Against the clock: Puerto Rico's Education Department has until September 30 to pay $118 million in special education and transport debts

The Fiscal Oversight Board set a hard deadline for Puerto Rico's Department of Education (DE): it has until September 30 to use the more than $118 million transferred to the agency to settle debts, mainly those tied to Special Education services and school transportation ¹². The agency, however, is still struggling to complete those payments because of glitches in the rollout of the government's new financial system, while therapy providers stack up months of waiting to collect for services they already delivered to thousands of students ¹³.

The deadline came through an amendment the Board made to the budget-transfer authorization, because the original June 30 allocation carried no expiration date ¹. "In the original letter through which the 2025-2026 budget was amended, no effective date was given to the funds, so with this they put a bit of a leash on us with the September 30 date," acknowledged Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés ¹.

The catch is that the money is there, but payments are not flowing as they should. Ramos Parés admitted that the implementation of the government's new unified financial system (ERP) delayed disbursements to contractors and suppliers, with "operational challenges" in creating cost centers, viewing accounts, and the interface with the fiduciary agent that approves invoices ¹. The secretary said there are meetings "practically every day" with the Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department, and the Governor's Office secretariat, and that "in recent days there has been fluidity" in payments ¹.

The backstory: a school year that started in the red

The debt to Special Education providers is not new. Last school year closed with protests and even a one-day service interruption at specialized private schools, and the new term, which began August 6, opened with the same complaint ²³. In late July, the Puerto Rican Association of Health and Education-Related Service Providers (APPSSRE) denounced that the DE had left more than 69,000 therapy services unpaid, not counting compensatory therapies, in violation of the 30-day term that applies to invoice payments ³⁴. "One month of nonpayment under the current economic circumstances is already a crisis. Two months, with the school year starting, is unsustainable," warned APPSSRE president Ruth Concepción Rivera ⁴.

The Board, for its part, also demanded that the DE clarify whether it has reported the real accumulated debt of the Special Education Program from prior years, in a letter signed by its executive director, Robert Mujica ³.

The numbers

• $118 million: funds transferred to the DE to settle Special Education and school transportation debts ¹²
• September 30: deadline imposed by the Board to use that money ¹²
• More than 69,000: therapy services unpaid as of late July, according to APPSSRE ³
• 30 days: the official invoice-payment term the DE has been missing ⁴
• $12.6 million: pending Special Education Program obligations reported in the budget requests the Board reviewed ³
• 33.7%: minimum rate adjustment providers need, according to studies by economists José Alameda and Gustavo Vélez ⁴

What it means for you

If your child receives speech, occupational, or psychological therapies or evaluations through Remedio Provisional, the real risk is that the provider suspends or cuts back appointments if they do not get paid, as already happened for a day in June and as providers themselves warned at the start of this school year ³⁴. Reimbursements to parents who pay for services out of pocket also depend on these same funds ¹. And if the DE fails to disburse the money before September 30, the allocation is left hanging just as the new semester's invoices start arriving. The good news: the secretary says payments have picked up pace and that Special Education and school transportation are the priority ¹.

How to do it / Checklist

1. Confirm with your provider this week whether your child's therapies are running normally and whether appointments are already locked in for September.
2. If you need to find or switch providers, use the DE's official directory: https://mipe.dde.pr/provider-directory/2.
3. For questions about payments, reimbursements, or Remedio Provisional authorizations, call the Department of Education at (787) 759-2000 and ask for the Oficina de Querellas y Remedio Provisional.
4. If a service listed in your child's Individualized Education Program (IEP) is interrupted, file a complaint at https://de.pr.gov/oficina-de-querellas-y-remedio-provisional/querellas/.
5. Keep every invoice, receipt, and communication with the provider: that is your evidence to claim reimbursements or compensatory therapies.
6. If you are a provider with overdue invoices, write to [email protected] with the details of the unpaid services.
7. Free guidance on your rights under the Rosa Lydia Vélez class action: https://ayudalegalpr.org/resource/remedio-provisional-casos-de-educacin-especia.

What's next

The DE is counting on payments flowing normally once August billing closes, when the Special Education, Remedio Provisional, and transportation systems are connected to the new ERP ¹. The Board also ordered the agency to submit the complete regulation for the student-based budgeting model and implement it for fiscal year 2028 ². If the deposits do not arrive soon, providers and families have already warned they will mobilize. September 30 is right around the corner, and with it, the acid test of whether this time the money gets where it needs to go.

Sources

1. EL VOCERO — Contra el reloj pago de deudas en Educación (August 14, 2026)
2. El Nuevo Día — Ultimátum de la Junta de Supervisión Fiscal a Educación (August 13, 2026)
3. Metro Puerto Rico — Junta exige al DE que aclare deuda real (August 1, 2026)
4. Foro Noticioso — APPSSRE denuncia crisis de impago (July 24, 2026)