Can spiraling special education costs explain why educational achievement remained stagnant over the past three decades while real education spending more than doubled? Policy makers, education researchers, and school district officials often make this claim. Special education students--goes the argument--are draining resources away from regular…

The Veterans' Educational Assistance Amendments of 1991 have the following purposes: (1) to restore educational assistance to service members and reservists who had received benefits for courses that they were unable to complete because they were called to active duty during the Persian Gulf War; (2) to extend the length of time Gulf War veterans…

This issue paper focuses on financial aspects of special education, with implications for state and local education policymakers. Background information is supplied on the mandate for free appropriate public education contained in P.L. 94-142, The Education For All Handicapped Children Act. Subsequent sections address the following topics: the…

The report summarizes findings of a study of the cost of special education and related services for handicapped children, using information from a national survey taken in 1977-1978. The document is divided into 22 sections, beginning with an introduction which describes the study's objective, gives an overview of findings, and outlines the…

Cost information was collected from five local education agencies that provided inclusive and traditional special education service options for preschool children with disabilities. Within-agency comparisons suggested that inclusive models were generally less expensive or comparable in cost to traditional forms of special education. Specific cost…

The Moche Cost Analysis of Public Education (CAPE) formula was developed to identify total and per pupil costs of regular elementary education, regular secondary education, elementary special education, and secondary special education. Costs are analyzed across five components: (1) comprehensive costs (including transportation and supplemental…

Directed to the state lead agency directors, the memorandum from the Office of Special Education Programs answers questions concerning implementation of Part H of the EHA, Education of the Handicapped Act, the Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Handicaps. The following questions are addressed: (1) Can a child who is counted…

The document describes findings of a study of the cost of special education and related services for handicapped children, using information from a national survey taken in 1977-1978. Twenty chapters cover the following study components: objective of the study; summary of study findings; description of sample states and localities; data collection…

A study involving 44 New Jersey early intervention programs estimated the cost of services. Variables affecting cost were: types of staff providing services, time allocations of providers, services setting and type, wage rates, and staff-child ratio. A fee-for-service system is discussed as a way to increase incentives for efficiency. (Contains…

This paper provides a national perspective on special education finance and related reform issues and proposals, with emphasis on those of particular relevance for the state of New York. It also looks specifically at the current New York funding system as it pertains to students with disabilities and concludes with several observations. First, the…

The article reviews the current situation in preschool special education: who is served, how they are served, and program costs; predicted is program expansion under Public Law 99-457. A strategy is recommended for developing state preschool special education policies that take into account costs as well as benefits. (Author/DB)

This resource paper describes two recent studies and one report on special education costs and the methodology used in their analyses. Each study and its data source are summarized with a short discussion on the quality of the data and its usefulness and limitations in generating reliable cost estimates for special education. The paper summarizes…

This paper analyzes trends in education expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, especially the extent to which special education costs are responsible for the overall upward expenditure trends. It reports on the limited national data available and on a longitudinal analysis of special education costs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1982-83…

A questionnaire was designed to solicit Canadian provincial/territorial information on the costs of special education and the funding mechanisms used. Provincial and territorial representatives were also asked their opinions concerning recent and future trends in special education and the resulting impact on costs. In this resulting report, each…

This report reviews special education costs and funding for Wisconsin public school districts, as well as the funding relationship between special education and regular education. In addition, it compares Wisconsin's method of allocating categorical aid to methods that other states use in allocating special education funding, and presents survey…