Funding Special Education

This book calls for changes in special-education fiscal policy, claiming that special-education finances need to be more fully incorporated into education-finance literature and fiscal-policy discussions. The first few chapters discuss fiscal and program-policy funding in the United States and in Europe. They trace the history of federal special-education legislation, contextualizing it within the Civil Rights movement. These articles discuss efforts to pool resources normally earmarked for separate programs in order to optimize educational quality for all students. The link between special-education funding systems and the integration of special-education students into regular education in Europe is described, along with an analytical framework to guide further research on the impact of funding on integration. The second section of the book presents methodological and policy profiles from the states, such as patterns of expenditures on students with disabilities and the effects of reforms on Pennsylvania's special-education system. This section likewise details the causes and effects of the large increase in the percentage of school-district allocations to special education in New York state, as well as proposed special-education finance reforms in New York City. The last section describes trends and developments in special-education funding. (RJM)