108 Committee Interim Hearings: LR320/LR425 Interim Statement on Record

John Skretta
5905 O Street
Lincoln, NE 68505

November 7, 2024

As a matter of general practice, the Lincoln Public Schools routinely accepts option enrollment students and does so regardless of special education status. Under typical circumstances, LPS would only deny opt-in applicants the request to attend the Lincoln Public Schools if the student had already utilized an option for that level, or applied outside of the deadline. LPS accepted nearly 150 option student applications for the 24-25 school year. In contrast, only a couple option in applications were rejected; one due to the high school requested being closed (at capacity) and the other because the student was already exercising that level option in another district. Option applications were not rejected due to special education status. In accordance with statute, the Board of Education annually adopts and transparently communicates option-in closed or available based on building capacity and staff, and this information is available on the LPS website at https://home.lps.org/studentservices/open-closed-schools/ .

With recent commitments from the state to reimburse special education expenditures at a higher rate (80%), this ameliorates the local fiscal impacts borne by districts when admitting enrollment option students with special needs. That said, because LPS is a net-negative in overall option enrollee status, LPS does not currently qualify for any net option allowance funding from the state, so significant student costs continue to be absorbed at the local level.

Lincoln Public Schools would urge caution if the Legislature were to contemplate creating new restrictions that limit the ability of school districts to exercise local control in determining acceptance or denial of option enrollment requests. 

We thank Senator Conrad for bringing forward this interim resolution to examine the enrollment option program as it relates to the enrollment opportunities of students with disabilities.