Districts could save $10 billion, improve results, by shifting special-education staffing to national median

Tyson Eberhardt / September 5, 2012

Download Boosting the Quality and Efficiency of Special Education

Special education consumes a growing share of increasingly tight district budgets but academic achievement among students with special needs continues to lag. How are districts spending their special-education dollars? Does spending more translate to better results for their students with special needs?

Today, Fordham is releasing a groundbreaking study that helps address those questions: Boosting the Quality and Efficiency of Special Education. Author Nate Levenson of the District Management Council uses the largest database of information on special education spending and staffing ever assembled to uncover significant variance in how districts staff for special education. Levenson concludes that if the high-spending districts studied reduce their staffing in this area to the national median the public could save $10 billion and offers clear recommendations for improving the quality and efficiency.

Download the study to learn more.

Category: School Finance