Special Education Not as “Costly” As Some Might Say
A recent report from the conservative Hoover Institute notes that, while the numbers of special education students have been rapidly increasing, “that doesn’t mean special education costs are rising faster than the resources available for regular education.” Interestingly, authors Jay P. Greene and Marcus A Winters note:
The near doubling in special education costs is not attributable to a rise in rare and expensive disabilities. Media reports often emphasize the growth in students with autism but their numbers remain very small, less than 0.3 percent of enrollment. The total cost of special education services for autism does not exceed 0.45 percent of all spending. Severe disability categories like mental retardation, which are costly to serve, have actually experienced a decline in enrollment. The bulk of special education cost increases comes from explosive growth in the specific learning disability (SLD) category, which is among the least costly to serve. Students in this category grew from 796,000 in 1977 to 2,848,000 in 2003.
Charles Fox at the Special Education Law Blog provides a summary of the Hoover Institute report and I quote from three of his four main findings:
- Private placements account for slightly more than 1% of all placements and many of these placements were initated by the school district.
- Private placements are often a cost-effective means to educate children with special needs
- Total cost for special education represented roughly 8.3% of total education spending in 1977 and as the total spending for education generally has increased over the decades, the costs for special education adjusted for inflation is roughly the same in 2003
Should your school district note that the cost of services or of a placement for your child is draining resources away from other students, pull out this report: In the words of Charles Fox: “They will have no objective data of any kind to fire back at you and you will walk out smiling!”
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POSTED IN: Education, Legal Issues, Money
2 opinions for Special Education Not as “Costly” As Some Might Say
Estee
Apr 10, 2007 at 7:01 am
Really interesting. Thanks for posting this.
Autism Vox » “It’s like being thirsty and ……….you can’t describe your intense thirst
May 2, 2007 at 3:28 pm
[…] society” appeared earlier this year, though it is possible that some of these costs (see this article on the costs of special education may not be as high as thought. From Cherry’s words about Tajh, the “strongest […]
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