PITTSBURGH — South Park School District administrators sifting through kindergarten enrollments this summer knew they would have to add two more classrooms for students with autism.

The incoming class has “a very high autistic population,” said Chelsea Campolongo, assistant superintendent of finance and business operations. In response, teachers and paraprofessionals were hired. Transportation was secured. And services such as speech, occupational and physical therapies required additional staff or out-of-district contracts.

Final 2026-27 special education enrollment numbers — which have been gradually rising in recent years — are not yet known. But the district, which in 2025-26 had 460 special education students, is planning for an additional $800,000 in special education costs this school year.

“It really skyrocketed,” Campolongo said. “I’ve never had an $800,000 increase in an expenditure line.”

The number of special education students has gradually increased across the region in recent years, mirroring national trends. Those are largely the result of reduced stigma surrounding disabilities, improved testing and diagnoses, and societal factors, including the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

School districts are responding by bolstering special education programs and adding teachers and aides. But they’re often met with tight budgets and staffing shortages.

Ten of Allegheny County’s 43 districts saw significant increases in special education students between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years, Pennsylvania Department of Education data shows.

That includes Baldwin-Whitehall, which saw an increase of 206 special education students between 2020-21 and 2024-25; Fox Chapel, 133; Gateway, 108; Montour, 134; Moon, 113; Mount Lebanon, 197; North Allegheny, 178; Pine-Richland, 151; South Park, 103; and West Jefferson Hills, 111.

Those numbers have also been increasing nationally and across Pennsylvania, where there were nearly 350,000 special education students in 2024-25. Across the country in 2023-24, 7 million kids ages 6 through 21 received special education and related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found in a July report.

The 1975 act guarantees a free appropriate public education to children with disabilities.

There is seemingly no data-driven reason behind the increase of certain numbers, said Mary Hartley, president of The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh and senior vice president of Achieva. But experts suggested two possible factors.

Hartley pointed to destigmatization of special education, which led parents to having their children tested so they could receive additional classroom support.

Douglas Fuchs, a research professor in the departments of special education and psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University, suggested that districts seeing declining standardized test scores are testing kids for special education at higher rates.

Other factors could include expanded definitions for some disabilities, including autism, which saw a 300% increase in diagnoses over the past 20 years, the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins reported last year.

Districts responding to that growth, however, are grappling with hefty price tags and low staffing.

Mandated expenses for special education have grown by 67% between 2013-14 and 2023-24, a 2026 Pennsylvania School Boards Association State of Education report found. On top of that, districts are required to pay tuition for students attending cyber and charter schools.

The average special education tuition rate paid to charter schools in 2020-21 was $28,553 per student, according to PSBA.

And special education has been hit particularly hard by a yearslong teacher shortage, leading to staffing issues among educators and paraprofessionals, the aides who help classroom teachers.

“The number of mandates and unfunded mandates that they’ve attached to special education has been growing,” South Park Superintendent Wayne Gdovic said. “We’re required by law to provide (a certain) amount of services, and the funding we do get from the state doesn’t even come close to putting a dent in the cost of it.”

Local responses

Becky Reynolds knew the life skills classroom for her son, Eli, wouldn’t meet the needs of his intellectual disability when she first enrolled him in the Moon Area School District.

Reynolds, a kindergarten teacher in the district, started advocating.

That work paid off — shortly after Eli, now 18 and a 2026 graduate, started at Moon, the district implemented a new program that better met his disability and the speech and language challenges he faced.

“As a parent, I couldn’t be happier,” Reynolds said. But as a teacher, she worries about the increase in the number of special education students, even while acknowledging that, as long as district support continues, “everything should be good.”

The district of 4,100 students has seen a 1% increase in special education students each year since at least 2024, with 19% of students qualifying for services in 2026, said Ashley Beeson, pupil services director.

In response, the district added life skills classes — today there are four in the elementary, three in the middle school and two in the high school. And officials are creating a transition program for recent graduates. Special education students are legally entitled to be in school until the last day they’re 21 years old.

Staff at Moon has also been bolstered. Since 2024, the district has hired 11 new special education teachers and six paraprofessionals.

The challenge, Beeson said, is adding enough new staff quickly to meet the unique needs of students that vary each year. Staffing must also fall within the district’s budget — Moon in 2026-27 allocated $14.3 million for special education out of a $105 million budget. By early August, the district had 55 special education teachers out of 330 total educators and 63 paraprofessionals. That number, officials said, can change based on student need.

Pennsylvania increased special education funding by $55 million in the budget passed in July, bringing total state education funding to $1.6 billion. Still, many districts say that’s not enough to cover the rising costs.

Moon will receive $2.7 million in special education funding from the state in 2026-27, $91,000 more than the year before.

Funding was key for Christopher Stone, Montour’s superintendent. The district of 3,300 had 605 special education students in 2024-25. That’s an increase from 471 in 2020-21.

The district recently added new autism support and behavior support classrooms, as well as additional teachers and aides. But the cost of those services is often not fully covered by state and federal reimbursements, placing additional pressure on local sources.

Montour in 2026-27 budgeted $11.2 million for special education, documents show. The district will receive $2 million from the state for the line item in 2026-27, an increase of $83,000 from 2025-26. But that increase still accounts for less than 1% of the district’s overall special education budget.

“The conversation around special education funding must recognize both the importance of providing high-quality services to students and the fiscal realities facing school districts,” Stone said. “Sustainable and equitable funding models are necessary to ensure districts can continue supporting students while maintaining strong educational opportunities for all learners.”

At South Park, a district of 1,900 students, financial concerns are often compounded when families with special education students move into the district mid-school year, leading to additional costs that weren’t initially budgeted.

For example, a maximum of eight students can be in an autism support classroom. If two new students move into the district midyear and the classroom is near capacity, officials must add another room, staff and transportation.

The district in 2026-27 budgeted $8.6 million for special education. They’ll receive $1.8 million from the state, about $50,000 more than last year.

To help alleviate costs, the district partners with neighboring schools to help with things such as transportation when possible. And they work with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which represents the county’s 43 school districts, to provide services such as therapies to students.

Campolongo, the South Park assistant superintendent, said the problem now is with the state.

“No district — not even Mount Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Fox Chapel — is going to survive when your special ed costs, you have to cover the difference of 90% of it,” Campolongo said. “It’s not working.”

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