[Rebelgecko]

The Individuals with Disability Education Act requires the federal government to cover up to 40% of the cost of educating students with special needs.

If you've ever had a an internet plan that promises you speeds of "up to" $FOO, you can probably guess how IDEA goes down in practice. In my state (California), the Feds reimburse about 10% of the cost, which leaves the state and local governments on the hook for the rest. In practice the allocation is also weird for the federal money, since it doesn't take into account that students have different needs with drastically different costs (e.g. an IEP for a kid with shitty handwriting vs a kid on Home & Hospital who has personalized 1:1 instruction+care all day)

[alephnerd]

My mom is a special educator here in the Bay Area, and has done this at both low income districts as well as high income districts here. The funding is well prioritized.