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Tennessee school districts have been footing the bill for special education pre-kindergarten classes, and now they want lawmakers to allocate money for it in the state’s school funding model.
Some districts are pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars from their K-12 budgets to provide classrooms for students as young as 3 with disabilities while receiving limited federal funding and no recurring state dollars. More than 9,900 pre-K students in Tennessee require special education services per a February 2025 state analysis.
Federal disabilities law requires schools provide services to these students, who often need expensive therapies and extra teachers. But the state’s Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act formula adopted in 2022 doesn’t factor them in and only provides per-student funding once they enter kindergarten.
The Germantown Municipal School District is spending over $800,000 yearly to run special education preschool. It only receives around $23,000 in state grant funding.
“Each preschool classroom requires a highly specialized team: a dually certified teacher, two paraprofessionals, therapists, and sometimes a nurse,” said Germantown Superintendent Jason Manuel. “The total cost per classroom can range from $143,000 to more than $200,000 annually, depending on the student needs and staffing.”
Last month, the Lakeland School System’s board of education unanimously approved a resolution urging lawmakers to amend the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act formula to include special education pre-K students.
The resolution renews a statewide Tennessee School Boards Association lobbying push to address the funding gap after a bill to amend the TISA formula stalled in the General Assembly in early 2025.
“If the federal government and state government is going to require this, then I think it’s essential that we address this,” said Rep. Mark White, a Shelby County Republican who sponsored the 2025 legislation.
Next year, White plans to push again for pre-K funding, though he acknowledges the estimated costs of fully funding the program have stalled progress on the issue.
Financial analysts at the legislature estimated the previous bill would cost the state more than $159 million annually.
But local educators think the estimate was skewed and overestimated how many children would be included in the program.
“We are asking whatever the figure is, give us 20% of it, give us 40% of it. It needs to be recurring dollars, or it doesn’t make sense,” White said, noting districts need to be able to rely on recurring funds rather than less stable grant funding.
Last year the Germantown district served 56 pre-school students with disabilities ranging from development delays to hearing impairments who required services such as physical and speech therapy.
And because of certain federal and state laws mandating class size and educating special education students alongside more general education peers, Germantown enrolled 65 other students in the program and spread students across eight classrooms.
Lakeland schools this year staffed four classrooms for 34 special education pre-K students aged 3-5 and served 25 general education students in the same classrooms.
Costs run more than $617,000 annually, which Lakeland schools must pull from other programs funded through TISA.
“Over the past several years, Germantown and Lakeland have worked together to raise awareness of this funding gap,” Manuel said. “Our school boards and leadership teams have met with legislators and even the governor’s finance team to advocate for a fix. Everyone agrees it’s needed, but it hasn’t yet been included in the governor’s budget.”
District leaders in west Tennessee say they’ve encountered “fundamental” misunderstandings of how special education pre-K programs work and are funded, even by state officials responsible for education oversight.
“Another reason this issue has been overlooked is confusion at the state level between voluntary pre-K programs and special education preschool programs,” Manuel said. “Voluntary pre-K serves at-risk students based on income, while special education preschool serves students ages 3-5 with developmental delays or disabilities — it’s not optional; it’s required by law.”
Voluntary pre-K receives some $85 million in state allocated funding, but Lakeland and Germantown are among the few districts in Tennessee that do not have voluntary pre-K programs. Still, even districts receiving voluntary pre-K funding aren’t being funded for separate special education students and classrooms.
Lakeland leaders last month expressed frustration at trying to bring attention to the issue at the state level, where it first stalled in 2024 over misunderstandings about what funding was available. Lakeland board member and legislative liaison Michelle Childs also criticized the focus on private school choice at last year’s special session over fully funding special education pre-K classes.
“We’ve explained it pretty well,” Childs said. “They just made the choice that they wanted to fund private school vouchers over special needs kids.”
Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.
