Burbio School Tracker 7/7: Pressure Points

1. In our reviews of 2026-27 school budgets, Special Education is universally cited as an area with the fastest-growing expenses. This week, we review hundreds of school budgets and recent district board discussions and identify the main drivers behind the costs:

• Rising enrollment and complexity of need: Special education populations are growing faster than overall enrollment in many districts, and the increasing intensity of student needs is driving demand for additional staff, 1:1 aides, and specialized classrooms.
• Staffing shortages and reliance on contracted services: Shortages of special education teachers, paraeducators, and related-service providers can force districts to turn to contracted and outside agency staff to meet legal requirements.
• Out-of-district placements and tuition costs: When districts cannot serve a student's needs in-house, they must pay tuition for placement in private or specialized outside facilities, which is a fast-rising expense in many budgets.
• Mandated therapeutic and related services: Federal IEP requirements obligate districts to provide occupational, physical, and speech therapy, extended school year programming, and home instruction, often at significant, only partially funded cost.
• Specialized transportation: Transporting students with disabilities, particularly those in out-of-district placements, remains a growing logistical and financial burden amid driver shortages and rising contract rates.
• Compensation, benefits, and legal obligations: Efforts to recruit and retain qualified staff are pushing up salaries and benefits, while legal settlements and compensatory education requirements add further unpredictable costs.

2. One goal of Burbio's K-12 construction clients is to identify projects before key decisions are made. One of the earliest opportunities is before a district selects an architect. The map below, based on Burbio's K-12 Construction Tracker, highlights more than 500 active projects discussed in May and June 2026 where no architecture firm has yet been named.

Click here to schedule a short demo to see how Burbio's foundational datasets, district contacts, and customized signals can power your K-12 business.

3. Burbio's district checkbook register is used by clients for both district-level intelligence as well as C-suite and investor market analysis. The charts below compare the percentage of districts that have written a check to the indicated supplier in the twelve months ending February 28th. We begin showing suppliers that have higher market penetration in the South than in the Northeast:

The chart below shows suppliers with a higher penetration in the Northeast.

The Northeast covers all of New England, plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. The South covers Virginia south to Florida, plus West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

4. Burbio's foundational datasets include millions of pages of K-12 board meetings. This week, we continue our look at keyword trends and review year-over-year trends. The percentages cover keyword mentions at any point during the 12-month period. The analysis covers the same districts for each period to keep the measurement consistent. Notable changes: