In the U.S., there is a serious problem with special education funding. In order to correct this problem, it’s important to understand the roots of the issue. Whether you have a special needs child or not, it is important to get behind an important issue like this to ensure that children aren’t deprived of the education they both need and deserve. Take a look at a few of the challenges facing special needs education funding, and see why we should be concerned:
More Children Are Being Diagnosed As Special Needs
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of children who are being diagnosed with disorders in the autism spectrum. These are children who wouldn’t have required special education in past years. Although the number of children requiring special education has increased, the number of experts able to help with their education has not increased. Solutions can be found in the private sector, but such solutions are usually too expensive. If districts choose to implement private sector solutions, money doesn’t last as long as it should.
Federal Funding Distribution Problems
Unfortunately, the federal government is using an antiquated system to distribute special education funds to states. It’s a system that favors locations that may not need to be favored. Some of the calculations used for funding are based on numbers from 1999. With such a system in place, states that desperately need special education funding end up without enough money to cater to special needs students.
State Funding Distribution Problems
Even if the federal model were fixed, there would still be a problem with the way states distribute money for special education. Each state seems to use a different method to calculate special needs funding. So a state that doesn’t have enough funds may be mishandling the funds that it does have. It’s also possible for a state with enough money to disperse too much to districts that don’t need it. At the end of the day, it’s the special needs students who lose out.
Fewer Students in Public Schools
Although the number of special needs students is increasing, the number of students enrolled in public schools is decreasing. School district funding is dependent on how many students are enrolled in school. Cutting funding to a school will directly impact special needs programs.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling is on the rise. So even though there are more special needs students, some of these students are being educated at home. This leads to fewer parents being vocal about the problems with special needs funding in their districts. Without voices to highlight these problems, they don’t get corrected at the local level.
Why Should We Care?
Every child deserves a proper education. A solid education helps to prepare a child for life as an adult. Education helps create a stronger community—no matter what kind of students are being educated. Special needs children may be a small percentage of schoolchildren, but that doesn’t mean that funding their education should be neglected. The information for this article was provided by the professionals at the University of Cincinnati who provide an online master’s degree in special education.
