HOWLAND — Changes to how special education may be classified in the future could affect a federal fund’s allocation, the Howland Board of Education learned from the district’s special education supervisor at a recent meeting.

Special Education Supervisor Ramona Kendzerski said the district is required to inform the public about Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) part B funds, which are to be used to pay excess costs of providing special education and related services to students with disabilities.

The district’s IDEA Part-B allocations are based on the state’s annual federal child count, according to an informational flyer Kendzerski provided.

The flyer states local education agencies’ allocations for Section 611 and 619, the primary and secondary funding stream for the fund, are based on 75% of the 1999 Fiscal Year base amount, a current private and public population count, and the number of students in poverty.

The funds can increase or decrease based on population and poverty factors, the flyer states.

“You can see that I did also put in a little information there of how IDEA Part B funds are allocated,” Kendzerski said. “With this change, and now that they’re gonna put special ed under the Department of Health and not the Department of Education, this could be vastly different.”

Kendzerski said as of now, they don’t know what the plans are or how quickly things will change.

Kendzerski said the district had $638,752 in total funds, and a majority of the funds — $340,459 — went toward staff salaries, retirement and benefits, while $273,293 went toward purchased services and $25,000 went toward supplies, according to the flyer.

Kendzerski explained that proportionate share funds are used to provide services to students in private schooling within the district’s boundaries.

“We have just the one — JFK lower campus, so there’s a little bit of information on how that’s calculated,” Kendzerski said. “I could even tell you, I have the amount here that was allocated for that — $10,546.”