My recent post on special education (SPED) had one education
scholar emailing me to point out that a perverse financial
incentive exists to place students in special education. I agree
with that, though it doesn't discredit the influence that
special education advocacy and parental groups have exerted on
the issue (which others like Wade Horn and Douglas Tynan have
also acknowledged).  But I'm also intrigued by some other
factors that may be influencing the rise in SPED costs. I'm
referring to research in Massachusetts a few years ago which
found that cost increases in that state were less a factor of
district policy or practice (e.g., inaccurate over
identification of SPED students) and more a case of increasing
numbers of students with significant special needs requiring
more costly service. Specifically, researchers found several
major underlying causes of rising SPED costs. One was changes in
medical practice that now enable increasing survival rates for
premature babies (many, unfortunately, with lifelon