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Special education teachers spend about 600 hours a year generating required forms for an average of 25 students each, or about 24 hours/student per year, according to an independent study by Dr. Charles D. Morrill, Jr., professor of special education at Johnson College in Johnson, Vermont. Field tests in 1994 demonstrated that a MasterTrack prototype reduced the amount of staff time spent on required paperwork by 35% or more. This translates into a savings of more than $675 per student in teacher time alone. Additional savings can be realized by central office administration with the use of MasterTrack's Medicaid reimbursement tracking feature, child count tools, and district-wide audit components. Savings in legal fees could be as much as three to four times this amount.

Estimated total federal and state spending for special education in FY '95-'96 is more than $30 billion. Including local matching funds, this represents approximately $12,000 for each special education student, or about twice that spent for each general education student. Administrative costs are estimated to comprise more than 30% of this amount.

In the face of intense political pressure to target limited financial resources directly to students, school systems nationwide face a dilemma: They are being asked to cut administrative costs at a time when the number of special education students for whom increasing amounts of paperwork are required in order to comply with government regulations and to guard against the increasing popularity of legal challenges continues to rise. In this atmosphere, MasterTrack is an invaluable tool to help schools reduce administrative and legal costs while actually exceeding administrative requirements.