Special education comes under different funding. My daughter has brain damage, and she benefits from special education services.
Considering how much my husband and I pay in taxes, we certainly paid for her share of therapy.
In addition, my daughter is very smart at math, and will definitely go to college and get a good job paying lots of taxes.
Without therapy, she would not have done this.
Lots of kids with special needs will do well and go to college.
When I was young, I had a friend who was blind. She went on to get a master's degree in speech therapy. She worked with senior citizens for many years. Special education also helped her.
Your daughter deserves a good education. And it sounds like she got one. But anything done within the confines of her IEP were done on the school budget's dime. (Assuming of course that she had an IEP.)Any county based services were not. She is exactly the kind of kid I was referring to earlier--someone who needs more than the basics to fulfill her potential. Unfortunately, there are others that require large amounts of dollars.
It sounds like she is going to be a great adult. You should have good luck with finding a good college. There are several out there that really work with the disabled to make sure they receive a solid college education.