Report Says Funds Wasted, Special Education Inadequate

Beginning of article

The District's troubled services for special-education students are wasting millions of dollars now paid to private schools, and its school system must take over the job of teaching these students itself, a preliminary D.C. Council committee report says.

The 20-month study found the public school system has not solved its underlying problem - it does not have adequate special-education programs.

Three reports circulating within the school system and D.C. government back that up.

Currently, almost a third of the District's 3,400 special-education students go to school in private and residential centers, costing the District about $74 million per year, according to the Multiyear Plan for Special Education developed by the school system in November but never released.

The D.C. Council report admits that, "since 1999, special education officials …