SERF report
Special education reserve fund
lunenburgbudgetproject.org — written by the Lunenburg Budget Project, an independent tool for residents. Not affiliated with the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee or the school district. The data this page is computed from: /data/topics/special-education-reserve.json
The claim this page tests
“if we get a sped private tuition that comes in unexpected it's going to affect our budget and here we are I mean it just happened … when it's a 24 million dollar budget 125 000 doesn't seem like a lot but it is … there is no mechanism in the state of Massachusetts for us to recover a dollar of those funds”
A special education line spent past its vote in 13 of 17 years, on top of the state repayment the vote counts on. A median bad year of the last five ran $116,811 over; the worst year on record, $223,774. Held once, a reserve costs less than a yearly cushion.
The biggest impact: out-of-district tuition
Measured: tuition for children placed outside Lunenburg’s schools was 48.4% of all spending above budget, over in 8 of 17 years. Transportation was 30.7%; Lunenburg’s own schools, 20.9%.
Private and collaborative are not split here. The vote subtracts the state repayment it expects from the collaborative line, $480,204 in FY2026, so that line looks over and private looks under because of where the subtraction is booked.
Not shown: which placements caused the overruns, or how many children. That needs counts the district does not publish: the Surprise costs page names them.
The three answers
What reserve to keep
Six ways to size it are compared on Reserve options.
What it means: Held at the recent median it would have met 8 of 13 bad years; at the worst year, all of them. The choice is how rare a year to insure against.
What comes back
The circuit breaker arrives a year after Lunenburg pays.
What it means: The vote already counts on it: tuition is budgeted after subtracting the expected repayment, so it cannot also stand in for a reserve.
What budget to carry
Most years the three lines leave money unspent.
What it means: The budget is usually big enough in total. Padding it every year costs more than holding a reserve once.
| Value | |
|---|---|
| The most the law allows | $541,717 |
| Worst year, at today’s budget | $412,397 |
| Worst two years running | $368,596 |
| Worst year | $223,774 |
| Median bad year, at today’s budget | $121,615 |
| Median bad year, last five | $116,811 |
| Median bad year, all 17 | $90,554 |
Overruns beyond the three special education lines’ budget, FY2010 to FY2026. At today’s budget is our arithmetic.
Each year’s bill: the vote, then what was spent on top of it
Each bar adds up. Left: the budget Town Meeting voted, hatched where a line left some unspent. Then what was spent on top of the vote: red from the town budget, green from the state’s repayment of the year before.
- Spent, inside what was voted
- Voted, not spent
- Spent above a line’s vote
- Paid from the state’s repayment
What it means: Added up, FY2011 to FY2026, the state’s repayment paid $7,606,403 and overspending came to $1,216,274. The reserve covers the smaller of the two cushions; if the repayment falls, what is left to cover grows.
| Out-of-district tuition | Special education transportation | In-district special education | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2010 | $18,735 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2011 | $40,953 | $0 | $49,601 |
| FY2012 | $0 | $39,766 | $0 |
| FY2013 | $131,335 | $92,439 | $0 |
| FY2014 | $91,030 | $49,050 | $4,742 |
| FY2015 | $0 | $65,331 | $0 |
| FY2016 | $0 | $0 | $37,801 |
| FY2017 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2018 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2019 | $204,015 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2020 | $3,811 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2021 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2022 | $0 | $0 | $92,879 |
| FY2023 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2024 | $87,269 | $65,455 | $0 |
| FY2025 | $20,054 | $0 | $0 |
| FY2026 | $0 | $67,557 | $73,186 |
Each bar: how far spending went above the budget voted for that line. A line that stayed within its budget adds nothing.
What it means: Out-of-district tuition is the largest share, 48.4%, but not most of it: a reserve drawn only for tuition would miss the rest.
1 · Does it run short?
13
of 17 a line spent past its vote
11
of 17 the three lines spent under budget
$78,554
whole school over its budget, worst year
92%
of late orders placed March to June
c.71B §5
a private placement moving in: old town pays
law
2 · What the state pays
$480,204
repayment the FY2026 tuition vote counted on in advance
$7,606,403
the state’s repayment spent, FY2011 to FY2026
$1,216,274
spent past the vote, the same years
$281,806
circuit breaker account, close of FY2026
$482,004
the same account, close of FY2020
3 · How big, and why a reserve
$90,554
median bad year, as spent
$121,615
median bad year, at today’s budget
our estimate
$116,811
median bad year, last five
$223,774
worst year, FY2013
$368,596
worst two years running
$412,397
worst year, at today’s budget
our estimate
$541,717
the most the reserve may hold, by law
law
—
what the reserve may be drawn for
not published
4 · What it adds up to
- 1
A line spent past its vote in 13 of 17 years; the three together came in under in 11.
What it means: The surprises are real and frequent; what has absorbed them is slack in the other lines.
- 2
When it does, the bill comes late: 92% of orders placed after September came March to June.
What it means: A spring bill finds the year’s money already committed; that timing, more than the size, is what a reserve covers.
- 3
A child already in a private placement who moves in is, by law, the old town’s cost that year.
What it means: Such a move can be seen coming and budgeted the next year; the in-year risk is a child newly placed here.
- 4
The tuition vote counts on the repayment: FY2026 was set $480,204 lower to allow for it.
What it means: If the repayment comes in smaller than expected, the gap lands on the town budget, mostly taxes.
- 5
Beyond the vote, the repayment spent $7,606,403 in 16 years; overruns came to $1,216,274.
What it means: The vote has never been the whole bill: the state pays a large share on top of it, and its account is thinner now.
- 6
Six ways to size the reserve run from $90,554, a median bad year, to $412,397, the worst at today’s budget.
What it means: The choice is how rare a year to insure against: the median bad year was covered in 7 of 13, the worst in all.
Start here
- Surprises and state aid →Chapter 70 and IDEA are fixed in advance; the circuit breaker comes a year late and is already in the vote.
- Reserve options →Six ways to size the reserve run from $90,554 to $412,397; the law caps it at $541,717.
- Surprise costs →A surprise cost is spending above the budget as voted: $1,235,009 over 17 years.
What surprises, and when
What comes back, and when
- Out-of-district tuition payments →In FY2026 the state paid back $579,142 of $1,257,225 in placement costs, 46.1%, a year after Lunenburg paid.
- Special education grants →The circuit breaker paid a median $507,832 a year, FY2010 to FY2026; IDEA allocated $437,380 for FY2027.
- Circuit breaker account →The account closed FY2026 at $281,806, down from $482,004 at the close of FY2020.Also under Special education
How big, and why a reserve
- Draw rules →Which overruns count moves the worst year from $78,554 to $811,505.
- Reserve or budget →Budgeting the cushion every year raises $2,345,375 more than a reserve covering the same years.
- Special education overruns →Over 17 years, special education needed $72,648 a year beyond its vote on average; at most $223,774.Also under Special education, School spending