Gifted Funding Rates

Gifted funding is paid in two shapes and the statute keeps them in two sections.

Per pupil, in R.C. 3317.022(A)(6)(a). Identification is $24 × enrolled ADM for kindergarten through six × state share percentage; referral is $2.50 × enrolled ADM × state share percentage. Note the different denominators: identification is paid on the K-6 count and referral on the whole district. verified the section

Per unit, in R.C. 3317.051. A district is allocated one gifted coordinator unit per 3,300 enrolled ADM, floored at 0.5 units and capped at 8; one K-8 intervention specialist unit per 140 identified gifted pupils, floored at 0.3; and one 9-12 specialist unit per 140, floored at 0.3. Each unit is then priced: $85,776 for a coordinator, $89,378 for a K-8 specialist and $80,974 for a 9-12 specialist, each times the district’s state share percentage. verified

The unit prices are salaries, stated by the General Assembly. Everywhere else the plan prices a pupil — a weight times a base cost times a count. Here it prices a post, and it writes three different figures for what are three different jobs. The K-8 specialist is priced above the coordinator and the 9-12 specialist below both; the section gives no reason. verified the figures open the ordering

The unit floors do most of the distributional work at the small end. A district of any size gets at least half a coordinator unit and at least three tenths of each specialist unit, so a district with almost no identified gifted pupils is still funded for a fraction of two posts. verified the floors inference the effect

What this repository computed # ↑ Contents

Not what Ohio publishes. Figures derived here from committed fixtures, each one citing the test that reproduces it.

The cap is a cap on large districts and there is no analogue elsewhere # ↑ Contents

Eight coordinator units is the maximum however large the district. At one unit per 3,300 enrolled ADM, the cap binds above 26,400 pupils — which is a handful of Ohio districts, and they are the largest. No other component in the plan stops paying at a size threshold. verified the arithmetic inference the comparison

Identification funding runs against the districts most likely to under-identify # ↑ Contents

The share of pupils a district identifies as gifted falls with poverty and rises with property wealth across the district panel — r = −0.67 against poverty and r = +0.35 against valuation per pupil. verified crates/project Identification funds are paid on the K-6 enrolled count rather than on identified pupils, so that part is neutral; unit funding is paid on the identified count, so it is not. A district that identifies fewer gifted pupils receives fewer specialist units to identify and serve them. verified the correlations inference the mechanism

And the whole schedule is written for two years # ↑ Contents

Division (B)(2) of R.C. 3317.051 hands unit allocation to the General Assembly for FY2028 and thereafter; (C)(2) does the same for the unit prices; and R.C. 3317.022(A)(6)(b) does it for identification and referral — with the referral payment carrying an additional condition, “if the general assembly authorizes such a payment”. Referral funding is the one line in this parameter whose continuation the statute explicitly declines to assume. verified

The salary assumption in constant dollars, which is what this node asked for # ↑ Contents

All five figures were set by H.B. 110 for FY2022 and none has moved. Deflated by CPI-U June, each has lost 11.27% of its value by FY2026 — the coordinator’s $85,776 is $96,672.30 in FY2026 dollars, the K-8 specialist’s $89,378 is $100,731.87 and the 9-12 specialist’s $80,974 is $91,260.29; identification’s $24.00 is $27.05 and referral’s $2.50 is $2.82. verified crates/project

The erosion is identical across all five because it is a property of the vintage and not of the figure, which is worth saying plainly: the ordering this node calls unexplained — K-8 above the coordinator, 9-12 below both — is preserved exactly by the freeze. Inflation does not re-rank them; it shrinks all three together. verified

For a salary the comparison is sharper than for a price. A per-pupil rate that falls 11.27% buys 11.27% less of whatever it buys. A post priced at $85,776 has to be filled at whatever the labor market charges, so a district funded for one coordinator unit is funded for a declining fraction of one coordinator. The section calls it a unit either way. inference

What it costs, and why it is the smallest of the three # ↑ Contents

Across the FY2027 model, paying gifted at the FY2022 real value would cost $6.9m more than the formula pays. That is the smallest share of the $133.2m the three frozen components lose, on exactly the same 11.27% factor that costs DPIA $66.7m — the difference is the size of the program, not the depth of the freeze. verified

Gifted sits inside [H] Foundation Funding, so a district the guarantee holds absorbs its share rather than feeling it. That is the opposite of the preschool grant, which is paid outside [H] and reaches every district in full. verified

  gifted identification    $5.50 -> $24.00 per enrolled ADM, grades K-6
  gifted referral          new   -> $2.50 per enrolled ADM
  professional development new   -> $7.00 in FY2022, $14.00 in FY2023
  specialist unit ratio    new   -> one unit per 140 identified gifted pupils, K-12

  $24.00   gifted identification, on enrolled ADM for grades K-6
  $2.50    gifted referral, on the whole district's enrolled ADM

  $85,776  gifted coordinator unit            1 per 3,300 enrolled ADM, min 0.5, max 8
  $89,378  K-8 intervention specialist unit   1 per 140 identified gifted pupils, min 0.3
  $80,974  9-12 intervention specialist unit  1 per 140 identified gifted pupils, min 0.3

  $54,445,264.51  gifted funding, statewide
  $13,995,587.23  coordinator units
  $20,980,411.17  K-8 intervention specialist units
  $12,633,770.59  9-12 intervention specialist units