Moorhead High School’s Adapted Musical Theater class performed “Descendants” Dec. 5 on the MHS Commons’ Learning Stairs. Fellow students and staff watched the actors and musicians perform from the Commons and the upper-floor balconies.
Duane Borgeson | Director, Special Learning Services
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Half a century ago, youngsters with disabilities faced a steep climb to get an education. For some, that meant spending their days in classrooms not geared to their special needs. For those with more severe physical and mental challenges, it could mean no real school at all.
That changed, says Duane Borgeson, in November 1975, when the U.S. Congress passed what’s now come to be called IDEA – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Each state has enacted the law and oversees implementation of its version. Minnesota’s requirements, adds Borgeson, “greatly exceeds the federal minimum.
“IDEA gives kids the opportunity to be in public schools, instead of being institutionalized or kept at home,” says the Moorhead Area School District’s director of special learning services. “IDEA requires that kids with disabilities receive a ‘free and appropriate public education.’
“What’s ‘appropriate’? That’s different for every kid. Each student must make ‘progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances,’” he explains. Now IEPs – Individualized Education Programs – must include “appropriately ambitious” objectives that give every child with disabilities the chance to meet challenging goals.
In 2024, 1,540 Moorhead students between kindergarten and grade 12 received those services. Another 275 preschoolers took part in preschool services integrated with the district’s Jump Start program. A smaller number of young people who’ve completed four years of high school go on to a program to develop more skills at Minnesota State Moorhead. Operated by the school district in Bridges Hall, participants work with the college’s teacher candidates.
That’s 16.22% of the total enrollment who qualified for special services at the end of 2024, compared with 12.35% in 2010.
The largest share experience speech and language deficiencies or learning disabilities. The third-largest group, and the fastest growing, have diagnoses on the autism spectrum. Borgeson notes that in 1990, when he got his first job teaching special education classes in Sartell, Minnesota, there were hardly any kids identified with autism. He adds, “The frequency itself probably hasn’t gone up. The category itself has changed.” In Moorhead, he notes, 90 students were identified with autism spectrum conditions in 1990. By the end of 2024, that number had grown to 265.
The highest numbers, he points out, are at Horizon Middle School. “By then, there’s been time to identify those with special learning needs,” he explains. Numbers tend to drop off in the high school years.
MAPS employs a massive corps of professionals to teach special needs students, who represent nearly one out of seven enrolled here. According to Borgeson, 190 paraprofessionals work with those young people – some one on one, others in classrooms with several who qualify for support tailored for their particular needs.
“Around 150 professionals are involved,” he adds. Among them are teachers, physical and occupational therapists, speech and language specialists, psychologists and social workers who spend at least part of their time with young people who have special needs.
Employing those hundreds of staffers obviously comes at a substantial cost. Yet that part of the federal legislation has always failed to live up to its promise. The 50-year-old IDEA measure that lays out the mandate for schools also stated the federal government would pay 40% of the cost of the services it demands. Instead, says Borgeson, the reality is closer to 10 to 12%.
That has significant impact on the local school budget. The difference between funds coming from the state of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Education is known as the cross-subsidy. In the most recent year, the district received $1,380,000 in appropriations. Its full cost was $4,282,061 – leaving an unfunded gap of nearly $3 million to be covered by local taxpayers. Notes the director, “The district has to balance the needs of our most needy and vulnerable students with the overall budget.”
One of the biggest challenges, the director points out, is hiring and maintaining the special education teachers and staff so critical to students’ achievements. “We’ve been fortunate in Moorhead,” he says. “We’re close to the colleges. Minnesota State Moorhead really helps. We work hard to hire the people we need and to keep the people we already have.
“We do expect our numbers to grow,” he predicts. “Medical science has made a good share of the difference. Now we can save babies who are born very early, for example – children who may have died 30 years ago. That increases the odds of children born with significant disabilities.”
At the same time, wider recognition of their needs and possibilities shines the light of optimism on the prospects for progress. “We are trying to do right by our students with special needs,” he reflects, “while we maintain the basis of financial sanity.”
