Number of Special Ed Students Up in NJ: Why?

Students enrolled in special education in New Jersey increased by 4.9% from 2002-2005, while total enrollment increased 2% in the same period. An article in the April 8th New York Times notes that 215,539 students are enrolled in special ed out of a total enrollment of about 1.4 million. According to prelimary figures released by the State Department of Education on March 23, the trend has continued in 2003. Increasing parent awareness of and understanding about their children’s development are factors that state officials attribute the growth to:

“There is a continued increasing awareness by parents and an increasing desire to get help,” said Barbara Gantwerk, assistant commissioner for the Department of Education. “Special ed is viewed as a way to get needed services to students. We’d like to see them get it in general ed, but there is a desire to get the special, extra services.”

Frank J. Legato, the superintendent of schools in Carlstadt, a small district where the number of special education students has nearly doubled since 1998, agreed. “The educated awareness that parents have about the developmental stages of children has increased,” he said.

Others point out that school districts “can get more money by increasing the numbers: Accoring to state financing formulas, a district receives a set payment for each child who is classified as needing special education services. ” Further, one superintendant, Janice Dime of Paramus Public Schools, specifically cites an increase in preschoolers and in autistic diagnoses: “‘Most of the increase has come among preschool handicapped youngsters, and that’s consistent with the increased identification of kids with autism.’”

And, as the New York Times make clear, more special education students means more special education services means higher taxes as “special education students cost twice as much to educate as regular students, on average, and the state picks up only one-third of the bill.” Coupled with a just-published study on the cost of taking care of an autistic person over the course of his or her lifespan ($3.2 million), these figures can be used to potentially alarmist ends: Why, the question might be asked, are we spending so much money on “these” kids? Why not just spend the money on some researchers who will figure out how to cure these conditions so we don’t have to have special ed………..

My view, as you know if you have been reading here regularly, is that it is not that we are spending “so much” on “these” kids, but that we are spending what is needed for them to learn and thrive and grow. If there is more advocacy by parents for such services for the young children, this can be seen as some proof of attempts to increase awareness about autism and other disabilities. I suppose “awareness” is not something that can be truly measured, but if it could, one wonders if there might be a correlation between an increase in special education students and increasing parent knowledge and advocacy efforts. I do not think that parents would go through all the trouble, and put themselves and their families through the emotionally fraught process of “getting a diagnosis,” just to get “extra services.” Whether their child has an autism diagnosis or not, I have never met a parent whose child was “classified” who did not have that extra look of seriousness on their face: We seek out these services because we see something going on with our children.

Further, there are more and more teachers and therapists who have training to address the needs of “classified” students (such as occupational therapists who can address sensory integration needs): There are more people trained to see, understand and address our children’s needs. I wonder, too, if the association of “special ed” with not being smart—with being “slow” or “stupid” is lessening—-so that parents see less or even no stigma in seeking a “classification” for a student.

It may “cost” more to educate a special ed student, but what we get is more than worth it.