Could early education bring down rising costs to serve California students with disabilities?

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At first glance, the preschool classroom in Paso Robles looks like any other: young students sing “Wheels on the Bus,” listen to stories and learn colors and shapes through play. 

But unlike most preschool classrooms, children with disabilities in this Marie Bauer Early Education Center classroom are learning alongside their peers who do not require special education services. This is unusual in California, where only 1 in 3 students with disabilities receive their preschool education in a classroom with their peers, according to an EdSource analysis of 2024-25 federal education data.

Parents, educators and researchers say this inclusive model improves outcomes for students with disabilities and reduces the need for more intensive — and costly — special education services in older grades.

“Kids with special needs, who have an IEP, need to be in programs with other, typically developing kids,” said Diana Makowetski, a special education teacher at Marie Bauer Early Education Center, referring to the individualized education program. “They need good language models. They need good social models.”

Supporters of inclusive early education argue that it can address one of the fastest-growing costs facing school districts: rising numbers of students who qualify for special education. In the upcoming state budget, school districts could see as much as a 43% bump in special education over the past year to address rising costs.

This new funding could be a golden opportunity not just to cover rising special education costs but to stop them from ballooning, according to Anjanette Pelletier, a special education finance expert and director of management consulting for School Services of California, Inc. In a recent report, she called for districts to invest in inclusive preschool settings, “one of the strongest opportunities for both educational and fiscal return.”

“Early education is not cheap,” said Heather Wahlberg, director of early childhood education at Paso Robles Joint Unified School District. 

But Wahlberg said that the district’s investment in early education has paid dividends. The number of students placed in special day classes with high staffing requirements has been cut in half, and 12% of students no longer require special education services in kindergarten at all.

Why don’t more districts offer inclusive preschools?

Researchers say that preschool is a great time for inclusion, because any gaps between students with disabilities and those without them is at its narrowest point. But the youngest children with disabilities are largely educated separately from their peers — in different classrooms, with different teachers — and sometimes even with different recess and lunch schedules.

That approach runs counter to the spirit of inclusion, which is enshrined in federal and state laws requiring students with disabilities to be educated in the least restrictive environment possible alongside their peers. The stakes are high in these early years.

“Once a child is not included, they’re almost never included after that,” said Karin Garver, an early childhood education policy specialist at the National Institute for Early Education Research. “So if we’re putting children in self-contained settings as preschoolers, we’ve kind of determined their fate as school children beyond that.”

Only 33% of California preschoolers with disabilities learn alongside their peers, compared with 45% nationally, according to federal data.

Moving to an inclusive model takes time, coordination and up-front investment, Pelletier said. 

Teachers and staff need professional development. Districts might need to modify classrooms and playgrounds to make them accessible for students with disabilities. Funding an inclusive preschool classroom requires districts to navigate a patchwork system of funds that could have complex staffing and licensing requirements, such as the California State Preschool Program.

Preschool funding isn’t like K-12 funding. This patchwork system means that where a child attends preschool, in practice, often depends on how much income their family earns or whether they have a disability — even within the same district.

“We, as a district, used to have a state preschool, a [general education] preschool, and our special [education] preschools all operating in separate silos,” said Wahlberg. “We finally came together as a district and said, ‘Those are all future Bearcats” — the mascot of the Paso Robles High School — “being educated in separate buildings by separate departments and by separate teachers.’”

Rather than maintaining separate programs, Paso Robles Joint Unified chose to bring all students together in inclusive classrooms. Depending on the child, Marie Bauer Early Education Center might receive state preschool funding, district funds for special education students or parent tuition payments.

The California Early Childhood Special Education Network is tasked by the California Department of Education with assisting school districts working to make the transition to inclusive classrooms. The state also provides grants for planning and implementation. 

“That really helped begin the conversation and alleviate some of that startup fears that many districts have about the funding,” said Wahlberg. “Having a grant like that and having that conversation happening at the state level was really supportive and powerful.”

Pelletier argues that the state should go even further. If inclusive early education can reduce the need for more intensive and costly services later, she said, districts should be required to invest more of their special education money in these early years.

‘Leaps and bounds’

For families, the benefits of inclusive early education are often visible long before students reach kindergarten. 

Michelle Robinson said her 4-year-old grandson, Everest — “like the mountain, but he’s little” — was born prematurely and experienced delays in speech and motor development. He began attending Marie Bauer Early Education Center two years ago. Robinson said it’s made a world of difference.

“I have just seen this little guy grow by leaps and bounds,” she said. “Because it’s been such a positive experience, he’s super excited next year to go into TK.”

Her older grandson likely would have benefited from this program, Robinson said. But because of pandemic disruptions and a lack of awareness about available services, he never attended preschool. 

“When he got to kindergarten, it was a challenge for him,” she said. 

That’s become a common story, according to Wahlberg. Kindergarten teachers in Paso Robles Joint Unified have told her they can often tell which students attended the preschool. They are better at regulating themselves and have better language, social skills and fine motor skills.

The most common challenge in young children is delayed speech and language development. Speech-language pathologist Ashley Tsudama said children might struggle with communication because of developmental delays or autism. Children who were isolated during the pandemic or who spend a lot of time on screens also have limited opportunities to develop language skills.

Paso Robles Joint Unified is beginning to see signs of that impact. According to Wahlberg, behavioral issues among students who attended preschool have declined. For 2022-23, 14 preschool students were placed in either transitional kindergarten or kindergarten special day classes — a number that dropped to six for the upcoming school year. These classes are costly because they require heavier staffing than general education classrooms: one teacher plus aides for every 10 students.

When children struggle to communicate or regulate their emotions, those challenges can spill into the classroom and become more serious as academic expectations grow.

“We always say when we’re building our students’ ability to maintain regulation during disappointment and frustration, we’re building future mathematicians and problem solvers and readers,” Wahlberg said.

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