Kansas school districts reduced employment by 327 full-time equivalent positions this school year, the smallest reduction in three years of cuts to district operating budgets. Districts reduced positions by 561 in FY 2010 and 1,626 in FY 2011. Districts eliminated nearly 400 "regular" teaching positions this year, but added 114 special education teachers and nearly 240 special education para-educators. The net change in classroom instructional employees was a reduction of 95.9 FTE employees, or 0.2 percent. The overall reduction in school district staff was 0.5 percent. Most other major budget categories, including student and instructional support services, all levels of administration, operations and maintenance, and food services had a higher percentage reduction than instruction. The exception was transportation, where 30 non-administrative jobs were added. Why were fewer jobs cut this year, despite a $65 million reduction in district general fund and local option budgets? Reasons vary among school districts, but probably include: (1) More planning time to make other budget adjustments, like closing buildings to save operating costs; (2) Shifting jobs to areas where funding actually increased, such as special education; (3) Replacing higher-salaried employees with lower paid positions, including more reliance on new teachers and classroom and special education aides; and (4) Directing prior year savings into reserves that could be spent this year to absorb some of the funding cuts.