Return on investment
Find your district and we start from its own public figures: its schools and its students with IEPs. Every cost per case is a published national or state figure, and every count is an estimate you can change. The total updates as you type.
Pick a district to fill this in, or type your number of schools.
$2,500 per school, per year
Costs leaders already know
PULSE shows which staff are carrying more than a sustainable week, while there is still time to act.
1 × $25,000 = $25,000
Replacing a teacher costs nearly $25,000 in large districts (Learning Policy Institute, 2024). 78.5% of school SLPs report more openings than people to fill them (ASHA, 2024).
PULSE sets required FTE from the minutes on every IEP, building by building, so no position is added or kept without the need behind it.
0.2 FTE × $74,849 × 1.25 with benefits = $18,712
Median school SLP salary $74,849 (ASHA, 2024). The benefits load is your district’s own figure; 25% is a starting point.
PULSE keeps every placement and its cost on one register and shows where an in-district program could serve a group of students.
0 × ($0 outside − $0 in-district) = $0
The saving is the outside cost minus your in-district program cost, never the whole outside cost. In Massachusetts a district pays at least $53,431 per placement before Circuit Breaker reimbursement (DESE, FY26 threshold).
PULSE plans special education transportation, including ESY, and shows which riders could share a run.
0 × ($0 alone − $0 shared) = $0
The saving is the difference between a rider’s current run and a shared one. Massachusetts paid $13,825 per special education rider in FY2024, against $1,045 for general education (Inspector General, February 2026).
The hidden cost
PULSE tracks missed sessions and owed minutes as they happen, before they become make-up services at the end of the year or a complaint.
0 hours × $53 = $0
Median school SLP hourly wage $53.29 (ASHA, 2024). The cost of a family’s complaint or a due process hearing is not counted here.
PULSE builds the ESY plan from IEP data, sends family notices from it, and keeps placement deadlines in one place.
0 hours × $72 = $0
Coordinator hours are your estimate. Fairfax County pays ESY teachers $72.08 an hour for Summer 2026, a fair hourly value for this work.
PULSE builds schedules and caseloads straight from IEP data, so providers stop rebuilding them by hand each fall.
0 providers × 1 hr × 36 weeks × $53 = $0
School SLPs spend 6 hours a week on documentation, with a median caseload of 50 against the 40 they call manageable (ASHA, 2024). Hours returned go back to students.
Costs per case are published national and state figures, not results from any one district. Counts are estimates you can change. District schools and students with IEPs come from federal data (NCES Common Core of Data and the IDEA child count) through the PULSE Special Education Observatory.
From estimate to your real number
Send the export your district already keeps. Our written review shows where you actually stand on staffing, owed minutes, placements and timelines, with no student names.
Readiness reviews start at $2,500, include 30 days of PULSE, and are credited toward your first year.
Besides money
Families get ESY and transportation notices on time. Staff know their fall assignments before June. Coordinators work fewer evenings, and good people stay in the job.
Where the hours go
| The work | What districts pay for it today | What PULSE takes off their plate |
|---|---|---|
| ESY coordination | A stipend or summer hours for a coordinator, plus staff planning time in May and June. | Eligibility, services, staff and sites in one plan built from IEP data, with family notices sent from it. Next year starts from this year. |
| Special education transportation | A coordinator’s time, and a run for each rider whose needs are individual. A transportation coordinator posting in Fairfield-Suisun, California (June 2026) pays about $85,000 before benefits. | Riders, needs, schools and schedules in one place, with the savings from shared runs shown before a route is changed. |
| Out-of-district placements | Part of a coordinator’s or director’s job, and in Massachusetts at least $53,431 a year per placement before state help. | Every placement, its cost, its meetings and its deadlines on one register, with the Circuit Breaker figures beside each in Massachusetts. |
| Schedules and caseloads each fall | Directors, team chairs and providers rebuild them by hand every August and September, often after hours. | Built from IEP data; a change takes minutes, not days. |
The bottom line
For most districts PULSE costs less than one avoided departure, one placement served in-district, or one staffing decision made on real minutes.
Why districts keep it
Once caseloads, schedules, owed minutes, placements and the staffing plan live in PULSE, it holds the history a director uses to defend next year’s budget.
Sources