FISCAL NOTE
Date Requested: February 17, 2025
Time Requested: 03:45 PM |
| Agency: |
Education, WV Department of |
|---|
| CBD Number: |
Version: |
Bill Number: |
Resolution Number: |
| 1236 |
Introduced |
HB2475 |
|
|---|
| CBD Subject: |
Education (K12) |
|---|
|
FUND(S):
0317
Sources of Revenue:
General Fund
Legislation creates:
Increases Existing Expenses
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
This fiscal note is revised as requested by the House Committee on Education. The purpose of the bill is to match the salaries of Aide V (Special Education Aides) with that of Early Childhood Classroom Assistant Teachers and then increase that amount by 5% for the Aide V position; increasing the pay of self-contained, special education teachers by 10%; defining a critical vacancy; and to require board staff who are certified in the subject area of a critical vacancy to go to the classroom and fill that position until someone is hired to do so.
The proposed legislation, in its current form, has an estimated cumulative cost to the WVDE under the Public-School Support Program (PSSP) for salary increases for school personnel in the amount of $3,048,003.
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2025
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2026
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
0 |
3,048,003 |
3,048,003 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
3,048,003 |
3,048,003 |
| Current Expenses |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
The total estimated cost to the State under the Public-School Support Plan (PSSP) for the proposed legislation is $3,048,003. The proposed legislation provides a 5% increase to certified special education Aide V employees as well as a 10% raise to special education teachers employed in self-contained classrooms. The total estimated cost under PSSP by step is as follows:
Step 1 for professional educator salaries - $3,003,932
Step 2 for service personnel salaries - $44,071
Step 3 for fixed charges - $211,742
Step 6 for substitute costs - $64,320
Retirement - $199,135
The cost estimate is computed based on an estimated 469 FTE special education teachers employed in self-contained classrooms and 24 FTE Aide V employed statewide. Only those positions whose salaries are paid from PSSP funding are included in the cost estimate. A 5% raise for Aide V’s equates to $1,555 and a 10% raise for special education teachers equates to $5,180 per employee.
Please note that Aide V does not encompass all special ed aides in self-contained classrooms. If the proposed legislation is amended to include all aides in self-contained classrooms, using an assumption that all special ed self-contained classrooms contain at least one aide, the cost estimate increases to $3,865,150.
Please note, county boards of education will incur additional costs for personnel employed in excess of funded, personnel employed in positions not eligible for state aid funding, personnel employed using other funding sources such as state or federal grants, and extended employment terms for professional personnel. Those additional county costs are not included in the above estimates.
The West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board (CPRB) should also be consulted to obtain information relating to the additional cost, if any, to the State due to the impact of the proposed salary increases on the unfunded retirement liability of the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS).
Finally, this cost estimate does not assume the passage of other legislation that may impact the PSSP, resulting in an increased costs for the pay increases provided in this bill.
Memorandum
W. Va. Code 18A-4-8(i) and 18A-4-8a(2) outline two separate Aide V positions with the difference being certification held by the employee. The bill sponsors should consider whether both the temporary and permanent authorization Aide V positions would qualify for a pay grade increase.
Please note, there are three classifications of ECCAT established in W. Va. Code 18A-4-8(i) and 18A-4-8a(2) -- ECCAT I, II, and III. W. Va. Code 18A-4-8a(2) establishes the Aide V temporary authorization as equal to that of ECCAT I and II, pay grade E. The code section also sets forth the Aide V permanent authorization as equal to that of ECCAT III, pay grade F. The bill sponsors should identify specific changes recommended to the current pay grades set forth in W. Va. Code.
W. Va. Code 18A-4-2(d) currently provides a step increase in compensation for special education teachers by adjusting the years' experience of applicable employees by three additional years. WVDE recommends the bill sponsors revise this code section to provide additional compensation for special education teachers in self-contained classrooms in lieu of the methodology currently established in this proposed legislation.
Further, WVDE recommends a similar step increase modification be included in the proposed legislation as a revision to W. Va. Code 18A-4-8a in order to provide additional compensation to Aide V service personnel.
Without a step increase approach, the legislation essentially creates new pay tables for special education teachers in self-contained classrooms and Aide V positions separate from the tables currently established in W. Va. Code.
The WVDE requests that all proposed statutory pay raises proposed to specific personnel positions be made in the form of a years' experience step increase rather than a percentage increase due to the complexity of the state aid calculations and the impact pay raises have on this process when provided to specific personnel. This would be similar to the three-step increase statutorily defined for math and special education teachers.
It should be noted that Aide V does not encompass all special education aides. There is currently only one state-funded special education aide that has met the minimum requirements to be employed as an Aide V pursuant to the provisions of W. Va. 18A-4-8(i)(12) while there are a total of 1,665 special education aides employed statewide. Please consider that one of the requirements to be employed as an Aide V is that the county board must post a vacancy as such. An employee isn’t automatically provided with the additional increase for beginning the coursework set forth in W. Va. Code 18A-4-8(i)(12).
The language in the proposed legislation defining a critical vacancy and provisions surrounding the filling of a critical vacancy does not appear to have an immediate, calculatable, fiscal impact on the state or county boards of education.
The estimated cost to the county boards does not include the cost for personnel employed in excess of funded, personnel employed in positions not eligible for state aid funding, personnel employed using state, federal or other grant funds, or the cost of extended employment terms for professional personnel.
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Tina Payne
Email Address: tina.a.payne@k12.wv.us