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MULTI-YEAR STUDY LOOKS AT SPECIAL ED SPENDING

August 11, 1999

The Center for Special Education Finance is undertaking a new study of how much special education programs cost and what the money pays for. The CSEF, a division of the American Institutes of Research that is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, plans to spend the next several years collecting data from states on their special education expenditures. The Special Education Expenditure Project will look at how federal, state and local funds are used to support programs and services for students with disabilities.

According to the CSEF's summer newsletter, the project will focus specifically on the fiscal impact of the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Particularly, requirements for placing students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, increasing the use of meditation and dispute resolution and making funding more flexible for school-wide programs may have noticeable impacts on state and local education agencies' budgets, the group suggests.

The report will include total money spent on special education in the United States and how much is spent per special ed. student. In addition, it will look at patterns of resource allocation and the fiscal relationship between special and general education programs. Preschool programs will also be included in the study.

The group is conducting random surveys of 250 school districts and is offering each state education department the opportunity to provide additional information and obtain a more detailed look at their own programs. Dr. Thomas Parrish and Dr. Jay Chambers, co-directors of CSEF, are directing the project.

"For the first time in almost 15 years, a nationally representative sample of states and school districts will provide comprehensive and comparable data on special education expenditures," the CSEF says. "These data will in turn provide up-to-date answers to key research questions and meet pressing information needs of special educators and policy makers across the nation."8