A cost analysis of special education programs in eleven selected school districts in Oklahoma /

Abstract

Data pertinent to the study were collected from a survey of special education cost by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, information gathered by a school district for purposes of determining inter-district transfer fees for special education, and from personal interviews. Records and publications kept at the State Department of Education were used to determine the cost of educating non-handicapped students and to check obtained data for accuracy.

Mean and median costs were reported on all special education programs studied. In addition, data collected in this study were compared with the projected cost indices for 1980 found in a N.E.F.P. special study on special education costs and the cost indices which serve as the basis for funding special education programs under the current state school funding programs.

The study found that a diseconomy of scale existed among low incidence handicapping conditions favoring large schools. This pattern was unaffected when costs were adjusted for federal allocation of categorical monies for the handicapped.

This study investigated the cost of special education programs in public schools of Oklahoma during the 1980-81 school year. The purpose of the study was to determine program cost, excess cost and cost indices for school districts of differing sizes and to view the effect of federal categorical monies for special education upon these costs. In order to accomplish this, it was decided to place each of the eleven school districts studied into one of three groups: those with total enrollments over 15,000, those with total enrollments under 15,000 but greater than 2,500, and those with total enrollments under 2,500.