Promises Made, And Never Kept
In 1975, President Ford signed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), This Act morphed into the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). In both pieces of legislation, the Federal government was supposed to contribute 40% of the cost for providing these many new services. Never Happened! In the early years, the states and local systems received about 6% of the cost. Recently, that number has risen to almost 10%, still a far cry from the promise made in the legislation.
How much does it really cost to provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to a child with a disability. Does it matter what the child’s disability is? Does it matter the intensity of the service the child is receiving. Basically, we don’t know. The last review of cost was done twenty-two years ago. At that time the average cost was $12,639 per pupil. There was no differentiation as to disability or level of service. There is also no mention of what it costs to educate a plain child.
During the 2024-25 and 2025-2026 school years, a 5.6 million dollar pilot study was done to attempt to discover what today's costs are.
The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has requested funds from the Department of Budget and Management to move ahead with the full study during the 2026-27 school year. The plan is to include 1,500 school districts, and approximately 3000 schools. Roughly 10,000 children with disabilities will be included, as well as 2,000 plain students. The expectation is that the results will be available for budget purposes in the 2027-28 school year.
The Department of Education knows the amount of federal funds districts are receiving. What it doesn’t know is what is the actual cost of a free and appropriate public education. Given that we don't know the full and actual cost, it is difficult to determine what percentage of the full costs, the feds are paying. Funds for the study were almost eliminated mid-process. Now it is on again.
Will we learn enough to keep the promise made so many years ago, or just learn more about what we are not doing.
