Central Oregon school district leaders are exploring the idea of a regional school strictly for ”high needs” special education students, saying those needs might be served better outside traditional schools and classrooms.

Oregon Department of Education officials said on Wednesday it would be the first school of its kind in the state devoted to both learning and physically-disabled students.

Oregon currently has schools for the deaf and blind.

Dennis Dempsey, superintendent of the Crook-Deschutes Education Service District, said school leaders from Bend, Redmond, Crook County and Jefferson County approached the organization about the possibility of the new school, he said in an interview.

”It’s only in an exploratory stage,” he said. ”We’re trying to be proactive.”

Little information was available about the idea other than it had been introduced. The special education director for the Redmond School District and special education teachers in Bend could not be reached for comment.

But even exploring such a school is likely to locally rekindle the continuing national debate over the segregation of special education students by keeping them out of traditional classrooms with other students.

The definition of what a ”high need” student needs varies, Dempsey said, and that would be part of the discussion. It might include a child with severe autism or a deaf child or a student with multiple physical disabilities who is in a wheelchair and needs the help of a nurse during the day.

”Some of these kids are costly and have specialized needs,” he said. ”Maybe there’s a better way to do it. It’s really worthwhile to explore it because the area is getting bigger, too.”

In 2001 – the most recent figures available on Wednesday – 1,337, or nearly 75 percent, of the more than 1,800 special education students in the Bend-La Pine School District fell under the categories of ”learning disabled” and ”speech.

Those students don’t require much special attention or additional resources to educate than the majority of students in the district.

But the other 25 percent of the students do. The district in 2001 had about 20 students in other categories of special education who required constant medical attention from paid nurses. Those students can cost the district more than $30,000 per year to educate.

By law, school districts are required to provide – and pay for – equal education to students with learning and physical disabilities.

The federal government pays for about 17 percent of special education costs. States and school districts have to come up with the rest.

In Oregon, about 13 percent of the total school enrollment receives special education services. But there’s a shortfall. To make sure there’s enough money to go around, Oregon caps special education funding to school districts at only 11 percent of their needs.

The state of Oregon provides school districts about $10,000 for each special education student, which is about twice as much as the per-pupil funding for students not designated as special education. The state’s funding includes the federal contribution.

But school and state education officials point out it costs districts much more than that to abide by legal requirements. The average cost to educate a child with a disability is $14,952 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Federal law does not require schools to integrate special education students into regular classrooms, a now-common practice called ”inclusion.”

Language in the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act only states that students be educated ”to the maximum extent appropriate” in the ”least restrictive environment.” That means inclusion to the extent that the child could be included in the general classroom curriculum to the greatest extent possible. Nancy Reeder, deputy executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, said opening a school specifically for severely disabled students doesn’t violate the disabilities act, ”but it does go against the notion of least restrictive environment.”

Whether a student should move from a regular classroom to a segregated classroom or a special school should be up to both the parents and school officials who help write a student’s Individual Education Plan, Reeder said from her office in Alexandria, Va.

”The goal has always been full inclusion to the extent possible,” she said. ”But it’s supposed to be looked at on an individual basis.”

Bend-La Pine School District Superintendent Doug Nelson said he is curious to see where further discussions go.

”It’s an idea, and I don’t know if I like it or not,” he said. ”At least it’s an idea that we have to explore.”

School districts in Central Oregon have been facing problems recently regarding special education funding.

A report released late last year showed that in Redmond special education funding was increasing much faster than funding for regular instruction.

The study, released by the Oregon School Boards Association, found that special education funding in Redmond has increased by 4.6 percent annually since 1991, while spending on regular classroom instruction grew by 2.8 percent annually during that time.

During the last decade, special education funding in Redmond grew by 46 percent; spending on regular instruction grew by 26 percent.

In 2001, the Bend-La Pine School District conducted its own study that showed special education spending was outpacing other programs.

Bend’s special education budget increased just less than fivefold, from $2.1 million in 1990 to $10 million in 2001. Costs have risen in part because the number of special education programs has grown. Federal assistance has grown as well.

But since 1996, the special programs department spent more money than it brought in. In 2001, the district’s special education budget was about $10 million. The state, including federal assistance, pitched in about $8.7 million, forcing the school district to come up with the $1.3 million difference.

Nelson conceded it’s expensive to educate some students who have special needs, ”and for some of these students being in a regional school might be a response. I don’t know if it’s the best response – we’ll have to look at all the pluses and minuses and that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Ted Taylor can be reached at 541-383-0375 or ttaylor@bendbulletin.com.