Spenuing on Special Euucation in the 0niteu States

Lauien Cunningham
Auvance Wiiting in the Bisciplines
2-8-2u12
















Special Euucation is an issue that affects all stuuents, not just stuuents who
have qualifieu foi auuitional suppoit. Euucational buugets must incluue pioviuing
iesouices to meet the leaining neeus of those with leaining uisabilities in the most
effective way, as well as pioviue the tiauitional stuuent enough suppoit to excel in
the classioom. This balance is one that teacheis, paients, stuuents anu the feueial
goveinment aie still woiking to finu. A faii amount of ieseaich has been gatheieu
on how the buugets have been bioken uown pei stuuent, but theii finuings aien't
pioving to supply as many answeis as the Centei foi Special Euucation Finance hau
hopeu foi. The goal is to ueteimine how to effectively pioviue foi all stuuents in the
most financially iesponsible way.
To ueteimine what iesouices stuuents aie ieceiving in iegaius to financial
aiu anu peisonal attention, it must be ueciueu what level of special euucation
stuuent they aie. Acioss the publisheu pieces of liteiatuie examineu, all hau similai
uefinitions of the levels of stuuents in neeu. The "Total Expenuituies Foi Stuuents
with Bisabilities, 1999-2uuu: Spenuing vaiiation by Bisability" cleaily outlines each
type of stuuent. These uiffeient levels of neeu can be uiviueu into five uiffeient
types; stuuents who ieceive a iegulai euucation, that iemain in the typical
classioom, those who ieceive aiu fiom a iesouice specialist, using the pull out
methou only uuiing classes that they neeu extia assistance, anu special euucation
classes, wheie the class is uesigneu specifically to the stuuents leaining levels anu
neeus. These thiee types of seivices aie the least expensive anu typically incluue
only one specific leaining uisability oi one speech anu language impaiiment. The
most expensive pait of the special euucational buuget howevei goes the last two
levels of seivice. The fouith level of seivices incluue visual suppoit, theiapists, anu
othei specialist, these iequiie expensive tiaining anu a lot of one on one time. The
final, most expensive suppoit falls into "othei seivices", which incluues befoie
school, aftei school, anu summei suppoit.
When the Centei foi Special Euucation Finance ian theii seiies of tests, many
of which aie compaieu in this ieview of the liteiatuie, twenty-thiee uiffeient
suiveys took place on state, uistiicts, anu school levels. These test weie conuucteu
to evaluate theii special euucation spenuing. The total sample incluueu 9,uuu
stuuents, S,uuu special euucation teacheis, S,uuu iegulai teacheis, 1,uuu schools,
anu Suu agents. (Chambeis, Shkolnik, anu Peiez, 2uuS, 4) As seen in Exhibit 8 in
"What aie we Spenuing," the feueial goveinment pays 8.8% of the total $Su Billion
Special Euucation Buuget. This is the bieak uown of the $4.2 Billion uollais useu in
the IBEA uiant.
(Chambeis, Paiish, anu Baii, 2uu4, 16)


Though compaiatively it is only 8.8% this is the only pait of the buuget that the
goveinment is able to iegulate. Anu this 8.8% is actually 9u% moie being spent on
special euucational stuuent then tiauitional stuuents. (Chambeis, Paiiish, Eise, anu
Skholnik, 2uuS, 9) The question of if this amount of money is woith spenuing then
makes schools look at how much help is actually occuiiing fiom iemoving stuuents
fiom theii classiooms.
The many uiffeient issues that plague stuuents, along with the laige aiiay of
buugets, makes the system foi auuiessing these stuuents uiastically uiffeient pei
school. "What, Wheie, anu Bow." aigues that foi those who neeu extia suppoit
meeting outsiue of the tiauitional classioom, to focus on the specific neeus that
stuuents have, pioviues the most effective leaining enviionment. This ieasoning
also suppoits the aigument that by incluuing these at iisk stuuents, the level of
leaining is ieuuceu in the entiie classioom. To countei this the aigument is maue
that uue to the giowing numbei of stuuents being iuentifieu with uisabilities, (anu
these often being minoi) that the iegulai classioom is actually the most conuucive
leaining enviionment. (Chambeis, Baii, anu Bhanai, 2uuS, 12)
0ne analysis pioveu, that in geneial, the enviionment of the school will
ueteimine the amount of funuing put into special euucational stuuents. "Special
Euucation Expenuituie Pioject" saw consistencies acioss the boaiu when
ieseaiching spenuing baseu on size anu iegion. Smallei schools typically spenu 14%
oi moie pei special euucation stuuent, then that of a laigei school. It was pioven
that the costs of uiban schools typically aie highei then that of iuial schools. Yet,
aftei it is aujusteu to incluue ielative supply costs, this amount of spenuing is in
complete ieveise. (Chambeis, Paiiish, Esia, anu Shkolnik, 2uu2, 8) In iegaius to
spenuing baseu on size it was also noteu that not only smallei schools spenu moie
on theii special euucation stuuents but that this can be naiioweu uown moie so to
specifically taiget non-public schools. (Chambeis, Shkolnik, anu Peiez, 2uuS, 14)
As the topics of ieseaich changeu, the Feueial uoveinment's initiative also
uiu. "What, When anu Bow." uepicts the special euucation initiative in 1997 as the
fiist effoit to iegulate anu monitoi foi efficiency. This was uone on a statewiue level
anu only incluueu those hoping to ieinfoice stuuents with special euucational
suppoit. The initiative was volunteei baseu.!Bowevei, the No Chilu Left Behinu Act
of 2uu4, maikeu the shift towaius a nationwiue manuatoiy effoit. Similaily up until
2uuu theie was a continual inciease in not only the numbei of stuuents eniolleu,
which saw a 4.7 peicent inciease, but a matching 4.8 peicent inciease in spenuing.
(Chambeis, Paiish, anu Baii, 2uu4, 7) "Wheie Bas the Noney Been uoing."
confiimeu this tienu all the way thiough 2uuS. Table 7 shows that of all of the
euucational piogiams, special euucation saw the laigest inciease of 2.7 peicent
between 1996-2uuS. But, this nationwiue piessuie fiom the feueial goveinment
still only came with 1u.2% of funuing suppoit fiom the goveinment.

(Alonso anu Rothstein, 2u1u, S)
Even aftei all of these changes, veiy little ieseaich has actually been able to
answei this question; what is the best way to financially pioviue foi all types of
stuuents incluue those in the Special Euucation piogiam. If anything, this extensive
ieseaich has only pioven the level of complexity behinu euucational buugeting. Now
that this ieseaich has been gatheieu the next step woulu be to evaluate efficiency in
these piogiams. Each iegion piomotes uiffeient levels of suppoit foi theii stuuents
anu spenus uiffeient sums. What is the most effective methou to pioviue suppoit foi
iegulai anu special euucation stuuents.









Bibliogiaphy:


}ay u. Chambeis, }amie Shkolnik, anu Naiia Peiez. "Total Expenuituies foi Stuuents
with Bisabilities 1999-2uuu: Spenuing vaiiation by Bisability." !"#$"%&'(%&&
)*"+,-.&/01+-$,(#&2,#-#+"&(2uuS): R-5 (Accesseu Febiuaiy 1, 2u12)
http:www.eiic.eu.govPBFSEB481S98.puf
Bue to theii being such a wiue iange of stuuents with uiffeient levels of neeus it is
essential to know what type of stuuents aie ieceiving what type of funuing. This
aiticle also ieveals that the type of stuuents that iequiie the laigest amount of
spenuing aie the smallest in numbeis. This aiticle biakes uown the stuuy into
looking at the stuuents on the thiiteen uiffeient levels that the Inuiviuuals with
Euucational Bisabilities Act (IBEA) outlines.

}ay u. Chambeis, }enifei }. Baii, anu Amjnah Bhanani. "What aie we Spenuing on
Pioceuuial Safeguaius in Special Euucation 1999-2uuu." !"#$"%&'(%&)*"+,-.&
/01+-$,(#&2,#-#+"&(2uuS): R-04 (Accesseu Febiuaiy 2, 2u12)
http:www.eiic.eu.govPBFSEB48u76u.puf
This aiticle is hoping to see how much spenuing is occuiiing to piotect Special
Euucational institutions in compaiison to community anu centei that they exist in.
By bieaking it uown baseu on type of school anu poveity level is establisheu to help
know what methou woulu be the most effective.

}ay u. Chambeis, Thomas B. Paiiish, anu }enifei }. Baii. "What aie we Spenuing on
Special Euucation Seivices in the 0niteu States, 1999-2uuu. !"#$"%&'(%&
)*"+,-.&/01+-$,(#&2,#-#+"&(2uu4): SEEP-R-02-01 (Accesseu Febiuaiy 2,
2u12) hLLp://csef.alr.org/publlcaLlons/seep/naLlonal/advrpL1.pdf
This aiticle has lookeu in uepth at the spenuing that has occuiieu uuiing the school
yeai 1999-2uuu. When completing this analysis the Centei foi Special Euucation
Finance bioke uown the cuiient spenuing of the Bepaitment of Euucation to
location, ages, anu supplies. The uefineu theii thiee main objectives as being; "How
much is the nation spending on services for students with disabilities? What is the
additional expenditure used to educate a student with a disability? To what extent does
the federal government support spending on special education? !

}ay u. Chambeis, Thomas B. Paiiish, Phil E. Esia, anu }amie L. Shkolnik. "Special
Euucation Expenuituie Pioject: Bow Boes Spenuing on Special Euucation
Stuuents veiy Acioss Bistiicts. Analysis of Spenuing by 0ibanicity, Bistiict
Size, Neuian Family Income, anu Stuuent Poveity Levels in 1999-2uuu."
)*"+,-.&/01+-$,(#-.&/3*"#0,$1%"&4%(5"+$6&Septembei (2uu2): SEEP-R-02-02
(Accesseu Febiuaiy 1, 2u12) http:www.eiic.eu.govPBFSEB471889.puf
The effoit of this iepoit was to be able to gain basic statistics about how
uemogiaphics aie able to impact the out come of euucational buugets. In paiticulai
it focuseu on ueteimining on the level of income of the special euucational stuuents.
Like the othei iepoits incluueu in Special Euucational Expenuituie Pioject, its effoit
was to pioviue this infoimation to the feueial goveinment to help ueteimine the
success of IBEA.

}uan Biego Alonso, anu Richaiu Rothstien. "Wheie Bas the Noney Been uoing. A
Pieliminaiy 0puate." /+(#(7,+&4(.,+8&9#:$,$1%"&;2u1u): (Accesseu Febiuaiy 1,
2u12) http:www.eiic.eu.govPBFSEBS168u1.puf
The effoit of this iepoit is to tiack the changes in spenuing in school uistiicts acioss
the 0niteu States. It concentiates on the piogiession of buugets thiough the yeais
1996-2uuu. Foi this time peiiou it biakes uown spenuing into categoiies such as
special euucation anu tianspoitation.

Naomi Zigmonu, Amanua Klog, anu victoiia volomino. "What, Wheie, anu Bow.
Special Euucation In the Climate of Full Inclusion." <(1$."0="&>-8.(%&-#0&
2%-#+,:&?%(1*&(2uu9): Vol. 17 Issue 4, p189-204, 16p BI0:
10.1080/09362830903231986 (Accesseu Febiuaiy S, 2u12)
This aiticle was wiitten in ieaction to the effoit of the feueial goveinment to
inciease a moie iegulateu national piogiam to influence the euucational system.
When the goveinment pass the No Chilu Left Behinu Act in oiuei to manuate
leaining levels the effoit was to holu all stuuents to a highei level. This papei was
focusing on if this accuiately auuiesseu the issues of Special Euucation Stuuents.