Hechinger Report

New Jersey students with disabilities are the least likely in the nation to spend their days surrounded by peers without disabilities. One underlying reason: a sprawling network of separate schools that allows districts to outsource educating them. New Jersey has more than a hundred private schools, plus eight county-run districts specifically for students with disabilities. Districts spend hundreds of millions of dollars placing students in private schools rather than investing in their own staffing and programs — placements that cost New Jersey taxpayers $784 million in 2024, not including transportation. That’s up from about $725 million the year before. This can create a self-perpetuating cycle that increases reliance on separate schools and, experts say, may violate students’ federal right to spend as much time as possible learning alongside students without disabilities.