What is District 90 (River Forest Public Schools) doing to provide these mandated services in a cost-efficient way?
Prior to 1995, the majority of District 90 special education students received services outside of the District. Increasingly, it became more difficult to place River Forest students in other districts as the contracted school districts experienced an increase in their own special education populations.
This, combined with an increase in lawsuits over special education, led the District to create and provide special education programs in the District. This has allowed the District to control the quality of special education services it provides to its students. An unanticipated benefit of bringing services in-house has been a cost savings to the District. Per-pupil special education costs, including staff and administrative expenses, are far less than those costs incurred when services were contracted out of the District. Additionally, because there is far less litigation involving the quality and design of the District’s special education programming, more money goes to education rather than to costly litigation.
The District adheres to state requirements regarding caseload sizes and does not exceed the maximum number of students allowable for any one educator’s caseload. The caseload sizes, however, when calculated for District 90 students and River Forest residents who attend private/parochial schools in the village and receive services through the District, are either at or very close to capacity for each instructor.
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Please let us know what additional information concerning District 90 programs or fiscal challenges we can provide by completing the form below. The most common and appropriate questions will be included on this page in regular, frequent updates. Or, if you prefer, you can telephone the Committee to Preserve River Forest Schools hotline at (708) 488-1647.