Reducing special education costs by providing early intervention for autistic children

Abstract Autism symptoms vary from child to child, but the overall severity can be lessened through early intervention—often specifically early intensive behavioral intervention—when administered at a young enough age. The high costs and heavy time commitment of this intervention, however, tend to discourage public school districts from spending on these programs. In this paper, the cost of early intervention and its impact on the subsequent costs of special education, is compared to the costs of public school special education for autistic children who do not receive intervention. The analysis suggests that North Carolina potentially saves an estimate of over $250,000 per child in reduced annual special education costs by implementing early intervention for their autistic population.