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Non-Public Special Education Programs: Evaluating the Costs of Within School Alternatives for Students with Emotional Disturbance

Evaluation of the costs and associated budgetary savings of schoolbased mental health program alternatives to non-public education program placements is a task made increasingly necessary by external pressures on school districts' budgets. The purpose of this article is to present information from an assessment of costs and related savings associated with an innovative school mental health program that provides intensive mental health and case management services in a regular public school setting. The program is designed to avert non-public placements of students in special education identified as emotionally disturbed. We estimated a program total cost of 7,212 per student per year, or 30 per student per day. This cost was associated with a total savings of 31,826 per student per year, or 133 per student per day averted. These estimates suggest that intensive school mental health programs could in many instances offer a financially viable alternative to non-public placement.