March 1st a series of automatic cuts to federal spending—called the sequester—went into effect. Education is one of the areas Wyoming will feel the cuts most acutely. A White House report says the state will lose millions of dollars in school funding.

Jim Rose, interim director of the Wyoming Department of Education, says a 5% cut to the federal education budget would mean special needs students would get less funding.

“And what it’s going to effect mostly are special title programs,” Rose says.  “So schools that are targeted for funding, where they have high populations of students receiving free and reduced lunch, where schools are struggling with performance, and they’re target schools for federal assistance…  a lot of our special education funding.” 

The White House press release also says Wyoming will lose about $1,511,000 in federal aid toward education for children with disabilities.