services that companies looking for new homes expect communities to offer. If it ever closes, Cheyenne’s demand for early special education services isn’t going to go away. 

What business could ever survive for five years, much less 50, with the inadequate funding model our CDCs have had to deal with?

Wyoming has both a legal and moral obligation to provide a free special education to all children who need one, and an appropriate general education on top of it. 

It’s time for the Legislature to fully honor these federal and state commitments.