Maryland
Maryland is rethinking how it pays for special education — and it could cost a lot more
During 15 years as a special education teacher in Maryland, some things have stayed frustratingly consistent for Stephanie Gawlinski.
“We are always understaffed,” she said. “We are always under-resourced.”
In her classroom at Sandy Spring’s Sherwood High School, Gawlinski teaches algebra to 20 students with a complex array of needs. Some have autism. Others have learning disabilities that make math a challenge. Ideally, she said, her roster would have no more than 10 kids.
“That way they could really get that small group, one-on-one attention that they need in order to learn the topic,” she said.
Data backs up Gawlinski’s feeling. Studies have determined that chronic underfunding is impeding students with disabilities. And each year school districts across Maryland collectively spend more than $1 billion on special education above what they get from state and federal coffers, according to the Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland.
But that could change.
Maryland’s education department awarded a major contract to the American Institutes for Research, asking the Virginia-based nonprofit to recommend a model that would adequately fund special education. They’ll answer a multipronged question: What is the true cost of teaching children with disabilities in Maryland? And how should that money be parceled out, considering the vastly different needs of each student?
The state’s funding formula allocates a set amount of dollars for each student with disabilities — no matter the nature of their needs. Some people argue this model doesn’t distribute the money fairly.
“Listen, a kid who has a feeding tube and a one-on-one aide is much different than a kid who has speech pathology needs,” said Mary Pat Fannon, director of the superintendents association.
The study, mandated by the legislature, will consider an alternative formula that sets up different levels of funding. Dollars could be distributed depending on the specifics of a student’s disability or the services they need.
This model is a more common approach to funding special education across the country.
“Assuming it’s done right, it’s got to cost more money. How will the governor and General Assembly deal with it? It’s hard to say,” longtime Maryland education advocate Kalman Hettleman said.
Realities
While they wait for answers, district leaders are trying to meet students’ needs as they stare down a tight budget season.
In Montgomery County, enrollment is shrinking, which translates into less money from the state. At the same time, the number of kids requiring special education services — and the complexity of those kids’ needs — is an increasingly large chunk of the district’s population.
In 2025, more than 14% of Montgomery County students had a disability, up from 11.8% in 2021, according to state data. This rise coincided with schools reopening after the pandemic.
On average, children with disabilities score well below their peers on state standardized tests.
Gawlinski said more funding — to cover additional support staff, adaptive technology and other accommodations — would help close that gap.
She wants researchers to consider the complicated realities when drafting their funding recommendations. Some children with disabilities go to school in special education classrooms, but most learn in general education, where they are legally entitled to specific services and accommodations.
Even kids with the same diagnosis, such as autism, can require vastly different kinds of support at school, with distinct price tags.
“Every kid with a disability is capable of learning. They might not be capable of learning all the same things, but they are all capable of learning,” she said. “If we don’t invest in that, we’re not going to see the progress that these children are so capable of making.”
Next steps
School funding in general is in the midst of a radical reimagining.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s multibillion-dollar plan to improve public education, calls for higher teacher salaries, expanded mental health support and stronger pre-K programs.
Special education reform wasn’t a cornerstone of that plan, at least at first. Instead, the state assembled a separate work group and mandated the funding study.
“The reason why special education has taken this long to get attention is because it’s really, really hard, and emotional,” Fannon said.
The work group concluded that differentiated funding for students with disabilities makes sense.
“Basing funding on the ‘average’ needs of all students with disabilities fails to address the higher costs for those requiring more extensive supports and services,” members wrote in a report. “This issue is compounded by the uneven distribution of students with varying levels of need across different schools within each [district].”
By mid-December, the state education department is expected to report the study’s findings and recommendations to the General Assembly.
Education department officials did not respond when The Banner asked for a copy of the contract and how much the group is getting paid.
After the recommendations are made, lawmakers will have to figure out what they can afford to implement.
Complicating that question is uncertainty surrounding federal funding.
Fifty years ago, the federal government made a promise to schools that it hasn’t lived up to.
It pledged, through what is now the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, to cover 40% of the average cost to educate a child with disabilities. Since then, it has consistently fallen far short of that number.
That leaves states to contend with how to pay the true price of educating children with disabilities.
“The only thing I will say in defense of Maryland,” Hettleman said, “is that no state has funded special education adequately.”
One of the most unique ships featured in Sail250 Maryland and Airshow Baltimore can be found docked at the Baltimore Peninsula.
USS Marinette LCS25 is one of the most functional ships in the Navy fleet. At 370 feet long with 80 crew members, the ship has a helicopter landing pad and hangar, two rib boats in the belly of the vessel, and heavy artillery, including a cannon.
The ship has four engines, two of which are like jet engines, meaning it can sprint ahead of other vessels to intercept watercraft. It can also truck side to side and spin 360 degrees with controllable reversing and steering deflector buckets attached to the stern of the jet propulsion system. It can also traverse the littoral zones, water close to shore, and navigate waters as low as 15 feet deep.
“Where we shine is our ability to operate where other ships can’t,” said Cdr. Brian Sims, the ship’s executive officer. “For a 370-foot ship, one of the smallest in the fleet, it packs a punch. We can go 40 plus knots.”
The ship is used in counternarcotics missions primarily on the East Coast and in the Caribbean.
It is based in Jacksonville, Florida, but was built in Marinette, Wisconsin, which is where the ship gets its name. It began operating in 2023 and has yet to deploy. The ship can be out on the water for weeks or even months.
“We go out and find drug trafficking individuals and intercept, and the Coast Guard then takes over and arrests,” Sims said.
The pilot house is where the ship truly shines. An officer and junior officer monitor the radar and navigation, while another sailor sits at the helm and oversees steering the vessel and monitoring the engines.
“This is a very unique design for Navy ships,” Sims added.
The ship also hosts several heavy artillery pieces, including a cannon on the bow with different types of rounds to combat different threats. It can fire 220 rounds in a minute.
With its rich Naval history, Baltimore is playing host to some of the Navy’s finest, and the crews are equally as excited to be here in Maryland, the backbone of the Navy, celebrating 250 years of American history.
“Baltimore is a fantastic city, steeped in maritime tradition. Of course, we have Fort McHenry that we sailed past and rendered honors to when we arrived,” Sims said. “Having the ability to be in this role in this position on board this ship to celebrate the nation’s 250th, it’s an absolute honor, and one that, one that gives us all pause, and lets us reflect on where we’ve come as a nation.”
As Maryland families head into another hot summer, many are about to receive an unpleasant reminder of just how badly some state leaders failed to address Maryland’s growing energy problems this year.
Higher energy bills are not coming by accident. They are the predictable result of years of poor planning and a continued refusal by Democratic leadership in Annapolis to confront the real issue facing our state: Maryland does not produce enough electricity to meet its own growing energy needs.
Instead of seriously addressing that challenge during this year’s legislative session, Democratic leaders celebrated passage of the so-called Utility Relief Act (House Bill 1532), which offers Marylanders roughly $12 in savings per month. At a time when families are facing soaring energy costs driven by a massive shortage of reliable in-state power generation, that is not meaningful relief. It is a political talking point designed to avoid the larger conversation Maryland desperately needs to have.
Our state imports nearly half of the electricity it uses. Nearly half of the power keeping homes cool, businesses operating and communities functioning every day comes from outside our borders. Yet even as demand for electricity continues to rise, Maryland continues falling behind on building the reliable generation capacity needed to support our future.
That is not a serious long-term strategy.
Families across Maryland are already struggling with inflation, rising housing costs and economic uncertainty. Energy bills are becoming another major financial burden for working families, seniors and small businesses. But instead of focusing on increasing reliable power supply, meaning fully lowering consumer costs, and strengthening Maryland’s long-term energy security, Annapolis continues offering temporary fixes that fail to address the underlying problem.
The reality is simple: Maryland needs more power generation, and every responsible energy source should be part of the conversation. Natural gas, nuclear, renewables, battery storage, clean coal and emerging technologies all have a role to play in creating a more reliable and affordable energy future for our state.
Maryland also needs a broader conversation about the role experienced infrastructure providers and utilities can play in strengthening reliability and supporting future generation needs. These are organizations that already manage the systems Marylanders depend on every day and understand the long-term planning required to maintain dependable service.
Reliable and affordable energy is not a partisan issue. It is a basic requirement for economic growth, business investment and everyday quality of life.
As summer begins and air conditioners start running around the clock, Maryland families will once again be reminded that energy policy decisions made in Annapolis have real world consequences.
Unfortunately, they are paying for those consequences every month.
Del. Jason Buckel is the Minority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates and represents Allegany County in the Maryland General Assembly.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — A group of Republican candidates, a voter, and an election-integrity organization are asking an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge to stop the state from certifying primary election results until election officials contact every voter whose original ballot was rejected and allow them to correct the problem.
The lawsuit, filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court against the Maryland State Board of Elections, comes a month after state election officials acknowledged that some Maryland voters were mistakenly mailed ballots for the wrong political party and sent replacement ballots to affected voters.
The ballot error affected voters who requested physical mail-in ballots for the June 23 primaries.
The Maryland State Board of Elections said its vendor, Taylor Print and Visual Impressions Inc. (TPVI), mailed some of the voters’ ballots for the wrong political party, but the administrator said the board’s vendor couldn’t identify which voters received erroneous ballots. Over 500,000 Maryland voters had requested mail-in ballots, most of them in Montgomery, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, and Baltimore City.
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