Abstract
Special education services aim to support students by providing intensified and tailored instruction (NASP, 2021) yet reduce rather than enhance high school graduation rates (Ressa & Andrews, 2022) and are expensive to provide. On average, school districts spend an additional $13,127 per student to provide special education services, which equates to almost $40 billion annually (NCES, 2022). Given these challenges, approaches to promote school readiness prior to kindergarten warrant investigation as a cost-effective solution. Early Discovery (ED) is a grant-funded, low- to no-cost program designed to prevent special education placement and school expulsion by promoting school readiness. Children ages 0 to 5 years with mild developmental delays who reside in Miami-Dade County and do not qualify for IDEA Part B or C services are eligible for the program.
Over the past four years, longitudinal follow-up data were collected from caregivers of 414 children who had completed the ED program between 2013 and 2021. All families had access to care coordination and services in speech and language intervention (N = 295), occupational intervention (N = 45), general development (N = 28), behavior (N = 44), or a combination of these domains (N = 2). Families could choose to receive services at their child's preschool or in their home. In 2021, participation in the ED program averaged $1,100 per child, with lower per child costs in years prior. Estimated program costs included: pre-test ($65), 12 intervention sessions ($50-$70 per session), interventionist travel ($15 per session), supervision of interventionist if pre-licensure ($150), and post-test ($65).
At follow-up, children were in kindergarten (N = 98), 1st grade (N = 113), 2nd grade (N = 122), 3rd grade (N = 49), 4thgrade (N = 20), or 5th grade (N = 12). Only 10% of children who received speech and language intervention reported having an IEP or 504 plan, which indicates special education status, for speech-related services. Very few children who received occupational or general development support reported having an IEP or 504 plan for occupational therapy (2%) or development-related support (e.g., intellectual disability, specific learning disorder, social support; 7%), respectively. Lastly, only 11% of children who received behavioral support reported experiences of school suspension or expulsion. The estimated $1,100 per child cost of providing early intervention services through ED is substantially lower than the estimated $13,127 per child cost of providing special education services for just one academic year.
Most children who received community-based early intervention services through ED were not in special education, suspended, or expelled in elementary school. Given the high economic costs and negative child outcomes associated with special education, school suspension, and school expulsion, the ED program shows promise in reducing educational costs by promoting child school readiness.