United States General Accounting Office


GAO	 Report to the Ranking Minority Member, 

Subcommittee on Oversight of 

Government Management, Restructuring 

and the District of Columbia, U.S. Senate 

Committee on Government Affairs 

April 2002 SPECIAL 

EDUCATION 

Grant Programs 

Designed to Serve 

Children Ages 0 - 5 

GAO-02-394

Contents


Letter


Results in Brief


Background


School-Age and Preschool Grants Are Similar Except for Age


Range Served; Infant Grants Differ 

States Receive All Grants and Many Provide Services to 3 through 5 

Year-Olds with School-Age as well as Preschool Grants 

Grants’ Impact Not Yet Evaluated, and Few Data Are Available on 

Effectiveness of Special Education Programs for Young Children 

Some Local Coordination and Program Overlap Issues Exist 

Concluding Observations 

Agency Comments and Our Response 

1 

3 

5 

7 

10 

11 

13 

18 

18 

Appendix GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 20 

GAO Contacts 20 

Staff Acknowledgments 20 

Related GAO Products 

Tables 

Table 1: Overview of Three Programs Serving Young Children with 

Disabilities, Fiscal Year 2001 

Table 2: Overview of Eligibility Criteria, Services Allowed, Goals 

and Performance Objectives for Infant, Preschool, and 

School-age Grants for Children with Disabilities 

Table 3: Advantages and Disadvantages of Options for Addressing 

Potential Overlap of Preschool and School-age Grants 

6 

8 

16 

Figure 

Figure 1: Special Education Funding Sources 5 

Page i GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 

21 
Abbreviations 

IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act


LEA local educational agencies


OSEP Office of Special Education Programs


SEA state educational agency


Page ii GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
United States General Accounting Office 

Washington, DC 20548 

April 25, 2002 

The Honorable George V. Voinovich 

Ranking Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, 

Restructuring and the District of Columbia 

Committee on Governmental Affairs 

United States Senate 

Dear Senator Voinovich: 

In fiscal year 2001, the federal government spent about $7 billion on three 

special education grant programs mandated by the Individuals with 

Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These grants are Special Education 

Grants to States (School-age Grants), Special Education Preschool Grants 

(Preschool Grants) and Special Education Grants for Infants and Families 

with Disabilities (Infant Grants). This review is one of four reports you 

have requested looking at overlap among early childhood education and 

care programs.1

 Our work has shown that if such programs are designed to 

achieve similar outcomes for the same target group and are not wellcoordinated, the potential exists for ineffective service delivery and 

administrative inefficiencies.2

 This potential exists for School-age Grants 

and Preschool Grants because School-age Grants serve children ages 3 

through 21 and Preschool Grants serve children ages 3 through 5. 

These three grant programs are not programs in the typical sense because 

they do not carry out a distinct set of functions through their own delivery 

systems. Instead, the programs serve as funding streams, merging with 

much greater state and local resources to support state and local 

programs. State and local programs supported by the three grants served 

1

See: U.S. General Accounting Office, Early Education and Care: Overlap Indicates Need 

to Assess Crosscutting Programs, GAO/HEHS-00-78 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 28, 2000); 

Bilingual Education: Four Overlapping Programs Could Be Consolidated, GAO-01-657 

(Washington, D.C.: May 14, 2001); and Head Start and Even Start: Greater Collaboration 

Needed on Measures of Adult Education and Literacy, GAO-02-348 (Washington, D.C.: 

Mar. 29, 2002). 

2

U.S. General Accounting Office, Managing for Results: Using the Results Act to Address 

Mission Fragmentation and Program Overlap, GAO/AIMD-97-146 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 

29, 1997). 

Page 1 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
approximately 6.6 million children in fiscal year 2001. Of these children, 

about 830,000 were receiving early intervention and special education and 

related services—231,000 were under 3 years-old and 599,000 were age 3 

through 5. 

Specifically, you asked us: (1) How similar are the goals/objectives, 

performance measures, eligibility criteria, and the services allowed by 

these programs? (2) Do states and local agencies receive funding from 

more than one of these grants and, if so, do they use the funds to provide 

the same range of services to children in the same age group? (3) What is 

known about the effectiveness of these programs and of the early 

interventions they fund? (4) What opportunities exist for better 

coordination among the programs or consolidation of the programs to 

achieve efficiencies? 

To answer these questions, we reviewed pertinent documents, including 

state monitoring reports issued by the U.S. Department of Education’s 

(Education) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), which 

provided detailed information about state and local efforts to implement 

IDEA.3

 We examined the grant application process and administrative 

structure for each grant program, conducted interviews with special 

education program officials and representatives from special education 

stakeholder groups (parents and state directors of special education), 

conducted comprehensive state-level interviews in four states—Maine, 

Minnesota, Ohio, and Virginia—and conducted structured telephone 

interviews with officials from 15 states.4

 We selected the four states for 

comprehensive interviews based, in part, on recommendations from statelevel officials and others with a direct interest in these programs. We also 

considered variations in how states administer these programs and 

selected states that represented a variety of administrative structures and 

geographic regions. For the telephone interviews, we selected at least 1 

state from each of Education’s 10 regions. In order to obtain a wide range 

of perspectives on program administration, we also considered which 

state agency had been designated to administer Infant Grants. We 

3

Each year, OSEP monitors the implementation of IDEA in selected states. We reviewed 

the latest reports, published in 2001 (monitoring reports for Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, 

Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Ohio) and 2000 (monitoring reports for Arizona, 

Arkansas, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin). We also reviewed older 

reports for Maine, Minnesota and Virginia. 

4

Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, 

New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. 

Page 2 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Results in Brief 

performed our work from June 2001 through February 2002 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

School-age and Preschool Grants are similar, except for the age ranges of 

children they serve, while Infant Grants differ from the other two grants in 

goals, performance objectives, performance measures, eligibility, and 

services. School-age and Preschool Grants share the common goal of 

helping states provide access to high-quality education for students with 

disabilities and use a single set of performance objectives and 

performance measures to measure progress towards this goal. Both grants 

pay for the same range of special education and related services and 

require that children must be classified by the state as having a disability 

in order to be eligible for these services. The key distinction between the 

two grants is that School-age Grants serve children ages 3 through 21, 

whereas Preschool Grants generally serve children ages 3 through 5. In 

contrast, the goal of Infant Grants is to help states provide a 

comprehensive system of early intervention services to infants, toddlers, 

and their families to enhance the development of infants and toddlers with 

disabilities and those who are at risk of developmental delays. Infant 

Grants may be used to pay for health and family services, such as tube 

feeding and respite care, that are more comprehensive than those 

provided under the other two grants, and for additional services to 

families that will enhance their capacity to meet the special needs of their 

infants and toddlers. To be eligible for services under Infant Grants, 

children must be under age 3 and have a developmental delay or the 

potential to develop one. 

States receive funds from all three grants, and some states reported they 

use funds from both School-age and Preschool Grants to provide the same 

range of services to children aged 3 through 5. Although states receive 

funds from all three grants, local agencies may receive funds from only 

one grant, or from as many as three. Overlap can occur only between 

School-age Grants and Preschool Grants, which fund the same range of 

services for children ages 3 through 5. Eighteen of the 19 states we talked 

with reported that the range of services they provide to children ages 3 

through 5 using funds from School-age Grants, such as counseling, speech 

pathology services, and physical therapy, is the same as those they provide 

using funds from Preschool Grants. None of these states could tell us how 

much of their School-age Grants they use to pay for services for children 

ages 3 through 5, and federal regulations do not require them to report this 

information. In general, states could not provide us with this information 

because they account for expenditures by budget function, such as 

Page 3 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
salaries or transportation, and not by individual services provided or ages 

of children receiving services. 

Little is known about the long-term effectiveness of these programs and 

the early childhood interventions they fund. No evaluations of these 

programs have been conducted that attempt to isolate the impact of these 

three federal grant programs from the impact of other funding sources. 

Education has three large studies under way that will have some 

information on the outcomes for children who are enrolled in special 

education preschool programs, but not on these programs’ specific 

contributions to these outcomes. In addition, two state evaluations that we 

reviewed described positive outcomes for children who participated in 

preschool special education programs but could not attribute these 

outcomes solely to program participation. These evaluations show that 

about half the children who received preschool services (mainly speech 

and language therapy) no longer needed them when they reached school 

age. 

We found some opportunities for better coordination of these grant 

programs, but program officials told us that consolidating School-age and 

Preschool Grants would not result in additional administrative 

efficiencies. The lack of coordination that we did find existed at the state 

and local level in situations where a child turned 3 before the school year 

began, causing a gap between the services provided with Infant Grants and 

those provided with School-age and Preschool Grants. This occurred 

despite federal rules that allow funds from Infant Grants to be used after 

the third birthday to pay for a free appropriate public education until the 

beginning of the following school year and required written plans for each 

child, to show how the transition between the two programs will be 

managed. We were unable to determine whether the overlap in age groups 

served by School-age and Preschool Grants indicates poor coordination, 

because most of the states and localities that we contacted do not track 

the sources of funds for services for specific ages of children. Although 

consolidating these two grants would eliminate the potential for poor 

coordination between two separate grants by eliminating one of them, it is 

not clear that this would result in increased program efficiency. At the 

federal level, Education is already administering School-age and Preschool 

Grants as if they were one program. State and local officials indicated that 

although there are potential advantages and disadvantages to 

consolidating the programs, overall, consolidation would probably not 

result in a significant reduction in administrative burden. 

Page 4 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Background	 The 50 states and the District of Columbia spent an estimated $50 billion 

on special education for children from birth through age 21 in school year 

1999-00. About 12 percent of this amount came from federal funds, 

specifically IDEA grants (10 percent) and Medicaid funds (2 percent).5 

(See fig. 1.) In addition to federal funds, other sources are used to support 

the provision of special education and related services for children with 

disabilities, such as state general and special education funds, local funds, 

and private insurance. 

Figure 1: Special Education Funding Sources 

12% 

State, local and private funds 

Federal funds 

School-age grants 

Preschool grants 

Medicaid 

Source: Chambers, Jay G., et al., What Are We Spending on Special Education Services in the 

United States, 1999-2000? Advance Report #1, Special Education Expenditure Project (SEEP), 

American Institutes for Research, 2002. 

Under IDEA, three grants can fund services to children under age 6. 

School-age Grants provide money to states to help them serve all eligible 

children, ranging in age from 3 through 21.6

 Preschool Grants provide 

money to states to help serve 3 through 5-year-olds with disabilities and 

5

Chambers, Jay G., et al., What Are We Spending on Special Education Services in the 

United States, 1999-2000? Advance Report #1, Special Education Expenditure Project 

(SEEP) (Palo Alto, CA: American Institutes for Research, 2002). This amount does not 

include other possible federal funding sources for special education such as Title I of the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Head Start, Developmental Disabilities Grants, 

and Special Education Grants for Infants and Families. 

6

However, states are not required to serve children with disabilities ages 3 through 5 or 18 

through 21 if these services are not consistent with state law or practice or the order of any 

court. 

Page 5 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
require states to have policies and procedures that assure a free 

appropriate public education for all 3 through 5-year-olds with disabilities 

as a condition for receiving other IDEA funds for this age range. Infant 

Grants provide money to states to serve children under age 3 who have 

developmental delays or a condition that will probably result in a 

developmental delay, or at a state’s discretion, who are otherwise at risk of 

developmental delays.

7

 Unlike the other two grants, Infant Grants provide 

services to both children and their families, primarily in settings that are 

not school-based. (See table 1.) 

Table 1: Overview of Three Programs Serving Young Children with Disabilities, Fiscal Year 2001 

Programa 

FY 2001 

appropriation Number of children served Comments 

School-age $6.3 billion Established in 1965 under the Elementary and 

Grants Secondary Education Act and State Schools Act. 5,782,000 ages 6 through 21 

599,000 ages 3 through 5b Established in 1975 as an incentive program to Preschool Grants $390 million 

encourage states to serve 3 through 5 year-olds. 

Infant $384 million 231,000 Established in 1986, but not implemented in all 

Grants states until 1994. 

a

School-age and Preschool Grants are authorized under IDEA Part B and are formally known as 

Section 611 grants and Section 619 grants, respectively. Infant Grants are authorized under IDEA 

Part C. 

b

This includes children served under both School-age and Preschool Grants. 

Source: GAO analysis. 

Program overlap occurs when programs have the same goals, the same 

activities or strategies to achieve them, or the same targeted recipients. As 

noted in a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee report, “A 

certain amount of redundancy is understandable and can be beneficial if it 

occurs by design as part of a management strategy to foster competition, 

provide better service delivery to customer groups, or provide emergency 

backup.” 8

 Because both School-age and Preschool grants can be used to 

serve the same target recipients, children with disabilities ages 3 through 

5, they can be characterized as overlapping. However, this overlap does 

7

Currently 9 states—California, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, 

New Mexico, North Carolina and West Virginia—serve children whom they consider to be 

at risk. The precise definition of “at-risk” varies by state. 

8

H. Rpt. No. 104-861, p. 6. 

Page 6 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
not necessarily lead to duplication of services, which involves providing 

identical services to identical target groups.9 

Education allocates funds from School-age, Preschool, and Infant Grants 

to all states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, based on federal 

formulas. At the state level, School-age and Preschool Grants are 

administered by the state educational agency (SEA), and Infant Grants are 

administered by a designated lead agency, most frequently the state’s 

department of health or human services. A fixed portion of School-age and 

Preschool grants may be retained for state-level activities and program 

administration, although the majority of funds from these grants are 

passed through SEAs to local educational agencies (LEAs), generally 

school districts, according to a federally mandated formula. Infant Grants 

may be distributed to local public and private agencies by designated state 

lead agencies using state-developed criteria. 

Education’s OSEP monitors activities funded by these grants and the 

extent to which states comply with IDEA in a process known as 

continuous improvement monitoring. Several states are selected each year 

for in-depth monitoring, including on-site data collection, based on various 

factors, such as when they were last monitored, information from grant 

applications, and information on each state’s status in achieving improved 

results and compliance. 

School-age and Preschool Grants share the same goal, performance 

objectives, and performance measures; fund the same range of services; 

and have similar eligibility requirements except for the age-range served, 

while Infant Grants differ from these grants in almost all respects. (See 

table 2.) 

School-Age and 

Preschool Grants Are 

Similar Except for 

Age Range Served; 

Infant Grants Differ 

9

GAO/AIMD-97-146 and GAO/HEHS-00-78. 

Page 7 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Table 2: Overview of Eligibility Criteria, Services Allowed, Goals and Performance Objectives for Infant, Preschool, and 

School-age Grants for Children with Disabilities 

serv

School-age 

Programs Infant Grants Preschool Grants Grants 

Ages 0 to 3 3 through 5 3 through 21 

Criteria for Infants and toddlers who are developmentally delayed or have 

Child with a disability (3 through 21), or with 

developmental delay (3 to 9 only) who, as a ice eligibility	 a condition that will probably result in a developmental delay or result, needs special education and related 

who are otherwise at risk of developmental delay. services. 

Family training, counseling, and home visits	 Student counseling and training, including 

rehabilitation counseling 

Nursing, health, and nutrition services School health services 

Service coordination Recreation services 

Medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes 

Occupational and physical therapy 

Services allowed Psychological and social work services 

Vision, orientation, and mobility services 

Speech-language pathology services 

Devices to assist the disabled in daily living and audiology services 

Transportation services 

Age appropriate special education instruction 

Early identification and assessment services 

To improve results for children with disabilities by 

To enhance family and child outcomes through early assisting state and local educational agencies to 

Goals	 intervention services and to have states provide a provide children with disabilities access to highcomprehensive system of early intervention services for infants quality education that will help them meet 

and toddlers with disabilities and their families. challenging standards and prepare them for 

employment and independent living. 

To provide services in settings, such as home or day care, that Preschool children enter school ready to learn. 

meet children’s individual needs. Better identify and serve children eligible for 

special education before age 8. 

Children have access to the general curriculum Performance and assessments. objectives Students receive adequate support to complete To enhance children’s functional development. high school and transition successfully after high 

school. 

States address professional development. 

Sources: 34 C.F.R. Parts 300 and 303, and U.S. Department of Education 2000 Performance Report 

and 2002 Program Annual Plan, Volume 2: Individual Programs. 

School-age and Preschool Grants share the common goal of improving 

results for children with disabilities by assisting state and local 

educational agencies to provide children with disabilities access to highquality education that will help them meet challenging standards and 

prepare them for employment and independent living. The two programs 

use the same set of performance objectives and performance measures. 

For example, one objective of both is that preschool children with 

Page 8 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
disabilities receive services that prepare them to enter school ready to 

learn. As a performance measure for this objective, both programs use an 

increase in the percentage of preschool children receiving special 

education services who have readiness skills when they reach 

kindergarten.

10 These programs also pay for the same range of special 

education and related services, such as physical and occupational therapy 

and technology to assist the disabled, such as voice-activated software. 

Special education and related services are generally provided at school. To 

be eligible for these services, children must be classified by the state as 

having a disability and as a result of the disability need special education 

and related services.11 The key distinction between the two grants is that 

School-age grants serve children ages 3 through 21, whereas Preschool 

Grants serve only children ages 3 through 5. 

The goal, performance objectives, performance measures, eligibility 

criteria, and types of services allowed for Infant Grants differ from those 

for School-age and Preschool Grants. This grant is designed to assist states 

in developing and implementing a statewide, comprehensive system to 

provide early intervention services for infants and toddlers with 

disabilities (and at a state’s discretion those who are at risk of 

experiencing developmental delays) and their families.

12 The goal of Infant 

Grants is to enhance children’s functional development and increase 

families’ capacity to increase their children’s development using a 

comprehensive system of early intervention services, including health 

services, such as tube feeding or intermittent catheterization, and family 

training. Objectives are broad and each has performance measures. For 

example, an increase in the percentage of all children under age 3 

receiving age-appropriate services in nonschool settings is a performance 

measure for the objective of providing services at home or in daycare, 

when appropriate. To be eligible for services under Infant Grants, children 

10Readiness skills include those skills that are presumed to enable a child to be successful 

in kindergarten. Such skills include knowing that print reads from left to right, recognizing 

letters and beginning sounds, reading numerals, recognizing shapes, and being able to 

count to 10. 

11States, at their discretion, may also use the two grants to provide services to children ages 

3 through 9 experiencing developmental delays as defined by the State and measured by 

appropriate instruments and procedures. (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(3)(B)(i).) 

12Early intervention services are designed to meet the developmental needs of an infant or 

toddler with a disability in any one or more of the following areas: physical development, 

cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or 

adaptive development. (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1432 (4).) 

Page 9 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
States Receive All 

Grants and Many 

Provide Services to 3 

through 5 Year-Olds 

with School-Age as 

well as Preschool 

Grants 

must be under age 3 and have a developmental delay or the potential to 

develop one. Because of the age-specific developmental needs of infants 

and toddlers, health and family services provided under Infant Grants are 

more comprehensive than under the other two grants. These services are 

provided primarily in nonschool settings, generally in the home or at a daycare site. 

All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico receive grants from 

each of the three programs, which they distribute to various local public 

and private agencies.13 Whether a local agency receives funds from any one 

grant depends on whether it is serving the relevant age group. For 

example, the Roanoke Interagency Coordinating Council in Virginia, which 

serves children from birth through age 2, receives Infant Grants but not 

School-age and Preschool Grants. However, many LEAs receive more than 

one grant. For example, the Mapleton Local School District in Ohio 

received School-age and Preschool Grants in School Year 2001-2002, while 

the South Washington County School District in Minnesota received funds 

from all three programs. 

Many states use more than one grant to fund the same range of services 

for 3 through 5 year-olds. Officials in 18 of the states we contacted told us 

they may use School-age Grants to serve 3 through 5 year-olds—the same 

group of children served by Preschool Grants. Only one of the states we 

contacted, Alaska, does not permit School-age Grants to be used to pay for 

services for preschoolers. Also, in a survey of SEAs conducted by the 

National Early Childhood Technical Assistance System, 37 SEAs reported 

that they use funds from School-age Grants to support the provision of 

special education and related services for preschool children with 

disabilities.14 Since they are not required to track such information, none of 

the 19 states we contacted were able to tell us the percentage of Schoolage Grant funds they used to provide services for children aged 3 through 

5, although officials in several states said that the amount was small. 

Similarly, 18 of the 19 states could not provide us with the percentage of 

13The 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana 

Islands, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the Indian Tribes receive School-age Grants and 

Infant Grants. The Freely Associated States (Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau) are 

only eligible for School-Age Grants under a special competition. Recipients of Preschool 

Grants include the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 

14Shelley deFosset, Section 619 Profile, 10th Edition (Chapel Hill, N.C.: National Early 

Childhood Technical Assistance System (NECTAS), 2001.) 

Page 10 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Grants’ Impact Not 

Yet Evaluated, and 

Few Data Are 

Available on 

Effectiveness of 

Special Education 

Programs for Young 

Children 

children aged 3 through 5 who received services provided with School-age 

Grants.15 

Many states could not report the extent to which School-age Grants fund 

services for 3 through 5 year-olds because of how expenditures are 

tracked. The states we contacted reported they track expenditures by 

budget functions, such as salaries or transportation, and not by individual 

services provided or ages of children receiving services. These states do 

not require LEAs to report expenditure data in a way that would allow 

them to determine the extent to which School-age Grants fund services for 

3 through 5 year-olds, nor does IDEA require it. Education requires only 

that states report the number of children ages 3 through 5 collectively 

receiving special education and related services under School-age and 

Preschool Grants. IDEA does not require specific information about how 

many children are served under each. 

The effectiveness of these grant programs has not yet been evaluated, in 

part, because federal special education funds are only one source used to 

pay for services for this age group. Rather than functioning as operating 

programs, these grants add to the stream of funds supporting on-going 

state and local programs.

16 Therefore, it is difficult to isolate the impact of 

federal funding for special education from the impact of other funding 

sources.17 Instead, studies have tended to focus on how IDEA is being 

implemented and on the overall progress of children who receive special 

education services, without directly attributing these outcomes to the 

receipt of particular services.

18 

In the 1997 amendments to IDEA, Congress mandated a full, national 

assessment to determine the progress in the implementation of IDEA, 

15Arkansas reported that 59 percent of children aged 3 through 5 received special education 

and related services provided in part with School-Age Grants. 

16U.S. General Accounting Office, Grant Programs: Design Features Shape Flexibility, 

Accountability and Performance Information, GAO/GGD-98-137 (Washington, D.C.: Jun. 

22, 1998). 

17U.S. General Accounting Office, Education for Disadvantaged Children: Research 

Purpose and Design Features Affect Conclusions Drawn from Key Studies, 

GAO/HEHS-00-168 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 31, 2000). 

18U.S. General Accounting Office, Early Childhood Programs: The Use of Impact 

Evaluations to Assess Program Effects, GAO-01-542 (Washington: D.C.: Apr. 16, 2001). 

Page 11 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
including the effectiveness of state and local efforts to provide a free 

public education appropriate for the needs of students with disabilities 

and to provide early intervention services to infants and toddlers. In 

response to this mandate, OSEP has contracted with several research 

organizations to complete a number of studies. None of these studies will 

attempt to isolate the contribution of IDEA grants from the effects of state 

and local efforts to improve outcomes for young children; Congress did 

not prescribe such a stringent assessment of program effectiveness. 

Instead, three of these studies contracted by OSEP are outcome 

evaluations, focused on describing the short-term and long-term outcomes 

for young children enrolled in programs supported, in part, by these 

grants. The National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study will follow 

children entering early intervention services supported by Infant Grants. 

The Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study will follow children 

who received preschool special education services through their 

experience in preschool and early elementary school. The Special 

Education Elementary Longitudinal Study is documenting the experience 

of children enrolled in special education as they move from elementary 

school to middle and high school. The results from these studies will not 

be available for several years, although OSEP has issued initial reports 

describing the demographic characteristics of some study participants, 

their families, and schools. 

In addition to these evaluations describing children’s outcomes, OSEP has 

contracted a study examining how these programs are implemented. The 

Special Education Expenditure Project is intended to answer a variety of 

questions on the characteristics of expenditures on programs and services 

for preschool special education students. The first in an anticipated series 

of reports derived from this project was issued in March 2002 and provides 

an overview of special education spending in school year 1999-2000 in the 

50 states and the District of Columbia.

19 This report presents aggregate 

data on how much is spent nationally and how these funds are allocated 

among broad program areas. In particular, the report notes that preschool 

programs account for about 9 percent of special education expenditures 

overall and that 8 percent ($4.1 billion) was spent on preschool programs 

19Chambers, Jay G., et al., What Are We Spending on Special Education Services in the 

United States, 1999-2000? Advance Report #1, Special Education Expenditure Project 

(SEEP) (Palo Alto, CA: American Institutes for Research, 2002). 

Page 12 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
operated within public schools and 1 percent ($263 million) was spent on 

preschool programs operated outside public schools. 

In addition to the efforts now underway to evaluate outcomes and 

expenditures on services for young children enrolled in programs 

supported by IDEA grants, we found studies from two states—Delaware 

and Pennsylvania—on the outcomes of children in special education 

preschool programs. The Delaware study found that nearly half of the 

children who participated in Preschool Grants-supported programs in 

Delaware between 1997 and 1999 were able to transition into the regular 

education program by the time they were 6 and 7 years-old. The Delaware 

study also found that children who participated in preschool special 

education had significantly higher grades in kindergarten and first grade 

than children with disabilities who did not and that the gap in grades grew 

between kindergarten and first grade. The researchers responsible for the 

Delaware study attributed the higher grades to the children’s participation 

in programs supported by Preschool Grants. The Pennsylvania study 

found that fewer than half of the preschoolers who participated in early 

intervention services in Pennsylvania between 1991 and 1995 were 

participating in school-age special education programs between 1996 and 

1997, leading researchers to suggest that preschool early intervention 

services may have helped reduce the severity of the developmental delay 

for some participating children. 

We found some opportunities for better local coordination between 

programs funded with Infant Grants and preschool programs, but we were 

unable to determine the extent to which overlap between School-age and 

Preschool Grants may result in service duplication. We found evidence of 

problems with the transition of 3 year-olds between local programs funded 

with Infant Grants and preschool programs in 8 of 13 states for which 

OSEP issued monitoring reports in the last 2 years. While we could not 

ascertain whether overlap between School-age and Preschool Grants 

results in service duplication, program officials indicated that the overlap 

between School-age and Preschool Grants does not result in 

administrative inefficiencies. 

Some Local 

Coordination and 

Program Overlap 

Issues Exist 

Some Coordination We found some lack of coordination between local programs funded by 

Problems Identified in the Infant Grants and preschool programs, which can be funded by Preschool 

Transition from Infant or School-age Grants, in several states. Service gaps between programs 

funded by Infant Grants and preschool programs can occur for children Grants Programs 

who turn 3 before the beginning of the school year in which they can start 

Page 13 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
attending preschool. IDEA has addressed this problem by allowing Infant 

Grants to be used after the third birthday to pay a free appropriate public 

education until the beginning of the next school year. Also, federal rules 

require that states develop written transition plans for each child to show 

how the transition between the two programs will be managed, and 

Education monitors and enforces these rules. Specifically, the designated 

lead agency for the Infant Grants must discuss with and train parents 

regarding future placements for their child and have developed procedures 

to help the child adjust to a new setting. To further coordinate this 

transition, the Infant Grants statute requires that the lead agency, with the 

approval of the family, must convene a conference among the Infant 

Grants lead agency, the family, and the LEA at least 90 days before the 

child is eligible for preschool services. In addition to the Infant Grants 

transition requirements, the School-age Grants statute requires LEAs to 

participate in transition planning conferences arranged by the lead agency. 

Children should begin receiving services no later than their third birthday. 

In 2000 and 2001, OSEP identified problems in the transition from 

programs funded by Infant Grants into preschool programs in 8 of the 13 

states that it monitored for compliance with IDEA. OSEP monitoring 

reports cited a range of problems related to transitions from programs 

funded with Infant Grants into preschool that resulted in gaps in services 

for preschoolers. Some of the problems cited include: not holding 

transition planning conferences within 90 days of a child’s third birthday 

(6 states); the failure of local educational agency representatives to attend 

these conferences, despite being invited to do so (3 states); and providing 

inadequate information about the transition process to parents (2 states). 

The lack of adequate information resulted in confusion and unwillingness 

to cooperate with service coordinators’ requests on the part of some 

parents and forced other parents to seek out preschool services on their 

own. In response to these problems, OSEP has required corrective action 

plans for each of the 8 states to address areas of noncompliance with 

IDEA related to the transition from programs funded by Infant Grants into 

preschool programs. 

In addition to the problems cited in OSEP’s monitoring reports, we found 

some further evidence of problems when children leave Infant Grants 

programs in our site visit to Ohio. One state official told us that children 

and families may not receive needed services when they transition from 

the state’s Infant Grants programs into preschool because preschool 

programs have more stringent eligibility criteria and lack the family focus 

of early intervention programs funded by Infant Grants. Also, a 

representative of the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with 

Page 14 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Disabilities told us that some school districts did not understand that they 

are legally required to provide services for preschool children with 

disabilities. 

These problems were not evident in the other states we visited. Officials in 

Maine, Minnesota, and Virginia did not report a lack of coordination 

between programs funded by Infant Grants and preschool programs in 

those states. Transition issues for these programs appear to have been 

eliminated in Maine and Minnesota because each state operates a single 

program to provide early intervention and special education services for 

children from birth through age 5. In those states, programs funded with 

Infant Grants and preschool programs are both operated through a single 

agency, rather than through two agencies, as is the case with most of 

states.20 In Virginia, transition issues have been minimized because the 

state requires public education for children with disabilities beginning at 

age 2—a year earlier than is required under federal law. More than twothirds of children receiving early intervention services in Virginia 

transition into public preschool programs as soon as they become eligible. 

Overlap in Ages Served by 

School-age and Preschool 

Grants Might Result in 

Duplication 

Because of overlap between School-age and Preschool Grants, which can 

both serve children ages 3 through 5, there is some potential for service 

duplication if the two programs do not coordinate at the local level. We 

were unable to further evaluate the extent to which coordination problems 

may exist because there were no data available that would allow us to do 

so, in that states are not required to distinguish between funding sources 

when reporting the ages of children served by School-age and Preschool 

Grants. Officials from the 4 states where we conducted comprehensive 

interviews did not report any coordination problems for these programs 

and were not able to provide evidence about whether or not service 

duplication occurs. At the federal level, there is no administrative overlap 

between School-age and Preschool Grants because Education already 

administers these grants as if they were one program. For example, 

Education requires a single application for both programs and applies a 

single set of goals, performance objectives, performance measures, and 

reporting requirements to both programs. 

20Maine and Minnesota are among the 14 states that have chosen to administer Infant 

Grants through their state educational agencies, which also administer Preschool Grants. 

The remaining states and the District of Columbia administer Infant Grants’ programs 

through their departments of health or human services. 

Page 15 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Overlap between School-age and Preschool Grants could be addressed in a 

number of ways, according to our analysis. Narrowing the age range 

served by School-age Grants to ages 6 through 21 or consolidating the two 

grants into a single grant, either with or without a reserved amount of 

funds for preschool services, could eliminate overlap between these 

programs. However, advantages and disadvantages exist for each option. 

(See table 3). 

Table 3: Advantages and Disadvantages of Options for Addressing Potential 

Overlap of Preschool and School-age Grants 

Options Advantages Disadvantages 

1. Narrow age range for 

School-age Grants to 6 

through 21 

• Eliminates possibility of 

service duplication. 

• Simplifies tracking of 

funds spent on 3 through 

5 year-olds. 

• Preserves targeted funds 

for 3 through 5 year-olds. 

• States lose some 

flexibility (the ability to 

supplement Preschool 

Grant funds with Schoolage Grant funds when 

serving preschoolers). 

2. Consolidate School-Age 

and Preschool Grants 

into one Grant (no 

reserved funds for 

preschool services) 

• Eliminates possibility of 

service duplication. a 

• Simplifies tracking of 

funds spent on 3 through 

5 year-olds. 

• Increases the amount of 

flexible funds for states. 

• No funds are targeted for 

preschool services. 

• Possible reduction in 

services for 3 through 5 

year-olds. 

3. Consolidate School-Age 

and Preschool Grants 

into one Grant (with 

reserved funds for 

preschool services) 

• Eliminates possibility of 

service duplication. a 

• Simplifies tracking of 

funds spent on 3 through 

5 year-olds. 

• Preserves targeted funds 

for 3 through 5 year-olds. 

• States may lose some 

flexibility (if the law 

prescribes fixed 

allocations of funds for 

particular age ranges). 

4. No change • Preserves targeted funds 

for 3 through 5 year-olds. 

• Does not introduce new 

administrative 

requirements. 

• Continued possibility of 

service duplication. 

a

This would not apply to states that currently administer the programs as one, such as Maine and 

Minnesota. 

Source: GAO analysis. 

The first three options would ensure that children ages 3 through 5 are 

eligible for services under only one program. The first option, narrowing 

the age range for School-age Grants, has the advantage of preserving 

targeted funds to serve preschoolers by continuing Preschool Grants. 

However, under this option, states would lose the flexibility that they now 

have to devote a greater share of federal special education funds to serving 

preschoolers, if that is their priority. 

Page 16 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
The second option, consolidating School-age and Preschool Grants into a 

single grant, has several advantages. It would eliminate potential overlap 

for 3 through 5 year-olds, make it easier to track funds spent on 

preschoolers, and may increase the ability of local school districts to 

target federal special education funds to children of any age, depending on 

local needs. However the last advantage could also be seen as a 

disadvantage, potentially reducing services for preschoolers in those local 

school districts where they are not considered to be as high a priority as 

services for older children. State administrators and parents told us they 

are concerned this option would eliminate safeguards for targeted 

preschool funding and may lead to a reduction in services for children 

ages 3 through 5, although states have been required to provide special 

education services to children ages 3 through 5 since 1992 in order to be 

eligible for Preschool Grants and other IDEA funds targeted to children 

ages 3 through 5 with disabilities. State officials told us that serving 

preschoolers, whether in special education or otherwise, is not a priority 

for all local school districts, and expenditures of funds for 3 through 5 

year-olds would have to compete with the needs of older special education 

students. School districts generally do not provide regular education 

services to children ages 3 through 4. Moreover, as of November 2001, 39 

states require kindergarten be offered to 5 year-olds, but only 12 require 

pupil attendance.21 

The third option, consolidating School-age and Preschool Grants into a 

single grant, but reserving some funds for preschool services also would 

eliminate potential overlap of IDEA grants for 3 through 5 year-olds. 

However, this option has the advantage of preserving minimum spending 

levels for preschoolers by including a set-aside provision in the grant 

legislation. Depending on how the legislation is written, a potential 

disadvantage to this option would be the loss of some flexibility in how 

states may allocate funds for preschoolers and other ages of children. This 

would occur if the legislation prescribes fixed levels of spending for both 

age ranges. Nevertheless, some of the officials and other interested parties 

that we contacted indicated that, if the programs were to be consolidated, 

they would prefer including a set-aside provision. 

Although there are potential advantages to eliminating program overlap, 

overall, changes to the current structure of federal grants for special 

21Education Commission of the States, State Notes: State Statutes Regarding Kindergarten 

(Denver, CO: 2001). 

Page 17 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Concluding 

Observations 

Agency Comments 

and Our Response 

education would probably not result in a significant reduction in 

administrative burden at the state and local levels. Retaining the current 

structure would preserve targeted funds for preschoolers and not 

introduce different administrative requirements, but the possibility of 

service duplication would continue. Many of the state and local 

administrators with whom we spoke indicated they do not see the need for 

any changes in the current structure of these grants. In addition, 

Education officials have noted a growing level of support for early 

intervention programs among lawmakers, program administrators and 

child advocates, which, in their opinion, justifies maintaining separate 

grants to support these programs. 

The Department of Education has recognized that there is some potential 

for a gap in services for 3 year-olds as they move from programs funded by 

Infants Grants into preschool programs and requires that states and local 

agencies minimize these service gaps by following federal requirements 

for program coordination and transition planning. However, we have seen 

evidence that in at least a few localities, states have failed to ensure that 

federal regulations are being followed. Education has addressed known 

transition problems by requiring these states to develop and implement 

corrective action plans that will bring them into compliance with IDEA. 

Although there is overlap between School-age and Preschool Grants 

because both allow for services to 3 through 5 year-olds, it is not clear 

whether this overlap presents problems of service duplication or 

unnecessary administrative burden that would indicate the need to change 

how the grants are structured. Program experts and federal, state, and 

local administrators that we interviewed did not report any problems and 

there were no data available that would allow us to determine the extent 

to which program overlap resulted in coordination or administrative 

problems. 

We provided the Department of Education an opportunity to comment on 

a draft of this report and received technical comments which we have 

incorporated into this report as appropriate. 

We are sending copies of this report to the Chairman of your 

subcommittee, the Secretary of Education, and appropriate congressional 

committees. Copies will also be made available to other interested parties 

upon request. If you have questions regarding this report, please call me at 

Page 18 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
(202) 512-7215 or Eleanor Johnson, assistant director, at (202) 512-7209. 

Other contributors are listed in the appendix. 

Sincerely yours, 

Marnie S. Shaul 

Director, Education, Workforce and 

Income Security Issue 

Page 19 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Appendix: GAO Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments 

GAO Contacts Regina Santucci (202) 512-6317, email: santuccir@gao.gov 

Staff	 In addition to those above, Elspeth Grindstaff, Patrick DiBattista and Jon 

Barker made major contributions to this report. 

Acknowledgments 

Page 20 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 
Related GAO Products


Head Start and Even Start: Greater Collaboration Needed on Measures of 

Adult Education and Literacy. GAO-02-348. Washington, D.C.: 2002. 

March 29, 2002. 

Bilingual Education: Four Overlapping Programs Could Be 

Consolidated. GAO-01-657. Washington, D.C.: 2001. May 14, 2001. 

Early Childhood Programs: The Use of Impact Evaluations to Assess 

Program Effects. GAO-01-542. Washington, D.C.: April 16, 2001. 

Title I Preschool Education: More Children Served, but Gauging Effect 

on School Readiness Difficult. GAO/HEHS-00-171. Washington, D.C.: 

September 20, 2000. 

Early Education and Care: Overlap Indicates Need to Assess 

Crosscutting Programs. GAO/HEHS-00-78. Washington, D.C.: April 28, 

2000. 

Evaluations of Even Start Family Literacy Program Effectiveness. 

GAO/HEHS-00-58R. Washington, D.C.: March 8, 2000. 

Early Childhood Programs: Characteristics Affect the Availability of 

School Readiness Information. GAO/HEHS-00-38. Washington, D.C.: 

February 28, 2000. 

Managing for Results: Using the Results Act to Address Mission 

Fragmentation and Program Overlap. GAO/AIMD-97-146. Washington, 

D.C.: August 29, 1997. 

Page 21 GAO-02-394 Multiple Preschool Special Education Programs 

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