Medicaid in schools provides vital services for students with IEPs and special needs

Federal Medicaid funding supports a crucial program for delivering special education services in Ohio: the state’s Medicaid School Program (MSP). As the state legislature considers a budget that would especially harm students who receive special education services, the MSP is a critical resource.

Policy Matters Ohio has released a new brief describing how the MSP is funded, and how it helps provide Ohio children with the care they need. “Many students in Ohio’s public schools require physical, mental, or behavioral health services to do their best in the classroom,” said Policy Matters researcher Kathryn Poe, author of the brief. “Every student with an IEP is entitled to those services. Public schools are legally required to provide them. With the state legislature bent on underfunding public schools, the MSP is a lifeline we can’t afford to lose.”

Ohio’s House of Representatives recently proposed a budget that would increase funding for the MSP, expanding the program to provide more Ohio students with more of the services they need. However, the budget also contains “trigger language” that would allow the legislature to reduce state funding for Medicaid-related programs (including the MSP) if Congress reduces the federal government’s share of Medicaid funding.

Policy Matters previously reported on the importance of federal education funding in Ohio, with district-specific analysis of threatened cuts. Medicaid funding was not included in that analysis. “Threats to Medicaid are a small part of a much larger assault on public education,” Poe said. “Parents and educators have to fight on many fronts. In this case, they are also fighting for the millions of Ohioans — including 1.3 million children — covered by Medicaid.”