Griffin Farrell sits in an East Hills Middle School eighth-grade class learning equations alongside his peers.
It's something the 14-year-old with Down syndrome has done since kindergarten.
Griffin's brothers go to Catholic school. But his mother, Dena Farrell, said the Bethlehem Area School District has the best resources to work with her son's unique learning needs and allow him to be part of a regular classroom.
"It's been nothing but a positive experience. We've always wanted to do this as a team," Farrell said, referring to the district's special education program. "And they do everything as a team."
Griffin's inclusive curriculum has become standard for many special education students.
At the same time, it has become costlier for districts to provide.
According to a new report by the Education Law Center and the statewide coalition PA Schools Work, spending on special education has risen among the state's 500 school districts.
But the study says state funding has failed to keep up with rising costs, creating an ever-widening funding gap.
Spending across the commonwealth on special education increased 51 percent to $4,545,979,595 between 2008-09 and 2016-17.
Meanwhile, the state's share rose 7 percent to $1,041,792,660, over the same period, according to a Morning Call analysis of the study's data.
In the Lehigh Valley, the sluggish growth in state aid has hit Bethlehem Area the hardest, forcing it to use a larger share of its local revenue to pay for special education.
According to the study, Bethlehem's special education costs grew 79 percent to $37.5 million between 2008-09 and 2016-17.
During that period, the state's share of the funding pie for Bethlehem's special education program fell from 31 percent to 19 percent.
The change meant Bethlehem's share rose 25 percent, according to the analysis.
"Every year we fund a greater portion of this locally," said Stacy Gober, the chief financial officer for the Bethlehem Area School District.
Why special ed costs are rising
School funding experts point to three reasons for the rise in special education costs: A jump in the number of special education students, teacher training for inclusive classrooms and advances in technology used to aid special education students.
According to a report by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, total school enrollment across the state has dropped 2.6 percent.
But the number of those enrolled who qualify for special education increased by 2.1 percent between the 2010-11 and 2015-16.
For every special education student, the Individual with Disabilities Education Act of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 sets forth mandated rights.
Those include free public education in the least restrictive environment possible, assessments to determine needs and supplementary aids and services as necessary.
Special Education students are immersed in regular classrooms at East Hills Middle School.
Such mandates have led to more integration. As of 2015-16, more than 85 percent of the state's special education students were being taught in regular education classrooms more than 40 percent of the time, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
Integrating special education students into general education classrooms requires more training and professional development for teachers. It can also mean bringing in one-on-one student aides and next-generation technology that caters to the challenges of an individual student.
If their needs require it, some students remain in special education classrooms with a tailored curriculum. Students who need extra help are sent to Intermediate Unit 20, taking up another portion of the special education budget.
State funding below rate of inflation
Reynelle Brown Staley, a policy attorney with the Education Law Center, said the state funding has increased about 1 percent each year -- below the rate of inflation.
Meanwhile, special education costs have been creeping up about 5 percent annually, Staley said.
That means schools experiencing the widest gap between state aid and special education costs have to reach into other parts of their budget, consider raising taxes or forego some of the needs of already vulnerable students, Staley said.
Staley says Gov. Tom Wolf has been restoring basic and other education funding that had been cut and flat-funded during the Great Recession.
She welcomed Wolf's efforts, but said "the increases just haven't been significant enough to match the rate of increase or make up for the preceding years when there was no increase at all."
In 2013, a bipartisan special education funding commission championed by Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh County, took up the funding gap issue.
The end result was a tiered special education funding formula that funnels more money to districts with greater need.
Bethlehem's Gober said the amount being appropriated is still not enough.
"The state has made some improvements, but the pace is not adequate," she said. "The recovery gap is just so large."
Gober said the district tries its best to improve efficiency and invest in intervention as ways to reduce costs. But it's tricky to do so.
"The programs that are offered to the students in the special education arena are very customized, they become very expensive very quickly and they're mandated by federal law," she said.
Even more affluent districts like Parkland are seeing special educations costs rise and having to pull more and more of the balance from their local funds. Expenditures in Parkland climbed 49 percent since 2008-09, costing the district about $22.5 million in 2016-17.
The state's share of Parkland's special education funding pie fell from 22 percent to 16 percent.
"It's an area that's increasing much, much quicker than we can keep up with," said John Vignone, the director of business administration for the district. "That's the predicament. The solution? I don't know. But it is impacting Parkland like everyone else."
Parkland's advantage is growth and development, particularly in the southwestern portion of the district. More growth means more revenue and resources to cover the costs locally, Vignone said. But the status quo cannot last.
Browne said the special education funding commission was set to reconvene every five years to examine the formula and determine whether further changes or tweaks would help students and schools.
He said the commission will gather in January, but pointed out it has no authority to increase the amount of money going toward schools in the first place.
Browne said the desire to funnel more dollars toward education is strong among his colleagues in the state Legislature. The problem is resources.
"It is always -- in terms of new dollars -- it's always the first priority of the General Assembly and all its members to look to the education budget lines first," Browne said.
The senator agreed that special education funding appropriations needed to be addressed before the disparity becomes insurmountable.
"This is a constant conversation," Browne said.
Leigh Rusnak, Bethlehem's director of special education, said that while it's true special education costs have climbed, the strides made by public schools for these children have been remarkable.
"When you see the progress these students make, it's all worth it," she said. "They're actively impacting the community in which they live."
Once he's done with school, Griffin will find a job; his mother is confident of this. She credits her son's education, the expectations he's always been held to and the exposure to "everyone else."
"Putting the funding into education now is going to help alleviate the need for more funding when kids like Griffin are adults," Farrell said.
