From the New York Times:

The extraordinary cost of educating students with autism has become a point of contention in the New York City school system, as the number of students with the diagnosis keeps increasing.

A growing number of students with autism are being educated at district expense in private schools that cost between $30,800 and $48,100 per year, and school officials say the cost of private school for special education students is becoming increasingly burdensome. The department spent $88.9 million for the private school tuition of all special education students last year, compared with $57.6 million in 2007.

Advocates maintain that an investment now means lower costs for state services in the future.

… “The crux of the matter is that we need to have a public debate about how much are we willing to invest in making individuals who are disabled, and sometimes profoundly disabled, have a meaningful level of membership in society,” said Gil Eyal, a sociologist at Columbia University who has done research on autism.

(New York Times photo)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under autism, education, funding, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.