I gotta disagree with this. Yes, there are funding restraints, but to say that and shrug falls short.
From personal experience I can say there are funds available for assistance thru federal and state programs but little effort to educate parents on how to get them. These funds can result in funding for a child to obtain the things they need, for example a personal assistant. The diocesan school system ought to have proactively put that information out there as well as the process for obtaining funds but didn't.
Can a parish school meet every need? No. But dioceses can be more aggressive in either starting niche special needs schools, educating parents on additional resources to stay in Catholic schools, or seeking grants and they by and large don't. (Shout out to Pittsburgh and St Louis as two examples that do, though)
A couple weeks ago there was a news story about Chicago public schools abruptly cutting the funding for 800 Catholic school students with disabilities. Now the Archdiocese has to argue with the public sector over the funding, which I'm sure was sizable given that so many students are affected.
I think the framing is entirely fair, but, even if you're correct, I wonder if your parochial school would welcome students with disabilities if they had exactly what they needed to make it happen. This article plus my experience with a Catholic autistic kid and his peers in the autism community leads me to believe the answer is absolutely not - or, more charitably, not yet.
Agree. I don't have any experience with this issue in Catholic schools but with regard to something as fundamental as attending Mass, reality is that for all the "prolife" and "Catholic" branded rhetoric, behavior and communication differences make people uncomfortable - and instead of reflecting on why they feel uncomfortable, people want "those" people somewhere else. Ask me how I know...
My kid is 6 and probably never going to behave "normally" at Mass. Regular parishioners know us, but we have a lot of visitors. Can't tell you the number of times people have conspicuously moved away from sitting near us, shushed us, and shot looks or made silent gestures, or the parishioner who said to me at an event, "oh you're the one with the loud child" or another who took us to task after we'd already retreated to the vestibule, "you are disrupting the Mass," and pointed a finger at the door for us to leave. And I'm sure all these folks are the first to piously send their kids to the better sort of Catholic classical prep school, congratulate themselves on building up the "culture of life" and improving decorum during Mass. Well, we're all made in the image and likeness, and we're all trying to get to heaven. Even my kid, even me.
I am really sorry that that has happened to you; that is awful. But it does not justify making judgments about people you don't know anything about; that is not respecting the fact that they are also made in the image and likeness of God, as you pointed out that we all are.
There is a recent article from the McGrath Institute at Notre Dame which does a good job of examining the discussion of the cost of people with disabilities. It’s well worth a read.
Great article, but it says that providing for these students is still expensive. And I think the simple fact is that we are between a rock and a hard place. If you pay for these services, the costs go up, which effectively means that there will be people who are priced out of Catholic schools. If you don't pay for the services, there will be students with disabilities who simply can't attend Catholic schools. You could alternatively try government funding, which might work in the short term, but who knows how long that lasts or what strings might come along with it? Every option has downsides and it just depends what prudentially you think is the smallest downside.
The trouble is that money often squeezes out more important resources, like ingenuity, perseverance, and competence. And also the ability to specialize and get really good at things within a certain sphere, which requires sacrificing being good at the many things outside that sphere.
From my view, this is a scarcity mentality which is inimical to good fundraising. In my real experience on this front, when a school says, "we're going to enroll all our parishioners because we're Catholic and this matters," the money shows up easily.
You've already admitted that your Catholic school is so large that they can have a 3rd and 4th grade baseball team. No Catholic school in my diocese is that big, and bet $100 that none are as wealthy as your parish. Sometimes poor rural states do have real resource issues that can't be fixed with positive thinking and better fundraising techniques.
It seems trite to say to a diocese that is looking at closing half their schools over a 20 year period with ~50% reductions in student populations over the last 10 years and teachers already making 50% of their public school counterparts with terrible benefits that the money problem is in their head and not a reality.
From my point of view, I regard enrolling parishioners with disabiltiies as a matter of fidelity to the Church's doctrine; the Gospel. It is my observation that when schools pivot hard towards fidelity, resources become far less scarce, for both spiritual and sociological resources.
I can point to examples where this has been the case, and I can say -- from my own experience -- I've not heard of a school that had to close its doors because the costs of special education were too high.
There aren't 9 boys in any grade in my kids' school, nor in 1/3 of the schools in my diocese.
We each inhabit fundamentally different Catholic education environments, and I'm not willing to say that yours is more faithful to the gospel because wealth and economies of scale enable things that most schools in my diocese can't provide.
"rom my point of view, I regard enrolling parishioners with disabiltiies as a matter of fidelity to the Church's doctrine; the Gospel."
I wish it was that simple, but it isn't. What is demanded by parents of disabled kids today is typically a suite of specialized services that weren't even available in public schools 50 years ago, let alone Catholic schools.
My kids' school once tried very hard to see if we could meet the needs of a disabled child whose brother attended the school. Even with a loss 10x that of an average student, the services at the public school were so specialized and superior that the family turned down the offer, and that girl had relatively mild disabilities compared to many kids.
Really, this is a first world argument. Nobody is arguing about this in the third world, because they aren't wealthy enough to think what you are saying is possible. It is so far out of reach, it hasn't crossed their mind. Are you saying that only rich Western Catholic schools are faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ? It sure seems to be what you are saying.
We have universal vouchers in Indiana. In our diocese, every single Catholic school has raised tuition above and beyond the voucher amount and eliminated discounts for families with more than one child enrolled. While the influx of money will lead to positive changes like salary increases for our wonderful teachers, absolutely no consideration has been given to special ed and/or the parish children who faithfully attend Mass and participate in parish life but conveniently vanish during the school hours because they are just a little too different. Conversations about inclusion for kids with disabilities - the kids who clearly stand out and don't pass as neurotypical - are not happening. The schools want certain types of kids/families and, sadly, the parents do too. There is a reason our parochial schools are the highest achieving schools in town, and it has nothing to do with a Christ-centered education. There is so much more to say, especially about vouchers and their impact on the mission of Catholic schools - but it seems to me the last thing they are doing is leading to more inclusion. For a school system that rests on the "we don't have the resources!", it is deeply frustrating and inexcusable, especially in the age of universal vouchers.
“The schools want certain types of kids/families and, sadly, the parents do too. There is a reason our parochial schools are the highest achieving schools in town, and it has nothing to do with a Christ-centered education.”
I inferred from this statement that the reason the parochial schools are the highest achieving is because they are not inclusive of neurodiverse students. Is that correct or did I misunderstand the reason you were alluding to?
I wouldn't say that's entirely my point - neurodiverse students are often high achieving students (I am talking test scores, which is how we measure performance here, not saying it's right or fair but it gives a baseline). "Neurodiverse" is such a broad term anymore - a non-verbal autistic kindergartener who cannot dress himself independently is considered neurodiverse, and so too is his outgoing, super creative, and maybe a little hyper peer, who happens to have an ADHD diagnosis but can function well enough in the classroom and tests well too. Where I live, the Catholic school is way more likely to accept the latter kid - and, importantly, they are under no legal obligation to serve the former child. Accepting the fairly typical ADHD kid also allows them to say they are inclusive at very little cost. Compare a public school classroom of 20 kids here with a local parochial school classroom of the same number. You will find a much higher percentage of kids with IEPs, behavioral issues, diverse socio-economic backgrounds, etc., in the public schools. With far fewer students facing barriers in the Catholic schools, it is no wonder they have the top scores in the state. Again, I live in a state where the money follows the student, so my experience is not universal. Still, I think it says something about the hearts and minds of our leaders in the diocese. They have more resources now - I am anxious to see how they treat this issue going forward!
This is a good point! An examination of conscience for schools: is our goal to mimic an elite private prep school experience or to provide a holistic, joyful, inspiring Christ-centered education for as many children as we can?
I remember when I wanted to go to a very well regarded Catholic high school after spending K-8 in the public school system. When asked about accommodations for students with learning disabilities, the response was more or less “we don’t do special ed.” It was an uphill battle during the admission process to get people to think I even had a place in the school given that, and the program they had for students with learning disabilities was in its infancy. I got in and I graduated from there ultimately, and they were perfectly happy to have my photo on their annual poster of national merit semifinalists and have me help carry the Quiz Bowl team to Nationals…but what if I hadn’t offered as much to the institution?
Your criticism seems premature, given that "the age of universal vouchers" began in 2026. It sounds like the voucher amounts are capped at 90% of the per-student public school costs, so it's likely they still don't cover the actual costs. In most cases, Catholic schools need subsidies from a parish or other entity, which you're ignoring or taking for granted.
In addition, IMO it would be prudent to ask how durable voucher funding is likely to be. A change in state government could reduce or eliminate it. In neighboring Illinois, the "Invest in Kids" act instituted a state tax credit for donors to direct funds to a program offering tuition scholarships to lower income families, mostly minorities. Starting in 2017, tens of thousands of students receiving grants to attend (mostly) Catholic and Christian schools. It was killed in 2023 due to pressure from organizations that you can guess.
I disagree that it is premature. Indiana has had universal vouchers in the pipeline for years - everyone knew it was coming, everyone knew the tuition hikes would follow. Most Catholic school families were already receiving vouchers anyway, we've gone from ~95% of enrolled students to 100% receiving vouchers for the 2026/2027 school year (at our school). As for the 90% cap, the schools offset the difference by increasing tuition well beyond what the voucher covers. As for parish subsidies, they are now eliminated (we were told this!) by the vouchers and the extra tuition money. Yes, there are a lot of other resources special ed kids could bring with them to their parochial school - but they still aren't being accepted, or made to feel welcome. Comparing Indiana to Illinois has little relevance here. A change in state government in Indiana? It's a deeply red state legislature and no one is touching vouchers. My frustration, though, is with the mission of Catholic schools and their reluctance to have conversations about including more kids with disabilities in their classrooms, and relying on the line "we just don't have the resources" to justify exclusion. Things do look differently today.
It’s like the behavior of colleges once federal student loans became a thing. The tuition became untethered from financial reality. It seems scandalous that Catholic schools would do that.
I also live in Indiana; the picture you're depicting isn't what I see at our Catholic school or the ones around us, either in terms of tuition hikes or in terms of the population served. Our school works with the local school district to bring in speech therapists, and we have several resource teachers on staff full-time, so we are able to serve a perhaps higher than average number of students who need more help. The schools around us (Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana) are becoming more diverse as more families are able to use vouchers; lower-income families, for example, who couldn't afford it previously are now able to provide a Catholic education for their kids.
I also think it's way too early to make any judgments about the impact of universal vouchers (which, by the way, I would not have passed if I was a state representative; $400,000 was a very high ceiling already, the families making more than that didn't need the help, and that money could have gone elsewhere that could potentially have made a bigger impact). They haven't even gone into effect yet, and I think it will take a few years to see how they change the demographics at Catholic schools. Schools that haven't previously accepted vouchers haven't even necessarily decided how they are going to allot that money moving forward. I don't think we need to rush to prejudge them.
I don't know which diocese you are in, but I still read Today's Catholic weekly and I have read that they have been working on making special ed available in some of the schools, but probably not all. They started introducing it a few years back when I still lived there. So it's not the same everywhere.
This is a great article. I would love a follow up highlighting Catholic schools that are doing special education well. It’s entirely possible and should be a priority for Catholic education. Funding can be a challenge, but there are definitely ways to utilize public funds since IDEA law requires that every child with disabilities have access to an appropriate education including students in private schools…funding is supposed to be allocated for special services. In reality these may be less than what would be provided for free at a public school but it’s still definitely something that parents deserve to be educated on and principals could learn how to leverage to help support special education in their schools. Having taught many kids with special needs in Catholic schools, I agree that more training is really important! (I had no special education training so had to learn a lot along the way!)
So grateful for their presence and effect on the class as a whole. I also taught in a public school with a specific program for students with very high levels of need. They were down the hall from my classroom and I was so blessed to see them daily and so grateful that our public school was a place they were welcomed and taught no matter what their disability.
I would love to see more Catholic schools open to these students’ presence and participation. What a witness to the dignity of humanity and our faith it would be!
The public money idea sounds great, but it always seems to come with strings, and some states are downright antagonistic to Catholic schools. My archdiocese recently forced all Catholic schools to get state certified for preschool. That decision cost over $100k, and monthly visits from state regulators who write the school up for ridiculous things that change very month based on the inspector. One regulator says do this, another says do that. Absolutely none if it affects actual education effectiveness. At a recent visit the regulator asked to see the first aid kit and then proceeded to walk off with it (how one does that on accident is beyond me). People in professional/neutral states have no idea what it is like to run a Catholic school in a blue state where the education bureaucracy is actively trying to destroy you because they hate the competition. In such states, state money is more of a burden than a resource.
As a mother of an autistic child, it hurts my heart that some Catholic schools report they have no interest in serving children with disabilities. Not even lip service: “we’d love to, but we can’t afford it.” Nope. The message is loud and clear: only typical children welcome. It is the worst feeling being excluded from your church community. Disabled people are part of the Church, too. They already face so many barriers: why should Catholic education be yet another one? What kind of witness is that?
And I’m tired of the “shrug, too expensive” attitude. Get creative! Prioritize children.
I remember seeing an interview with a disability activist who was involved in the passage of ADA and she observed, "you know what, my life costs money." Amen, sister. People are worth paying for, otherwise why are we even talking about "human dignity."
Absolutely! I think openness to children with different needs should be foundational in a Catholic environment. And although there are definitely some children who need a very specialized environment with really high adult to child ratio that I couldn’t provide, I have found that having students with disabilities in the general classroom has helped me teach all students more effectively. By learning how to teach students with dyslexia, autism, adhd, behavioral challenges, etc I have definitely become way better at teaching your average Joe student too. Everyone benefits. But teachers need support ti make it possible and it overwhelming.
That’s so beautiful. Thank you for the work that you do! And yes, I agree about teachers needing support. Creating an inclusive Catholic environment for everyone would require extensive training, hiring, and money. But if we claim to believe in the dignity of every human person, we should walk that walk, beginning with Catholic education for all.
I helped found and run a flourishing catholic enrichment program for homeschooled students. At least half of the students we serve would qualify for accommodations in a public school setting due to diagnoses such as Down syndrome, autism, ADHD in varying degrees of severity, dyslexia and dyscalculia, developmental delay, etc.
Families choose homeschooling over conventional schooling for many reasons, but lack of accommodations at parish schools is definitely a factor for many families.
Edited to add: I think it’s a bit…patronizing to be told resources are the barrier to providing services. Lack of hands, maybe. Lack of training, definitely. But when the school fundraisers are routinely hauling in six-figure or better cash profits, you just cannot convince me that a portion of that money could not be spent welcoming a wider slice of the Body of Christ for families that wish they had a seat at the table.
Another edit because this is a soapbox issue for me: The Church was the pioneer of education for the marginalized in the United States. Why the bishops/Church/diocesan superintendents/whomever are so reluctant to pioneer changing the model as needed is beyond me.
Catholic schools are routinely and persistently modeled on the K-12 public model for everything from school day length to testing. (Obviously less the universal accommodation for students with special needs) But is this really the best format for children and families?
Does it provide and promote family time? (No) Does it provide and promote time outside instead of time in a desk? (no). Does it provide and promote a rich curriculum that isn’t siloed and that is built upon enduring literature? (See Scholastic book fairs for a resounding no) Does it provide thorough catechesis (depends enormously upon the individual school). Does it, through its cost structure, provide access to single income families who choose that arrangement instead of essentially forcing both parents to work outside the home to survive in the modern economy the Church simultaneously decries? (lol no).
We can do better. Yet we seem married to a model that in many ways is seriously lacking. Why?
I'd guess that accreditation is part of the reason. For example, Singapore math is a better program IMO than common core math, but if the state has adopted common core it'll cost significant effort for a Catholic school to go a different way and maintain accreditation, especially if state officials are hostile for other reasons.
Even watered down Catholic accreditation agencies like the WCEA allow for Singapore math to be used. I don't think this is an issue, unless one is taking state money and then has to comply with state regulations. That's the real rub. Taking state money for disabled kids can be extremely difficult for countless other reasons in blue states that hate Catholic schools.
"But when the school fundraisers are routinely hauling in six-figure or better cash profits, you just cannot convince me that a portion of that money could not be spent welcoming a wider slice of the Body of Christ for families that wish they had a seat at the table."
Maybe you should ask what portion of the cost of education is covered by tuition? How much are teachers making relative to the public schools? In my diocese, teachers make around 50% of what they could make in the public schools and get terrible benefits. Many are on Medicaid. Tuition only covers 60% of the cost of education, and it is still out of reach for the lower middle class and below. Many states are losing school age population, further stretching resources. In my diocese, many schools have closed or are facing closure. My best guess is that in 10 years we will have half the number of Catholic schools that we had in 2015, and many that survive will barely do so.
Running a Catholic school is really complicated. The average Catholic gives only half as much to their parish as the average Protestant. Often the resources just aren't there.
I get the desire to innovate and serve students with special needs. A lot of Catholic schools have brought this on themselves by functioning like public schools with monthly mass and a dumbed down religion class. But many of the better schools really do lack resources, even if they have a six figure fundraiser on occasion. Often those fundraisers are needed just to keep the lights on.
I know of exactly one parish school in my diocese that serves a more working class population. That school was on the brink of closure due to low enrollment and has turned its fate around, seemingly due to being more affordable than other parish schools in that area. The school in my parish is very well funded. The schools my godchildren attend or have attended are well funded. The parish school I attended has a major private endowment. Our local catholic high schools give **athletic scholarships**. In high school. They have plenty of money.
Athletic scholarships? Ha, yeah, if they can give those out, then they just aren't prioritizing kids with disabilities. That's pretty sad.
I know that my kids' school has tried very hard to meet the needs of families in the parish with disabled kids. Once we worked out a plan and presented it to a family to invite them to consider enrolling their child, since their other kid was already attending. It would have been a massive sacrifice and a huge money losing operation to the tune of tens of thousands, but it still wasn't enough. When the family looked at what we could provide vs. all the special resources that the public schools could provide, they turned us down. There are so many resources today that public schools provide for disabled kids that weren't available even 25 years ago. It's impossible to compete for small Catholic schools that lack economies of scale.
I think that athletic scholarships are actually a great example of the prudential calculus at work here. First, because a good football team keeps alumni engaged and might overall generate money for the school. But also, many great athletes come from underprivileged backgrounds so if that school decided no more athletic scholarships and we are going to instead use that money to fund services for students with disabilities, that would likely push those athletes into public schools. Of course, I don't know the specific school you are mentioning, the specific economics of sports teams, and, not to mention, that many athletes aren't Catholic so one could argue we should prioritize them getting into Catholic schools (on the other hand, a good Catholic school might be exactly what they need and could even bring some of them into the faith). So what the right thing to do for the exact school you have in mind—I have no opinion on—but there are always real tradeoffs that need to be acknowledged.
At least in our archdiocese, special ed in private schools is complicated by the bulk of resources for special ed services usually coming from the county or school district where they are geographically located, because the schools themselves just can’t stretch their operating budgets any further. Some of the better Catholic schools in our area are located in severely under-resourced public school districts, which is a non-starter for many families. The first school we enrolled our special needs kid in was in that situation, and as we live in one of the best districts in the state on the other side of the county, it just didn’t make sense to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops to get resources through a struggling district in order to attend that school. But the schools shouldn’t just be relying on existing public resources-the dioceses really need to build a support structure that could even out the availability of resources. And so far it just doesn’t seem like it’s a fundraising priority. There are funds and initiatives for poor kids to afford tuition, but not for special education. Running schools and raising money can be hard, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when you ask, and that doesn’t seem to be happening yet, except for the initiative taken by individual schools.
"There are funds and initiatives for poor kids to afford tuition, but not for special education. "
Yes, but the funds for educating disabled kids would often be 3-8x that of a regular student, plus very specialized training oftentimes, to compete with public schools. Poor kids only require a single tuition write-off and enrolling them doesn't change how instruction in general is performed. If there is room in the classroom, it really doesn't cost much extra except for supplies, as one isn't losing tuition by giving scholarships to poor kids. It is possible to educate disabled kids, but it usually requires the hiring of dedicated teacher aids with special training. The calculus is entirely different, and the main objection to enrolling too many poor kids is that one can end up having large percentage of kids from broken, non-practicing homes, which then bring in bad influences to the school. The primary difficulty in educating disabled kids comes from hiring extra, dedicated staff.
I'm not saying people shouldn't try, but these really are very different situations, both monetarily and in the challenges they bring to the school community.
I'd say it's a small part of the overall picture and not an excuse for the overall failure, but on occasion things like school day are pegged to the local K-12 models because a resource is tied to it. For example, county will bus students but only in sync with public school schedule.
That’s interesting. I don’t think the transpiration piece applies in my diocese, though. One of the local catholic high schools runs buses to a few of the elementary schools to make drop off easier for families with multi-age children. Any of the school transportation for the parish elementary schools aside from getting students from them to the high school is private.
That's a good creative solution the HS came up with. I just raised transportation as part of a larger picture. I'm open to the argument that in certain respects a Catholic school may be yoked to the public system because of logistical issues. However, this would be more about things like start times (for bussing), curriculu in overlapping subjects (i.e. math, since those books may be purchased in bulk for both systems), etc.
I don't see how public school influences would inhibit accommodating students with disabilities. Oftentimes the PS does better, in no small part because they can be sued for failing to properly accommodate. That risk of financial liability forces allocation of resources. I'm a firm believer that torts can force change, even if it is painful; certainly they have with the abuse crisis.
I think public schools set a good example in that they admit students with disabilities and special needs, though the track record for actually educating them is less admirable in many cases. My original point was that parish schools, at least in my area, seem to model the least inspiring features of public schools for no apparently favorable reason.
I am employed by the largest public school system in NH as a Title 1 teacher and teach in one of the local Catholic schools that receives Title 1 funds. We are very blessed to have a superintendent in this Diocese that supports inclusion. (Inclusion is not yet happening in the best way within every school but I have faith that someday it will.) This Diocese also has a partnership with Schoolhouse Educational and Therapeutic Services, LLC. This Catholic Company provides training and services for teachers, leaders and students all over the Diocese. I urge you to look them up here schoolhouseservices.org; as another poster said, we learn from each other. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel but learn from those who are doing something well. They are making a meaningful, lasting and measurable impact along with NH FIRE Foundation. Those of us who care need to get involved in a real, tangible way and make an impact for these precious children of God. It is hard for me to understand why it is still a struggle 50 years after the dignity of all people (including those with a disability) was first mentioned but no matter, we do the work that must be done. In solidarity,
Summary of this discussion, there are five types of Catholic schools:
1. Ones providing these types of services (great!)
2. Ones that could afford these services today but don’t (they have some serious soul searching to do)
3. Ones that can't afford it today, but could if they put the effort in (again, some soul searching is needed because this should be a priority)
4. Ones that can't afford it today, but could afford it if they hiked tuition, which effectively turns away students from less well-off families (probably the hardest to say from the outside what they should do, but no one should claim there is an easy answer)
5. Ones that—at least in the forseeable future—could never afford this (rather unfortunate, but hard to see how we can criticize these schools)
We can all anecdotally identify schools in these categories, but it's essentially impossible to really judge unless we see the books (with the possible exception of schools that are clearly extremely wealthy but that aren't inclusive). JD thinks that a lot of schools fall in Category 3. But I would suggest that any argument about what percent of schools fall into which cateogry is essentially impossible without deep study that one is unlikely to find a comments section.
I basically believe categories 4 and 5 are a failure of diocesan imagination. I really do. Schools shouldn't be doing this on their own, but they should be doing it.
I'm a hardliner on this, because it seems obvious to me that part of being a Catholic school is being open to all parishioners.
Based on repeated experience, you often find that 3, 4, and 5 become 2 if you hand them the resources. Said otherwise, we have a problem of the heart but have been hiding behind a problem of the pocketbook.
I, admittedly, don't have a lot of specific experience in this area, and so I'm happy to defer to people like you and JD who do. But I can't help feeling that if we have three broad goals:
1. make Catholic schools affordable (especially for those families actually following church teaching, not contracepting, and thereby having large families)
2. make Catholic schools inclusive to kids with disabilities
3. pay Catholic school teachers a living wage
Doing all three of those things at the same time is diametrically opposed. So now, you're going to have to introduce outside money to do all three. It seems like that money may exist at the diocesan level if dioceses push for it.
Finally, even if the money does exist, that still means you're likely taking it away from something else which might also help the salvation of souls. Again, I think that having Catholic schools that are open to all is a great thing. I want all my kids to go to Catholic schools, and if I ever have a child with a disability, I want to know that there is a Catholic school that can take him. But in our prudential world where there is an essentially infinite number of good things one can do with money, when someone says: "There really is no choice, that money must be spent on X." My antennae go up.
Glad to hear about the national trends via this report. Our oldest is autistic and after a few tumultuous years of stumbling through multiple schools, we’re on the verge of transitioning him to an amazing Catholic school that is going above and beyond what our Archdiocese is doing to support kids with special needs. They’ve worked with an organization called “All Belong” to develop a strategy for building resources and training-they’re not Catholic but mostly help private Christian schools. It has been eye-opening as parents to learn how far Catholic schools, and the church more broadly still have to go to truly live out our imperative to recognize and uphold the dignity of every person.
I gotta disagree with this. Yes, there are funding restraints, but to say that and shrug falls short.
From personal experience I can say there are funds available for assistance thru federal and state programs but little effort to educate parents on how to get them. These funds can result in funding for a child to obtain the things they need, for example a personal assistant. The diocesan school system ought to have proactively put that information out there as well as the process for obtaining funds but didn't.
Can a parish school meet every need? No. But dioceses can be more aggressive in either starting niche special needs schools, educating parents on additional resources to stay in Catholic schools, or seeking grants and they by and large don't. (Shout out to Pittsburgh and St Louis as two examples that do, though)
A couple weeks ago there was a news story about Chicago public schools abruptly cutting the funding for 800 Catholic school students with disabilities. Now the Archdiocese has to argue with the public sector over the funding, which I'm sure was sizable given that so many students are affected.
When you say "the church" do you mean the diocese or the parish attached to the school?
I think the framing is entirely fair, but, even if you're correct, I wonder if your parochial school would welcome students with disabilities if they had exactly what they needed to make it happen. This article plus my experience with a Catholic autistic kid and his peers in the autism community leads me to believe the answer is absolutely not - or, more charitably, not yet.
Agree. I don't have any experience with this issue in Catholic schools but with regard to something as fundamental as attending Mass, reality is that for all the "prolife" and "Catholic" branded rhetoric, behavior and communication differences make people uncomfortable - and instead of reflecting on why they feel uncomfortable, people want "those" people somewhere else. Ask me how I know...
Tell us your story, Madeleine.
My kid is 6 and probably never going to behave "normally" at Mass. Regular parishioners know us, but we have a lot of visitors. Can't tell you the number of times people have conspicuously moved away from sitting near us, shushed us, and shot looks or made silent gestures, or the parishioner who said to me at an event, "oh you're the one with the loud child" or another who took us to task after we'd already retreated to the vestibule, "you are disrupting the Mass," and pointed a finger at the door for us to leave. And I'm sure all these folks are the first to piously send their kids to the better sort of Catholic classical prep school, congratulate themselves on building up the "culture of life" and improving decorum during Mass. Well, we're all made in the image and likeness, and we're all trying to get to heaven. Even my kid, even me.
I am really sorry that that has happened to you; that is awful. But it does not justify making judgments about people you don't know anything about; that is not respecting the fact that they are also made in the image and likeness of God, as you pointed out that we all are.
Thanks for such a supportive reply. /S
I am really, really sorry you've experienced that.
Thanks, JD. It's not easy to constantly show up for your child's right to exist in church and it takes a toll on one's entire family and faith.
Madeleine, I am truly sorry this has and is happening to you and your child. It it not what Jesus wants. Sending hugs. 💕
I prayed for you and your little one this evening 🙏
There is a recent article from the McGrath Institute at Notre Dame which does a good job of examining the discussion of the cost of people with disabilities. It’s well worth a read.
https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-church-and-the-cost-of-disability/
Great article, but it says that providing for these students is still expensive. And I think the simple fact is that we are between a rock and a hard place. If you pay for these services, the costs go up, which effectively means that there will be people who are priced out of Catholic schools. If you don't pay for the services, there will be students with disabilities who simply can't attend Catholic schools. You could alternatively try government funding, which might work in the short term, but who knows how long that lasts or what strings might come along with it? Every option has downsides and it just depends what prudentially you think is the smallest downside.
With finite resources comes finite results.
And with infinite resources comes… often mediocrity at best.
Yes, with infinite monetary resources certainly.
The trouble is that money often squeezes out more important resources, like ingenuity, perseverance, and competence. And also the ability to specialize and get really good at things within a certain sphere, which requires sacrificing being good at the many things outside that sphere.
From my view, this is a scarcity mentality which is inimical to good fundraising. In my real experience on this front, when a school says, "we're going to enroll all our parishioners because we're Catholic and this matters," the money shows up easily.
Certainly a fair point that “we’re not even going to try” is never a good response.
You've already admitted that your Catholic school is so large that they can have a 3rd and 4th grade baseball team. No Catholic school in my diocese is that big, and bet $100 that none are as wealthy as your parish. Sometimes poor rural states do have real resource issues that can't be fixed with positive thinking and better fundraising techniques.
It seems trite to say to a diocese that is looking at closing half their schools over a 20 year period with ~50% reductions in student populations over the last 10 years and teachers already making 50% of their public school counterparts with terrible benefits that the money problem is in their head and not a reality.
I totally understand what you're saying.
From my point of view, I regard enrolling parishioners with disabiltiies as a matter of fidelity to the Church's doctrine; the Gospel. It is my observation that when schools pivot hard towards fidelity, resources become far less scarce, for both spiritual and sociological resources.
I can point to examples where this has been the case, and I can say -- from my own experience -- I've not heard of a school that had to close its doors because the costs of special education were too high.
and for what it's worth, there's only 9 kids on my third grade roster, and it includes most of the boys in third grade.
;-)
(but i do hear what you're saying)
I also think there is evidence that schools open to enrolling kids with disabilities tend to see enrollment bounces.
There aren't 9 boys in any grade in my kids' school, nor in 1/3 of the schools in my diocese.
We each inhabit fundamentally different Catholic education environments, and I'm not willing to say that yours is more faithful to the gospel because wealth and economies of scale enable things that most schools in my diocese can't provide.
"rom my point of view, I regard enrolling parishioners with disabiltiies as a matter of fidelity to the Church's doctrine; the Gospel."
I wish it was that simple, but it isn't. What is demanded by parents of disabled kids today is typically a suite of specialized services that weren't even available in public schools 50 years ago, let alone Catholic schools.
My kids' school once tried very hard to see if we could meet the needs of a disabled child whose brother attended the school. Even with a loss 10x that of an average student, the services at the public school were so specialized and superior that the family turned down the offer, and that girl had relatively mild disabilities compared to many kids.
Really, this is a first world argument. Nobody is arguing about this in the third world, because they aren't wealthy enough to think what you are saying is possible. It is so far out of reach, it hasn't crossed their mind. Are you saying that only rich Western Catholic schools are faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ? It sure seems to be what you are saying.
I have been to MANY Catholic schools in the third world. They are filled with kids who have disabilities.
We have universal vouchers in Indiana. In our diocese, every single Catholic school has raised tuition above and beyond the voucher amount and eliminated discounts for families with more than one child enrolled. While the influx of money will lead to positive changes like salary increases for our wonderful teachers, absolutely no consideration has been given to special ed and/or the parish children who faithfully attend Mass and participate in parish life but conveniently vanish during the school hours because they are just a little too different. Conversations about inclusion for kids with disabilities - the kids who clearly stand out and don't pass as neurotypical - are not happening. The schools want certain types of kids/families and, sadly, the parents do too. There is a reason our parochial schools are the highest achieving schools in town, and it has nothing to do with a Christ-centered education. There is so much more to say, especially about vouchers and their impact on the mission of Catholic schools - but it seems to me the last thing they are doing is leading to more inclusion. For a school system that rests on the "we don't have the resources!", it is deeply frustrating and inexcusable, especially in the age of universal vouchers.
“The schools want certain types of kids/families and, sadly, the parents do too. There is a reason our parochial schools are the highest achieving schools in town, and it has nothing to do with a Christ-centered education.”
I inferred from this statement that the reason the parochial schools are the highest achieving is because they are not inclusive of neurodiverse students. Is that correct or did I misunderstand the reason you were alluding to?
I wouldn't say that's entirely my point - neurodiverse students are often high achieving students (I am talking test scores, which is how we measure performance here, not saying it's right or fair but it gives a baseline). "Neurodiverse" is such a broad term anymore - a non-verbal autistic kindergartener who cannot dress himself independently is considered neurodiverse, and so too is his outgoing, super creative, and maybe a little hyper peer, who happens to have an ADHD diagnosis but can function well enough in the classroom and tests well too. Where I live, the Catholic school is way more likely to accept the latter kid - and, importantly, they are under no legal obligation to serve the former child. Accepting the fairly typical ADHD kid also allows them to say they are inclusive at very little cost. Compare a public school classroom of 20 kids here with a local parochial school classroom of the same number. You will find a much higher percentage of kids with IEPs, behavioral issues, diverse socio-economic backgrounds, etc., in the public schools. With far fewer students facing barriers in the Catholic schools, it is no wonder they have the top scores in the state. Again, I live in a state where the money follows the student, so my experience is not universal. Still, I think it says something about the hearts and minds of our leaders in the diocese. They have more resources now - I am anxious to see how they treat this issue going forward!
This is a good point! An examination of conscience for schools: is our goal to mimic an elite private prep school experience or to provide a holistic, joyful, inspiring Christ-centered education for as many children as we can?
I remember when I wanted to go to a very well regarded Catholic high school after spending K-8 in the public school system. When asked about accommodations for students with learning disabilities, the response was more or less “we don’t do special ed.” It was an uphill battle during the admission process to get people to think I even had a place in the school given that, and the program they had for students with learning disabilities was in its infancy. I got in and I graduated from there ultimately, and they were perfectly happy to have my photo on their annual poster of national merit semifinalists and have me help carry the Quiz Bowl team to Nationals…but what if I hadn’t offered as much to the institution?
Your criticism seems premature, given that "the age of universal vouchers" began in 2026. It sounds like the voucher amounts are capped at 90% of the per-student public school costs, so it's likely they still don't cover the actual costs. In most cases, Catholic schools need subsidies from a parish or other entity, which you're ignoring or taking for granted.
In addition, IMO it would be prudent to ask how durable voucher funding is likely to be. A change in state government could reduce or eliminate it. In neighboring Illinois, the "Invest in Kids" act instituted a state tax credit for donors to direct funds to a program offering tuition scholarships to lower income families, mostly minorities. Starting in 2017, tens of thousands of students receiving grants to attend (mostly) Catholic and Christian schools. It was killed in 2023 due to pressure from organizations that you can guess.
I disagree that it is premature. Indiana has had universal vouchers in the pipeline for years - everyone knew it was coming, everyone knew the tuition hikes would follow. Most Catholic school families were already receiving vouchers anyway, we've gone from ~95% of enrolled students to 100% receiving vouchers for the 2026/2027 school year (at our school). As for the 90% cap, the schools offset the difference by increasing tuition well beyond what the voucher covers. As for parish subsidies, they are now eliminated (we were told this!) by the vouchers and the extra tuition money. Yes, there are a lot of other resources special ed kids could bring with them to their parochial school - but they still aren't being accepted, or made to feel welcome. Comparing Indiana to Illinois has little relevance here. A change in state government in Indiana? It's a deeply red state legislature and no one is touching vouchers. My frustration, though, is with the mission of Catholic schools and their reluctance to have conversations about including more kids with disabilities in their classrooms, and relying on the line "we just don't have the resources" to justify exclusion. Things do look differently today.
It’s like the behavior of colleges once federal student loans became a thing. The tuition became untethered from financial reality. It seems scandalous that Catholic schools would do that.
I also live in Indiana; the picture you're depicting isn't what I see at our Catholic school or the ones around us, either in terms of tuition hikes or in terms of the population served. Our school works with the local school district to bring in speech therapists, and we have several resource teachers on staff full-time, so we are able to serve a perhaps higher than average number of students who need more help. The schools around us (Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana) are becoming more diverse as more families are able to use vouchers; lower-income families, for example, who couldn't afford it previously are now able to provide a Catholic education for their kids.
I also think it's way too early to make any judgments about the impact of universal vouchers (which, by the way, I would not have passed if I was a state representative; $400,000 was a very high ceiling already, the families making more than that didn't need the help, and that money could have gone elsewhere that could potentially have made a bigger impact). They haven't even gone into effect yet, and I think it will take a few years to see how they change the demographics at Catholic schools. Schools that haven't previously accepted vouchers haven't even necessarily decided how they are going to allot that money moving forward. I don't think we need to rush to prejudge them.
I don't know which diocese you are in, but I still read Today's Catholic weekly and I have read that they have been working on making special ed available in some of the schools, but probably not all. They started introducing it a few years back when I still lived there. So it's not the same everywhere.
This is a great article. I would love a follow up highlighting Catholic schools that are doing special education well. It’s entirely possible and should be a priority for Catholic education. Funding can be a challenge, but there are definitely ways to utilize public funds since IDEA law requires that every child with disabilities have access to an appropriate education including students in private schools…funding is supposed to be allocated for special services. In reality these may be less than what would be provided for free at a public school but it’s still definitely something that parents deserve to be educated on and principals could learn how to leverage to help support special education in their schools. Having taught many kids with special needs in Catholic schools, I agree that more training is really important! (I had no special education training so had to learn a lot along the way!)
So grateful for their presence and effect on the class as a whole. I also taught in a public school with a specific program for students with very high levels of need. They were down the hall from my classroom and I was so blessed to see them daily and so grateful that our public school was a place they were welcomed and taught no matter what their disability.
I would love to see more Catholic schools open to these students’ presence and participation. What a witness to the dignity of humanity and our faith it would be!
The public money idea sounds great, but it always seems to come with strings, and some states are downright antagonistic to Catholic schools. My archdiocese recently forced all Catholic schools to get state certified for preschool. That decision cost over $100k, and monthly visits from state regulators who write the school up for ridiculous things that change very month based on the inspector. One regulator says do this, another says do that. Absolutely none if it affects actual education effectiveness. At a recent visit the regulator asked to see the first aid kit and then proceeded to walk off with it (how one does that on accident is beyond me). People in professional/neutral states have no idea what it is like to run a Catholic school in a blue state where the education bureaucracy is actively trying to destroy you because they hate the competition. In such states, state money is more of a burden than a resource.
As a mother of an autistic child, it hurts my heart that some Catholic schools report they have no interest in serving children with disabilities. Not even lip service: “we’d love to, but we can’t afford it.” Nope. The message is loud and clear: only typical children welcome. It is the worst feeling being excluded from your church community. Disabled people are part of the Church, too. They already face so many barriers: why should Catholic education be yet another one? What kind of witness is that?
And I’m tired of the “shrug, too expensive” attitude. Get creative! Prioritize children.
I remember seeing an interview with a disability activist who was involved in the passage of ADA and she observed, "you know what, my life costs money." Amen, sister. People are worth paying for, otherwise why are we even talking about "human dignity."
Absolutely! I think openness to children with different needs should be foundational in a Catholic environment. And although there are definitely some children who need a very specialized environment with really high adult to child ratio that I couldn’t provide, I have found that having students with disabilities in the general classroom has helped me teach all students more effectively. By learning how to teach students with dyslexia, autism, adhd, behavioral challenges, etc I have definitely become way better at teaching your average Joe student too. Everyone benefits. But teachers need support ti make it possible and it overwhelming.
That’s so beautiful. Thank you for the work that you do! And yes, I agree about teachers needing support. Creating an inclusive Catholic environment for everyone would require extensive training, hiring, and money. But if we claim to believe in the dignity of every human person, we should walk that walk, beginning with Catholic education for all.
I helped found and run a flourishing catholic enrichment program for homeschooled students. At least half of the students we serve would qualify for accommodations in a public school setting due to diagnoses such as Down syndrome, autism, ADHD in varying degrees of severity, dyslexia and dyscalculia, developmental delay, etc.
Families choose homeschooling over conventional schooling for many reasons, but lack of accommodations at parish schools is definitely a factor for many families.
Edited to add: I think it’s a bit…patronizing to be told resources are the barrier to providing services. Lack of hands, maybe. Lack of training, definitely. But when the school fundraisers are routinely hauling in six-figure or better cash profits, you just cannot convince me that a portion of that money could not be spent welcoming a wider slice of the Body of Christ for families that wish they had a seat at the table.
Another edit because this is a soapbox issue for me: The Church was the pioneer of education for the marginalized in the United States. Why the bishops/Church/diocesan superintendents/whomever are so reluctant to pioneer changing the model as needed is beyond me.
Catholic schools are routinely and persistently modeled on the K-12 public model for everything from school day length to testing. (Obviously less the universal accommodation for students with special needs) But is this really the best format for children and families?
Does it provide and promote family time? (No) Does it provide and promote time outside instead of time in a desk? (no). Does it provide and promote a rich curriculum that isn’t siloed and that is built upon enduring literature? (See Scholastic book fairs for a resounding no) Does it provide thorough catechesis (depends enormously upon the individual school). Does it, through its cost structure, provide access to single income families who choose that arrangement instead of essentially forcing both parents to work outside the home to survive in the modern economy the Church simultaneously decries? (lol no).
We can do better. Yet we seem married to a model that in many ways is seriously lacking. Why?
I'd guess that accreditation is part of the reason. For example, Singapore math is a better program IMO than common core math, but if the state has adopted common core it'll cost significant effort for a Catholic school to go a different way and maintain accreditation, especially if state officials are hostile for other reasons.
I think that is a very small part of it, but there are other accrediting bodies.
Even watered down Catholic accreditation agencies like the WCEA allow for Singapore math to be used. I don't think this is an issue, unless one is taking state money and then has to comply with state regulations. That's the real rub. Taking state money for disabled kids can be extremely difficult for countless other reasons in blue states that hate Catholic schools.
This is a bit off topic, but check out Dr. Michael Hanby's talk about 3 weeks ago,
"The Signs of the Times" about Catholic curriculum and the St. Jerome Project.
Well worth the time when you can. (It is my soap box too, starting to feel like a nag.)
I will definitely look that up. Thank you!
Thank you for pointing this out! Very interesting and important
Erin, do you have a link? I'm not finding it.
Thanks!
https://youtu.be/nSRm4iZ2HCw?si=MXYv6LeqtExzzHW9
Hope this works ;)
Yes, this works!
Many thanks!
"But when the school fundraisers are routinely hauling in six-figure or better cash profits, you just cannot convince me that a portion of that money could not be spent welcoming a wider slice of the Body of Christ for families that wish they had a seat at the table."
Maybe you should ask what portion of the cost of education is covered by tuition? How much are teachers making relative to the public schools? In my diocese, teachers make around 50% of what they could make in the public schools and get terrible benefits. Many are on Medicaid. Tuition only covers 60% of the cost of education, and it is still out of reach for the lower middle class and below. Many states are losing school age population, further stretching resources. In my diocese, many schools have closed or are facing closure. My best guess is that in 10 years we will have half the number of Catholic schools that we had in 2015, and many that survive will barely do so.
Running a Catholic school is really complicated. The average Catholic gives only half as much to their parish as the average Protestant. Often the resources just aren't there.
I get the desire to innovate and serve students with special needs. A lot of Catholic schools have brought this on themselves by functioning like public schools with monthly mass and a dumbed down religion class. But many of the better schools really do lack resources, even if they have a six figure fundraiser on occasion. Often those fundraisers are needed just to keep the lights on.
I know of exactly one parish school in my diocese that serves a more working class population. That school was on the brink of closure due to low enrollment and has turned its fate around, seemingly due to being more affordable than other parish schools in that area. The school in my parish is very well funded. The schools my godchildren attend or have attended are well funded. The parish school I attended has a major private endowment. Our local catholic high schools give **athletic scholarships**. In high school. They have plenty of money.
Athletic scholarships? Ha, yeah, if they can give those out, then they just aren't prioritizing kids with disabilities. That's pretty sad.
I know that my kids' school has tried very hard to meet the needs of families in the parish with disabled kids. Once we worked out a plan and presented it to a family to invite them to consider enrolling their child, since their other kid was already attending. It would have been a massive sacrifice and a huge money losing operation to the tune of tens of thousands, but it still wasn't enough. When the family looked at what we could provide vs. all the special resources that the public schools could provide, they turned us down. There are so many resources today that public schools provide for disabled kids that weren't available even 25 years ago. It's impossible to compete for small Catholic schools that lack economies of scale.
I think that athletic scholarships are actually a great example of the prudential calculus at work here. First, because a good football team keeps alumni engaged and might overall generate money for the school. But also, many great athletes come from underprivileged backgrounds so if that school decided no more athletic scholarships and we are going to instead use that money to fund services for students with disabilities, that would likely push those athletes into public schools. Of course, I don't know the specific school you are mentioning, the specific economics of sports teams, and, not to mention, that many athletes aren't Catholic so one could argue we should prioritize them getting into Catholic schools (on the other hand, a good Catholic school might be exactly what they need and could even bring some of them into the faith). So what the right thing to do for the exact school you have in mind—I have no opinion on—but there are always real tradeoffs that need to be acknowledged.
At least in our archdiocese, special ed in private schools is complicated by the bulk of resources for special ed services usually coming from the county or school district where they are geographically located, because the schools themselves just can’t stretch their operating budgets any further. Some of the better Catholic schools in our area are located in severely under-resourced public school districts, which is a non-starter for many families. The first school we enrolled our special needs kid in was in that situation, and as we live in one of the best districts in the state on the other side of the county, it just didn’t make sense to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops to get resources through a struggling district in order to attend that school. But the schools shouldn’t just be relying on existing public resources-the dioceses really need to build a support structure that could even out the availability of resources. And so far it just doesn’t seem like it’s a fundraising priority. There are funds and initiatives for poor kids to afford tuition, but not for special education. Running schools and raising money can be hard, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when you ask, and that doesn’t seem to be happening yet, except for the initiative taken by individual schools.
"There are funds and initiatives for poor kids to afford tuition, but not for special education. "
Yes, but the funds for educating disabled kids would often be 3-8x that of a regular student, plus very specialized training oftentimes, to compete with public schools. Poor kids only require a single tuition write-off and enrolling them doesn't change how instruction in general is performed. If there is room in the classroom, it really doesn't cost much extra except for supplies, as one isn't losing tuition by giving scholarships to poor kids. It is possible to educate disabled kids, but it usually requires the hiring of dedicated teacher aids with special training. The calculus is entirely different, and the main objection to enrolling too many poor kids is that one can end up having large percentage of kids from broken, non-practicing homes, which then bring in bad influences to the school. The primary difficulty in educating disabled kids comes from hiring extra, dedicated staff.
I'm not saying people shouldn't try, but these really are very different situations, both monetarily and in the challenges they bring to the school community.
I'd say it's a small part of the overall picture and not an excuse for the overall failure, but on occasion things like school day are pegged to the local K-12 models because a resource is tied to it. For example, county will bus students but only in sync with public school schedule.
That’s interesting. I don’t think the transpiration piece applies in my diocese, though. One of the local catholic high schools runs buses to a few of the elementary schools to make drop off easier for families with multi-age children. Any of the school transportation for the parish elementary schools aside from getting students from them to the high school is private.
That's a good creative solution the HS came up with. I just raised transportation as part of a larger picture. I'm open to the argument that in certain respects a Catholic school may be yoked to the public system because of logistical issues. However, this would be more about things like start times (for bussing), curriculu in overlapping subjects (i.e. math, since those books may be purchased in bulk for both systems), etc.
I don't see how public school influences would inhibit accommodating students with disabilities. Oftentimes the PS does better, in no small part because they can be sued for failing to properly accommodate. That risk of financial liability forces allocation of resources. I'm a firm believer that torts can force change, even if it is painful; certainly they have with the abuse crisis.
I think public schools set a good example in that they admit students with disabilities and special needs, though the track record for actually educating them is less admirable in many cases. My original point was that parish schools, at least in my area, seem to model the least inspiring features of public schools for no apparently favorable reason.
I am employed by the largest public school system in NH as a Title 1 teacher and teach in one of the local Catholic schools that receives Title 1 funds. We are very blessed to have a superintendent in this Diocese that supports inclusion. (Inclusion is not yet happening in the best way within every school but I have faith that someday it will.) This Diocese also has a partnership with Schoolhouse Educational and Therapeutic Services, LLC. This Catholic Company provides training and services for teachers, leaders and students all over the Diocese. I urge you to look them up here schoolhouseservices.org; as another poster said, we learn from each other. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel but learn from those who are doing something well. They are making a meaningful, lasting and measurable impact along with NH FIRE Foundation. Those of us who care need to get involved in a real, tangible way and make an impact for these precious children of God. It is hard for me to understand why it is still a struggle 50 years after the dignity of all people (including those with a disability) was first mentioned but no matter, we do the work that must be done. In solidarity,
- We can’t afford it
- We have these other kids to consider
- It’s in the child’s best interest
- We don’t have experience or expertise in this
- We only welcome a certain type of kid
- People might think less of us
- Someone else could do this better than us
- Send us a different, less complicated child
These unwelcoming Catholic schools sound just like parents rationalizing their abortion.
Summary of this discussion, there are five types of Catholic schools:
1. Ones providing these types of services (great!)
2. Ones that could afford these services today but don’t (they have some serious soul searching to do)
3. Ones that can't afford it today, but could if they put the effort in (again, some soul searching is needed because this should be a priority)
4. Ones that can't afford it today, but could afford it if they hiked tuition, which effectively turns away students from less well-off families (probably the hardest to say from the outside what they should do, but no one should claim there is an easy answer)
5. Ones that—at least in the forseeable future—could never afford this (rather unfortunate, but hard to see how we can criticize these schools)
We can all anecdotally identify schools in these categories, but it's essentially impossible to really judge unless we see the books (with the possible exception of schools that are clearly extremely wealthy but that aren't inclusive). JD thinks that a lot of schools fall in Category 3. But I would suggest that any argument about what percent of schools fall into which cateogry is essentially impossible without deep study that one is unlikely to find a comments section.
I basically believe categories 4 and 5 are a failure of diocesan imagination. I really do. Schools shouldn't be doing this on their own, but they should be doing it.
I'm a hardliner on this, because it seems obvious to me that part of being a Catholic school is being open to all parishioners.
Thanks for the clarification!
The push for inclusivity in Fort Wayne-South Bend schools appears to have come from the chancery.
Based on repeated experience, you often find that 3, 4, and 5 become 2 if you hand them the resources. Said otherwise, we have a problem of the heart but have been hiding behind a problem of the pocketbook.
I, admittedly, don't have a lot of specific experience in this area, and so I'm happy to defer to people like you and JD who do. But I can't help feeling that if we have three broad goals:
1. make Catholic schools affordable (especially for those families actually following church teaching, not contracepting, and thereby having large families)
2. make Catholic schools inclusive to kids with disabilities
3. pay Catholic school teachers a living wage
Doing all three of those things at the same time is diametrically opposed. So now, you're going to have to introduce outside money to do all three. It seems like that money may exist at the diocesan level if dioceses push for it.
Finally, even if the money does exist, that still means you're likely taking it away from something else which might also help the salvation of souls. Again, I think that having Catholic schools that are open to all is a great thing. I want all my kids to go to Catholic schools, and if I ever have a child with a disability, I want to know that there is a Catholic school that can take him. But in our prudential world where there is an essentially infinite number of good things one can do with money, when someone says: "There really is no choice, that money must be spent on X." My antennae go up.
Glad to hear about the national trends via this report. Our oldest is autistic and after a few tumultuous years of stumbling through multiple schools, we’re on the verge of transitioning him to an amazing Catholic school that is going above and beyond what our Archdiocese is doing to support kids with special needs. They’ve worked with an organization called “All Belong” to develop a strategy for building resources and training-they’re not Catholic but mostly help private Christian schools. It has been eye-opening as parents to learn how far Catholic schools, and the church more broadly still have to go to truly live out our imperative to recognize and uphold the dignity of every person.