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The market for residential and day schools for children with severe emotional disturbance

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Abstract

This article describes the market for residential and day programs that provide education and treatment services on site for children with severe emotional disturbance (SED) in terms of the market’s size, cost, and ownership mix. As policymakers encourage integration of services across sectors, this research fills a gap in the mental health services literature by providing a baseline of information on facilities from the education sector. Data are used from a national, stratified sample survey of separate day and residential schools for children with handicaps conducted by the Department of Education. There are 1,523 facilities providing educational and treatment services to 117,720 children with SED. Over half of the facilities are nonprofit, one-third are public, and less than one-tenth are for-profit. These programs represent a significant market of services for children with SED. Substantial differences in cost exist across ownership form that cannot be attributed to differences in size of facility or case mix of children enrolled.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mental Hygiene, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Room 805, 21205, Baltimore, MD

    Christine S. Spencer Sc.D. (Assistant Professor) & Deborah Shelton Ph.D. (a NASMHPD postdoctoral fellow)

  2. the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, 624 N. Broadway, Room 805, 21205, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Richard G. Frank Ph.D. (a professor of health economics)

Authors
  1. Christine S. Spencer Sc.D.
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  2. Deborah Shelton Ph.D.
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  3. Richard G. Frank Ph.D.
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Additional information

This project was supported by Grant 1-RO1-MH51203-01 by the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Spencer, C.S., Shelton, D. & Frank, R.G. The market for residential and day schools for children with severe emotional disturbance. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research 24, 72–81 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02790482

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02790482

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