Badger InstituteBadger Institute
  • Home
  • Issues
    • Taxes
    • Education
    • Crime & Justice
    • Spending & Accountability
    • Economy & Infrastructure
    • Licensing
    • Healthcare
    • Civil Society
  • Mandate for Madison
  • Research
  • Magazines
    • Diggings
    • Wisconsin Interest
  • Events
  • Media
    • Podcast
    • Fact Sheets
    • Viewpoints
    • Press Releases
    • Badger in the News
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Testimony
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board of Directors
    • Team
    • Visiting Fellows
    • America’s Future
    • Careers
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Subscribe for Updates

Get the latest news and updates from Badger Institute.

What's New

Wisconsin lawmakers in the dark on broadband

March 16, 2023

The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling

March 16, 2023

If we don’t pay for roads, we don’t get mobility

March 9, 2023
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram
TRENDING:
  • Wisconsin lawmakers in the dark on broadband
  • The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling
  • If we don’t pay for roads, we don’t get mobility
  • Assembly Speaker calls for tolling to fund Wisconsin infrastructure
  • Foreseeing the Future of Wisconsin’s Flat Tax
  • Wisconsin voters will be asked about welfare work requirements
  • A state without convictions
  • Why Wisconsin Needs a Flat Tax and Education Reform
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram
Badger InstituteBadger Institute
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
  • Issues
    • Taxes
    • Education
    • Crime & Justice
    • Spending & Accountability
    • Economy & Infrastructure
    • Licensing
    • Healthcare
    • Civil Society
  • Mandate for Madison
  • Research
  • Magazines
    • Diggings
    • Wisconsin Interest
  • Events
  • Media
    • Podcast
    • Fact Sheets
    • Viewpoints
    • Press Releases
    • Badger in the News
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Testimony
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board of Directors
    • Team
    • Visiting Fellows
    • America’s Future
    • Careers
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
DONATE
Badger InstituteBadger Institute
Home » Education » The Growth of Special Education in Wisconsin
Budget Analysis

The Growth of Special Education in Wisconsin

By Thomas HruzJuly 2, 2002
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest

No issue in Wisconsin government has grown faster in the last decade than special education. It has accelerated to a $1 billion per year educational program with little accountability

In the 2000-2001 school year, Wisconsin school districts reported spending over one-billion dollars to educate and otherwise serve the state’s 125,358 students in special education. Some of this cost was covered by equalization aid from the State of Wisconsin to school districts and by the $315,681,400 the state allocated for special education categorical aid. Given the latter expenditure, special education is, by a comfortable margin, the most expensive categorical aid education program in Wisconsin. In addition, the federal government allocated to Wisconsin over

$78,000,000 in general aid and approximately $8,000,00 in specific grants for special education purposes. Meanwhile, the portion of special education costs not covered by either state or federal aid was spent from the general education budgets of individual districts. In sum, special education accounts for an enormous part of the public education budget at both the state and local level.

With healthy and growing levels of funding comes, as it should, the attention of a great many educators, politicians, public interest groups, and taxpayers as to whether special education dollars are being wisely spent and, if they are not being efficiently used, how that may be accomplished. A central issue is whether all of the students identified as in need of special education truly need such labeling and the comprehensive, costly special treatment that accompanies it, or whether portions of the state’s special education students could be just as effectively taught under the methods of regular education but at a dramatically lower cost. The latter option may demand that certain accommodations be made for some students, but it would keep those students out of the costly and stigmatizing realm of special education. Addressing this issue, this report analyzes the growing concern over the possible misidentification and over-identification of students into special education in Wisconsin.

Special education is one part education and at least two parts a system of bureaucratic and legalistic imperatives, all of which govern what is essentially a public policy decision over which students should be served by a differentiated mode of instruction and what services those children should receive. Therefore, this report begins by outlining the process by which a student becomes placed in special education, highlighting some of the procedural, legal, and administrative aspects that bear on this system.

This report continues this discussion by addressing some specific issues concerning the over-identification of special education students and Wisconsin’s ever-growing special education incidence rate. In particular, it inspects the distribution of special education students across the multiple eligibility categories by which children are determined to be disabled and in need of special education. In July of 2001, new eligibility criteria for placing children in special education went into effect in Wisconsin. Many commentators harbor concerns that these new criteria will only continue a growing trend in the increasing percentage of students being placed in special education. This analysis then segues into a thorough inspection of some of the eligibility criteria used in Wisconsin. In particular, the terribly open and subjective categories of “learning disabled” and “emotionally disturbed,” which constitute the bulk of Wisconsin special education students, are discussed at length.

Statewide, slightly over 12% of the state’s total K-12 student population is classified as in need of special education, and the percentage has been steadily rising. However, across the state there exists a wide disparity among districts in the percentage of each districts’ students identified as in need of special education. Throughout this report, extensive across-district comparisons are made using data from all 426 of Wisconsin’s school districts.* These comparisons show the large differences across districts in terms of rates of referral to special education, rates of placement in special education, rates of reevaluations resulting in continuing special education, the percentages of students placed according to all the disability groups, and so forth. The wide disparities found across all these measures suggest that the process of identifying students for special education is far from being uniform and, at a minimum, should be adequately explained by district personnel involved in the special education decision-making process.

Moreover, a startling disparity with special education placement rates by student ethnicity occurs in some districts. Across the state, and in some districts in particular, certain ethnic minorities are at a much greater risk of being placed in special education. For example, a black student in the Madison Metropolitan School District and in four other of the state’s 25 largest school districts is more than twice as likely as his or her white counterpart to be placed within special education. This finding reflects national trends in the possible over-identification of certain racial minorities into special education. If a general occurrence of over-identification is happening in Wisconsin, then these students are particularly being harmed by such improper and unnecessary placement in special education.

Special education in Wisconsin is at a crossroads. While nearly every politician, education bureaucrat, teacher, parent, and other person involved in special education agrees that elements of the state’s special education system need serious modifications — whether in terms of financing, program administration, or policy focus — few agree as to the precise contours of these changes. The data and analyses presented throughout this report will help to inform this discussion. Specifically, this report raises concerns over the system by which students, many of whom may not be truly disabled, come to be placed in the costly confines of special education.

Vol15no5Download
Reports
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Telegram Email
Thomas Hruz

Related Posts

The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling

March 16, 2023

Amid illiteracy, where was the urgency?

February 23, 2023

Family finds education freedom a “godsend”

February 16, 2023
Categories
Top Posts

Local pols filling old budget holes with massive COVID aid

December 8, 20221,449

This is not four years ago

November 10, 20221,287

A state without convictions

January 12, 2023644

Billions in federal spending in Wisconsin unaudited; results never measured

November 9, 2022488
Archives

Sign Up for Top Picks

Our weekly e-Newsletter with the latest items and updates

Connect with Badger Institute
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
About Us
About Us

The Badger Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit institute established in 1987 working to engage and energize Wisconsinites and others in discussions and timely action on key public policy issues critical to the state’s future, growth and prosperity.

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

Sign Up for Top Picks

Our weekly e-Newsletter with the latest items and updates

What’s New

Wisconsin lawmakers in the dark on broadband

March 16, 2023

The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling

March 16, 2023

If we don’t pay for roads, we don’t get mobility

March 9, 2023

Assembly Speaker calls for tolling to fund Wisconsin infrastructure

March 2, 2023
© 2023 Badger Institute | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Sitemap

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience.

Privacy settings

Privacy Settings

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit.

NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.

CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management Software

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Powered by Cookie Information