State Special Education Finance Systems, 1999-2000. Part II: Special Education Revenues and Expenditures
Author: Parrish, Thomas
Date: 2004-03-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Expenditures,Disabilities,State Surveys,School Accounting,Special Education,Funding Formulas,Clearinghouses,Educational Finance,State Federal Aid,Financial Support,Educational Resources,Accessibility (for Disabled),Enrollment Rate,Educational Change,Audits (Verification),Income

The Center for Special Education Finance (CSEF) provides policymakers and administrators at all governmental levels with data, analyses, expertise, and opportunities to share information about special education finance issues. One of CSEF's major activities is the periodic collection and dissemination of information on state funding systems for special education. In 1999-2000, CSEF collaborated with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) to survey state special education administrators. The survey was designed to obtain two types of information: (1) Descriptions of the mechanisms used by states to fund special education services for school-age children with disabilities--presented in &quot;Part I. State Special Education Finance Systems, 1999-2000&quot;; and (2) State-level estimates of the total amounts of revenues and spending on these services from state, local, and federal funds from 1994-95 through 1998-99. This document--&quot;Part II. State Special Education Finance Systems, 1999-2000&quot;--summarizes survey data on special education revenues and expenditures for the years 1994-95 to 1998-99. Survey data from all 50 states are included in this report. All but four states (Georgia, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and South Dakota) provided updated information for 1998-99; consequently, for these four states, data from the 1994-95 CSEF state survey are provided where available. These survey data present the best estimate each state could provide on its special education spending and collectively provide an overall picture of the level of resources devoted to special education in the states. However, several states were unable to provide complete expenditure estimates, and others had relatively low levels of confidence in the estimates they could provide (see Exhibit II-6). Even when state confidence in the data is high, the accounting conventions used by one state are likely to differ in important ways from those used by others. This difference in accounting conventions raises questions about the comparability of the expenditure estimates. Despite these data limitations, the state survey data provide information on special education spending on a state-by-state basis. To supplement these survey data, this report also includes selected data from in the 1999-2000 Special Education Expenditure Project (SEEP) conducted by CSEF, data from prior national expenditure studies, and information from the &quot;Annual Reports to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.&quot; Reported State Perceptions of the Impact of the IDEA '97 Amendments on Costs or Fiscal Policies, 1999-2000 is appended. (Contains 6 exhibits and 11 footnotes.) [For Part I, see ED522076.]