The cost consequences of appropriate special education

Up to now, few courts have insisted that special education systems deliver an adequate educational program (Verstegen, 1998). Instead, special education litigation has focused primarily on compliance with the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Thurlow, Elliott, & Ysseldyke, 1998). However, the ideology of access and equity that has traditionally driven special education policy is giving ground to standards and accountability. As students with disabilities become part of the increasing diversity of general education environments, the distribution of adequate special education resources will ensure that they receive the benefits of education without encroaching on the resources necessary to teach the children who do not receive special education services.;Given a commitment to public education that enables all students to have "access" to the general education curriculum (IDEA, 1997), adequacy may be an effective arbiter of special education finances. Special education finance based on the adequacy paradigm may enable districts and states to balance the individual rights-based mandate of IDEA against the needs of children with disabilities so that ensuring the civil rights of individuals does not lead to the consumption of the resources required to teach the general population, or vice versa. A finance strategy that reduces some of the friction among these competing interests may be critical to providing equitable distribution of funds because limited education resources require policy makers and researchers to simultaneously consider the relationships between costs and benefits for all children (Gerber, 1981).;In this dissertation, the adequacy paradigm was applied to special education finance. Prototypical appropriate Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) were evaluated for quality and the expenditures associated with the service provisions and other elements described in the IEPs were estimated. Among the findings was a lack of agreement among special education experts as to what constitutes an appropriate IEP. However, the estimated per pupil level of marginal special education adequate funding is comparable to cost-adjusted historical estimates.