Special Education Spending on Preschool Students with Disabilities

Overview & Synopsis

Although special education services for children age three through five have been part of the IDEA mandate for nearly 20 years, until recently relatively little attention has been given to the expenditures related to these programs and to what these funds buy in terms of the mix of general and special education classroom and related services. There has been substantial growth in IDEA Part B preschool spending per student. Since the last expenditure estimate of $8,905 for the 1985-86 school year, preschool spending is estimated to have grown to $13,426 per student for 1999-2000. This represents an increase of over 50% in constant 1999-2000 dollars, compared to a 26% increase for school-age special education students during this period. Preschool students make up 9% of the total special education population, accounting for $7.5 billion in special education spending. $13,270 is spent on the average special education preschool student, including $10,031 for special education services and $3,239 for general education. This compares to a total of $12,449 for school-age special education students, which includes $7,932 for special education and $4,517 for general education. (Contains 2 figures and 12 notes.)