The popular perception, especially in the time of recession, is that students with special needs are draining the schools dry. I have blogged previously that that perception is just empirically incorrect. The NYT just reported on the incredible high cost of addressing the needs of an individual with autism estimating the lifetime cost to be over $3 million. Much of that cost does not reflect the lost opportunity cost of parents missing work or not working at all. So the next time a newspaper publishes a story that implies or states that parents of students with special needs are a financial burden for the schools, fire back with the reality that their information is just empirically wrong, and does at all take into account how much parents shoulder the responsibility (not burden) for their children with special needs.