Wichita ? Five-year-old Garrett Drinkwine walks on a wooden beam toward a basket, ball held high over his head.

Garrett’s autism often makes school a struggle for him and the therapists, teachers and paraprofessionals at Wichita’s Levy Special Education Center. He is walking on a beam in the school’s physical therapy room to improve his muscle tone.

He shoots and scores.

“This is a good day,” said Denise Ives, a physical therapist. “He’s made a lot of progress. He used to spend most of his time in timeout.”

The time Garrett spends working with Ives at school is aimed at improving his physical health, and such therapy can be unbelievably expensive. It also is time — and money — not spent in a classroom working on reading, writing and the other lessons 5-year-olds begin in kindergarten.

The money used to teach Garrett and the growing number of Kansas students with special needs comes from the same $2.7 billion given annually to the state’s 301 school districts. And that, say school officials in Wichita and across Kansas, can be unbelievably frustrating.

“These special education funds should not be taken from the same pot when the needs of some of the served students are medical and not educational,” said Cherryvale Supt. Randy Wagoner.

Educating Garrett and Wichita’s 10,000 other special-needs students requires the district to juggle staff, resources and needs of some of the state’s most fragile students. Statewide, administrators say their districts don’t get enough money for special education, often forcing them to decide between the needs of their general student population and one or two special education students.

That conflict is one of the reasons cited by the Kansas Supreme Court last month when it ruled the state was failing to meet a constitutional duty to provide all students with a suitable education. The court gave legislators until April 12 to provide more money and distribute it more fairly.

The court directed the lawmakers to consider not only more spending for special education but also additional dollars for bilingual education and programs for at-risk children.

Five-year-old Garret Drinkwine is pushed on a swing by occupational therapist Vanessa Eberhart at Levy Special Education Center in Wichita. Special education is one of the major issues facing legislators as they work to meet an April 12 deadline set by the Kansas Supreme Court to improve education funding.

Not enough funding

Special education programs are expected to cost Kansas school districts $605 million during the 2005-06 school year. Federal law requires all public schools to provide such services, but state and federal funds will fall some $65 million short this school year of covering the total cost, forcing districts to divert money from other programs.

And even with that diversion from traditional education programs, officials argue, the money that is spent is not enough.

“You just know the kids aren’t getting their needs met,” said Neil Guthrie, Wichita’s special education director.

Special education programs serve children with health problems, behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, mild to severe mental retardation and multiple and severe disabilities that prevent students from walking, speaking or feeding themselves. They also serve gifted students.

State officials estimate that schools spend an average of $12,525 on each special education student, nearly $6,000 more than the average for students without special needs. Wichita, the state’s largest school district, spends $81 million annually on special education alone.

Hydro therapist Suzy Cody puts Alexis Morris, 15, through range of motion exercises while Peter Hampel, 15, waits his turn at Levy Special Education Center in Wichita. Special education is one of the major issues facing legislators in the school-finance quandary this session.

Statewide, 13 percent of students are in special education programs. The national average is slightly higher. In Wichita, the figure is 18 percent, pushing the district’s total average spending per student past $9,500.

The equipment needs of special education students is one reason for the high costs. Electronic devices that mimic speech and other computers cost thousands of dollars each, and a lift chair to help students out of wheelchairs costs $6,000. Garrett’s education, meanwhile, is labor-intensive. Ives, an occupational therapist and a paraprofessional, works with him daily to improve motor skills and muscle tone.

Increasing enrollment

Overall enrollment in special education is growing at the rate of 1 percent to 2 percent a year. The fastest-growing groups are autistic children, children with learning disabilities and those with other health problems, including chronic and acute conditions.

In Manhattan, special education enrollment is up despite an overall enrollment decline.

“The alarming thing about this is the type of special ed students we see,” said Pam Russell, the district’s interim special education director. “It isn’t the mild disabilities that are increasing, but rather the severe disabilities. The resources needed to support these children are many and expensive.”

For example, Russell said, autistic children require a “safe room” to minimize distractions and allow individualized instruction. Children need constant supervision, often two adults for each child, she said. That staff needs special training.

Fail first?

Educators also say they need more money to identify students who need services and identify them at a younger age.

Alexa Posny, assistant state commissioner of education, said about 15 percent of the students were easy to identify because of their disabilities. As for the other 85 percent, she said, “What almost has to happen is a child has to fail before we can help them.”

And when students aren’t identified as needing services until the fifth grade, she said, “Less than 20 percent will ever get caught up, and a majority will drop out.”