Funding Follows Students: Descriptive Evidence from NYC’s Fair Student Funding (2005–2012) for Students with Disabilities

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of New York City’s Fair Student Funding (FSF) reform and documents associations between the reform, school composition, spending patterns, and student outcomes, with special attention to students with disabilities (SWDs). The FSF reform aimed to address funding inequities by aligning per-student funding across schools based on student needs. Using a difference-in-difference regression approach, the study examines how the reform is associated with changes in student composition, special education classification, and spending patterns in schools, and whether these patterns varied by school organization, size, and student subgroup. Findings document post-reform increases in math value-added for general education students and no clear improvements for SWDs, alongside measurable composition changes. These patterns are interpreted as associational, and the discussion highlights potential mechanisms and constraints, which are suggestive and not directly tested in this study.