TollBooth - Perry Laroque

Charging for Special Education is Unethical, Period.

Rather than addressing the elephant in the room as postscript, let me acknowledge the possibility for accusations of hypocrisy up front. 12 years ago I founded the largest private residential college support program in the country, which charges for its services. Indeed, since I started Mansfield Hall, hundreds of similar programs have launched across the US, most of which charge a fee, many on top of huge sums of money for their college’s inflated tuition and housing. These programs and the tens of thousands of supplementary providers are not the issue, in fact, they are often the solution to plug the holes of blatantly discriminatory practices in schools and programs for students “without” disabilities. 

We have heard all sorts of terrible accusations of being opportunistic, classist or elitist for charging students and families for the high-end services they are receiving. First off, let me be clear, no one is getting rich doing this work, nor are we getting any sleep. The idea that everything should be free is a beautiful dream, often suggested by people who don’t realize that nothing is free, just paid for by someone else. In the field of college support, there is nothing else, except for potentially the huge sums of money and deep endowments at colleges, but that’s only for “normal” kids, so here we are. We, like many other private organizations, are the product of a biased model who are doing our best to make up for the shortcomings in a student’s educational journey. 

It is not uncommon for private schools or charter schools to charge an additional fee for access to special education-type services. For example, at one US-based private school, the tuition is roughly $30,000 per year, but an additional $6,000 if the student has a disability. A college-based program in the US charges $10,000 per year for students with disabilities who require additional services, but that’s on top of the school’s $65,000 tuition, which doesn’t include housing. Not to mention, for those families who have kids with ADHD or learning disabilities, they’ll tell you, yes, they receive services at school, but are paying out of pocket for the additional services that are needed, like tutoring, coaching, or counseling, to help their children truly thrive. 

The current battle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is whether private schools or charter schools should have to pay for special education services when they receive vouchers from the public schools to fund their schools. They claim that they will go bankrupt if they have to serve all students. But, herein lies the reality, that’s the cost and obligation of being an education provider.By denying students access and/or charging them for additional services is unethical and flat out wrong.

If you read my previous blogs, you might remember the assumption that all students require different things, regardless of disabilities. When schools carve out a population of students to charge more, they are discriminating, in fact, blatantly discriminating. Do these same schools charge more for students who need extra help in math, or have frequent behavioral issues, or want to enhance their education by participating in honors programs or gifted and talented-type services? What about students who are English language learners or foreign students? Would they charge more for students accessing DEI services if they are from a minority group or extra for LGTBQ+ students who need more support? But yet, if a student has ADHD, a learning disability, anxiety, or are generally neurodiverse, we’ve accepted that the additional fee is warranted. Again, as I said in a previous post, it’s a colonialist mentality that we (disability community) take what we can get and act appreciative for it. 

The root of the problem lies squarely in the paradigm of separate but equal, which has been ingrained into our educational institutions. Public schools are well aware that the cost of education includes special education services. Although these tracks are supposed to not be interdependent, administrators are often required to be creative with these budgets to make their schools work, often at the behest of students with disabilities. In a study many years ago, it was shown that the census in special education was highly correlated to the available budget. Basically, when the school could afford it, they would suddenly find more kids with disabilities, and when they couldn’t, miraculously disabilities went down in the district. The cost of education is not general education + special education, it’s the cost of providing all students what they need regardless of disability or no disability.

 A private school can’t evaluate the cost of educating “normal” students and then determine how much more those with disabilities will cost and then pass those charges on to the students with disabilities. The “normal” students and their families split the cost of everything the school provides, regardless of whether they use it, but when it comes to disability, they won’t spread those costs evenly, regardless of whether they benefit all or are the students civil rights to access an appropriate education. When a school evaluates how much more students with disabilities will cost them, they are blatantly discriminating against those students and indeed violating every single philosophical tenet of educational best practice. A school can’t claim to be person-centered, individualized, strengths-based, or a champion for diversity if they have already drawn a line in the sand of who they will serve, and who they will not serve based on disability.

I’m well aware of the additional costs to serve students with disabilities. They are probably as high as gymnastics equipment, computer labs, IT support, janitorial services, grounds keeping, AP courses, or back to school events. So the argument that “my child doesn’t use those services” falls about as flat as, “my kid always picks up after themselves so they shouldn’t have to pay for custodians”. Should we charge for rides on the elevator? Moreover, here’s the truth, ALL KIDS SHOULD BE USING THOSE SERVICES. With arbitrary cutoffs for dyslexia, ADHD, and mild autism, there are as many kids who would benefit from these services with disabilities, than without disabilities. 

I love when I hear about private schools providing students with disabilities (as part of their fee) to have an individualized learning plan. Does that assume that a student-centered approach does not require individualization for students without disabilities? No, all kids would benefit from an individualized education. Moreover, all kids would benefit from evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, understanding their learning profile, developing strategies for their shortcomings, access to accommodations that would help them learn, AND some individualized support when they need it, not just those with disabilities. These services can and should be built into the service infrastructure at the school. 

So I’ll say it again, charging for special education services is unethical, period. Schools are obligated to evaluate the cost of providing education for all students, regardless of disability, and rightfully request all parents to pay their fair share for providing that education. But, then they must also recognize the opportunity to provide these individualized and specialized services not for just students with disabilities, but any student who would benefit from them. Until that happens, private programs like ours and others will do our duty by picking up the pieces of a broken educational system. I can’t speak for the other leaders in the private market, but I would welcome going out of business and becoming obsolete if schools and colleges began doing the right and ethical thing by providing all students with their inalienable rights to an unbiased and nondiscriminatory education. 

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