Rose Marie Boniface of Marlborough is one of hundreds of superintendents battling to keep the lid on special education costs as more students with severe problems enter the schools.

Throughout the country, school districts are shelling out greater percentages of their budgets on special education while other programs suffer.

For example, from fiscal years 1990 to 1999, per-pupil costs for special education students in Massachusetts increased four times the amount of regular education expenditures, 20 percent vs. 4.52 percent, adjusted for inflation. On average, most schools have about 16.6 percent special education students.

Costs will continue to rise, superintendents say, even as their districts face tighter budgets.

A study by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents' special education task force is receiving national attention for its cost analysis and explanations of the changing population of students.

According to the study, factors contributing to higher costs include a greater number of children who, because of advances in technology, survive medical problems in birth and infancy; children who have been moved from state institutions to public schools and private residential programs, and increased poverty and stress in families.

Boniface watches more sick and special needs children enter the preschool next to her office each year.

"You certainly can see the intensity in children's needs and see the needs changing," she said.

The study was authored by Hudson Superintendent and MASS President Sheldon Berman, Dover-Sherborn Superintendent Perry Davis, MASS Director of Technology Initiatives Ann Koufman-Frederick and Dr. David K. Urion, a clinical child neurologist and director of the Learning Disabilities Program at Children's Hospital in Boston.

While local superintendents back the study's findings, some policymakers and conservative organizations say costs have increased because schools, parents and doctors are pushing too many children into the special education category.

Marlborough, a district of 4,800 students, has tried every cost-saving measure, Boniface said, from keeping special education students in regular classrooms to hiring more specialists so the schools do not have to pay up to $30,000 per student for out-of-district placement.

"But our costs don't go down, they go up," Boniface said.

One to two new students enter into the district each month with autism, she said, and property taxes alone cannot cover that cost. "You can't dump it all on the local school district; (districts) don't have anything to draw from. It has to be shared responsibility."

Last month the state defaulted on its promise to share 50 percent of the cost of residential programs for the remainder of the fiscal year because of budget shortfalls.

A federal agency will pay for the 50 percent this year.

Educators agree that special needs students benefit from being in school, but the state does not recognize how much it really costs to educate these students.

School districts receive a "lump sum," from the state, assuming that every school has the same percentage of special education students. Labeling a student as special needs has no influence on how much money schools receive from the state.

But the funding formula is lower than what schools end up paying.

"I think Massachusetts and the state is almost criminal in its failure to provide adequate resources to pay for special education," said Mark Smith, who will retire as superintendent of the Framingham Public Schools this spring. "I've worked in (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts), and I've never worked in a state that failed to provide resources in special education" the way Massachusetts does.

Carol Daring, superintendent of the Milford Public Schools, said the unpredictability of special education needs and costs make budgeting difficult.

Many special education students are moving into the Milford district, and more are being diagnosed at an earlier age because of early intervention programs, she said. Also, out-of-district schools often raise prices in December and make the increase retroactive to September.

"So much of it is out of our control," she said.

Berman, who co-authored the study, said the state is burying its head in the sand and "ignoring a problem that is only going to get worse."

"At one time, when the pie was expanding, school districts could cover their costs with state dollars. But now, there is no aid. The crunch is even more serious."

Changing terms

Maureen Sabolinski, director of Pupil and Personnel Services in Franklin, says the district has kept costs lower by integrating special education students into almost every class. Because the schools have small class sizes and tutors, fewer children are identified for special education, she said.

Sabolinski also has used federal grants to pay for teacher professional development in special education.

"We've really worked hard to build a very strong regular education program with a lot of support services," such as a full-day kindergarten and integrated preschool. If class sizes increase because of the budget crunch, though, it will mean more special education costs.

In Hudson, from fiscal years 1994 to 2004, special education costs are up 150 percent, compared with 75 percent for other budget areas. Health costs are rising dramatically as well. The vast majority of children with disabilities are preschool age, showing that the trend will continue.

Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, argues against giving more money to schools for special education students. The students need smaller group instruction, "which is something we're already moving to in education."

Greene believes there has not been an increase in the number or severity of students with disabilities.

For example, the reported growth in autism is probably because the description of the disease now includes Aspberger Syndrome, he said.

"Thirty years ago those kids were called eccentric. They were called weird. But the stigma attached to autism has reduced. ... These are not kids who cost you a ton who need one-on-one education."

Greene also believes "the report fails to consider other innovations in medical technology that have reduced other problems. In total, technology has likely prevented more disabilities than it has caused."

Looking ahead

Berman and Perry's study cites an increase in medical problems in children, quoting a 1999 report by the California Department of Developmental Services.

From 1987 to 1998, enrollment in California schools increased 20 percent, and autism increased 273 percent, cerebral palsy increased 43 percent, epilepsy by 31 percent and mental retardation by 49 percent.

Premature births are another factor. The number of babies born nationwide weighing less than 3.3 pounds who survive to 5 years old has nearly tripled from the 1980-1985 period to 1995-2000, from 18,200 children to 49,500 children. Fifty percent of those children will have significant cognitive difficulties without spastic motor problems, according to the MASS study. Many are mentally retarded or have severe learning disabilities.

Schools with poorer populations, mostly cities and rural areas, are hit the hardest, the study says, because children "are more likely to be born prematurely and suffer greater difficulties from this than children of middle- and upper-income families."

More children are living in poverty - 18 percent now. And as the economy declines the number will grow, Berman said.

Educators need more money to cover the growing cost of special education, he added, and as a society, there needs to be long-term investment in medical research and a "re-weaving of the social web, to set up the kinds of protections so we don't have so many children living in poverty."

"We need a solution that does not blame the children or those working with these children and does not pit regular education against special education," Berman said.