KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. Share your story idea with Olivia.
—
Four school districts in Johnson County, Kansas, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to address the Kansas Legislature’s failure to meet its legal obligation for special education funding.
According to a Kansas statute, the state should reimburse 92% of excess special education costs. However, the legislature hasn’t fully funded excess special education costs since 2011.
Blue Valley Schools, De Soto School District, Olathe Public Schools and Shawnee Mission School District — who represent over 83,000 students combined — are the four districts participating in the MOU as part of the Kansas Public School Funding Coalition.
A press release Wednesday stated the districts “have reached a tipping point after years of absorbing the escalating financial burden caused by the state’s failure to meet its legal funding obligations.”
In my ongoing series called Shifting Education, I have looked into how the special education funding gap is affecting everything from staffing to families' fees in each of these school districts.
To put the gap into perspective, in the 2025-26 school year, Olathe had a $44-million deficit, SMSD had a $25.6-million deficit and Blue Valley an $18-million deficit.
The press release said the goal of the districts is to do right by Kansas students. To do so, the districts will work to secure legal counsel to pursue litigation against the state.
The coalition has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for legal services. The priorities stated in the press release are listed below:
- Monitoring and advising on Kansas school funding and K-12 education budget issues;
- Evaluating when litigation against the State of Kansas should be pursued;
- Identifying strategic opportunities for collaboration with other districts or organizations pursuing similar objectives;
- Developing a litigation strategy aimed at securing adequate and equitable funding for both special and general education for all Kansas public schools.
In an interview with Olathe Superintendent Brent Yeager in April, Yeager said litigation is a cycle when it comes to funding Kansas public education.
“There's been this thing in Kansas for a long time where the state legislature puts school finance plan(s) in place, how we're going to be funded. It's not meeting the letter of the Kansas constitution, and school districts sue. It gets fixed, they sue, it gets fixed,” Dr. Yeager said. “That's kind of just been the cycle that's happened in our state for a really long period of time.”
I will continue to cover how special education funding deficits are impacting Johnson County schools.
—
