> Because the large incremental payouts to schools for special Ed students incents them to declare more students special Ed.

You think a school can just declare a student to need special education? A lot of times parents have to pay out of pockets thousands if not $10k+ out of pocket themselves for neurological evaluations with a child neurologist and it takes 6-9 months to even get appointment for those. Then multiple various city agencies will observe the child in various settings (in the home, in the agency office, etc). And the city agencies fight it every step of the way because they don't want to be issuing an IEP to parents. Some parents end up suing the city to get their kids the right resources and I can tell you from having been through it, lawyers specializing in child special education do not come cheap. IIRC the one i talked to was $800/hour and the paralegals were like half that much.