Jennifer Berzok would have loved to send her son to the local public school.

But the Montgomery County school district didn’t have a classroom that fit her son’s needs. Because Ben has autism, he required intensive attention from teachers with specialized training.

School leaders concluded that Ben belonged at Ivymount School, a nonpublic campus for students with developmental disabilities. And they agreed the Berzoks shouldn’t have to shoulder the hefty cost of attendance.

“He was entitled to an appropriate education and there was not one [school] in the public system that could provide him with that,” said Berzok, who lives in Bethesda.

Federal law gives children with disabilities the right to free schooling that meets their individual needs. If a Maryland public school can’t make that happen, the district can be required to pay tuition for a student to attend a specialized private campus.

It cost about $57 million to send roughly 700 Montgomery County students to nonpublic schools in fiscal year 2025, according to data from Maryland’s Nonpublic Tuition Assistance Program. They can be placed at private day schools, residential programs or campuses specifically for students who are blind and deaf.

“When I unpacked and uncovered this information, my eyebrows went to the top of my hairline,” said Margaret Cage, MCPS’ chief student support officer, as she discussed the costs at a recent board committee meeting.

The district serves roughly 160,000 students, meaning those who require a nonpublic placement represent a sliver the population.

And the cost of ensuring they receive an appropriate education could soon grow.

A new formula

The state shares responsibility for covering the cost of tuition, but it’s beginning to offload more of it onto local school systems.

Faced with a projected budget shortfall, the General Assembly shifted a heavier portion of the financial load onto school districts. The old cost-share formula dictated a 70-30 split between state and local funds, once the price of a nonpublic placement exceeded a certain threshold. In fiscal year 2026, it moved to 60-40.

The next year, it’ll be down to 50-50.

The change came as the state’s contribution to nonpublic placements ballooned in recent years, growing from $126 million in 2022 to $157 million in 2024, according to the Department of Budget and Management.

If it didn’t recalibrate the formula, the state expected to spend $172 million by 2026.

“The previous cost share for this program did not sufficiently balance financial accountability between the State and the local education agencies,” officials in the Department of Budget and Management wrote in a statement.

The new formula will hit Montgomery, Prince George’s and Baltimore County public school budgets especially hard. Those three counties account for more than half of Maryland’s special education placements.

Across the state, it cost about $335 million to pay for roughly 4,150 students last year. (A Maryland State Department of Education spokeswoman cautioned that this data may be incomplete.)

‘More contentious’

It can be arduous for parents of children with disabilities to secure tuition at specialized schools. Some turn to lawyers, spending huge amounts of time and money to fight for their child’s educational needs. Many reach this point only after years of advocating for better services.

Kim Glassman, a special education attorney, is concerned a greater reliance on local funds could lead district officials to push back against families seeking a more appropriate school setting for their child.

“I do worry that it’s going to be more contentious,” said Glassman, who is also an MCPS parent. “And if it’s more contentious, that means that parents have to have the wherewithal to have an expert who can prove their case and have an attorney who can argue their case.

“That’s not something that a lot of people have the resources lying around to fund.”

Montgomery County leaders say it’s essential to find schools that can serve every child.

“We want all of our kids to thrive, and we want to acknowledge that sometimes MCPS may not be able to provide that for them,” board member Rita Montoya said at a recent committee meeting.

Still, she highlighted the district’s “really tight fiscal constraints, where more and more and more keeps getting shoved to the local.”

“My hope is that we become better able to have our students stay in Montgomery County Public Schools rather than private placements,” Montoya said.

For that to happen, Glassman said, the district must create additional program options that will help children with disabilities to be successful.

To Berzok, the cost of nonpublic placements is an investment.

Ben would not have thrived in a traditional classroom, she said. At Ivymount, he was able to learn how to read and write, something she said would not have happened in a public school classroom. Now 21, Ben is in a job training program designed to connect him with an internship.

He’ll be matched with a position within Montgomery County government this week, she said.

“Ben’s dream is to have a job, live in an apartment and go on a date,” Berzok said. “We really think that he’s going to accomplish all of those things, and to a large extent, it’s going to be because of the opportunity to attend Ivymount.”