Special education schools are eligible to be reimbursed by Medicaid if a proposed bill is passed in Wyoming. This would save the state around $2.7 million annually after a few years.
Wyoming is moving towards passing a bill that would remove funding cap for special education schools. They have also proposed a bill that would allow them to bill Medicaid for special education schools. Wyoming is the only state that does not get reimbursed by Medicaid for special education services.
The proposal outlines how it plans to carry out the reimbursements for these schools by using Medicaid vendors. Wyoming has 48 schools and there are plans to put at least one vendor in each of these 48 districts. Eligible students would then be required to bill the vendor in their school district. This proposal shows that the education department will raise over $2 million in the first few years.
This will grow to $2.7 million annually or 5.4 biannually. Wyoming budget their education departments biannually and this extra money would go a long way in improving the quality of education in the state.
Special education funding dilemma
The policy still requires polishing to address rising issues such as the number of special education students that qualify, the support to be accorded to staff and the economic viability of such a program in small districts. Data showed that the number of special students enrolled last year was 13,200. This represents just over 14 percent of the total student population enrolled.
Out of 13,200 students, only 5,000 students required special medical attention and would apply for Medicaid reimbursements. These are some of the questions that need to be answered before the bill goes into effect. However, the bill has been universally supported across the state and political divide and is seen as a positive step towards quality education.
An opposition though had been raised over the need for the bill with Sen. Lynn Hutchings asking why the state could not use state money rather than the federal money. This left a lot of people confused but Sen. Hank Coe, a Cody Republican and the co-chair of the committee, was able to explain that the bill would save the state money which would be used in other projects.
In 2018, the legislature had passed a law capping the funding of the education system for the academic year 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. This, however, resulted in a deficit of $325,000 in the education department, a problem that needed to be addressed.
The cap was widely unpopular with Jeremy Smith, an administrator in Sheridan County School District No. 1, while addressing the committee calling it “dumb” and “bad idea.”
