We do?!?!?!
I teach special education in VA and I can tell you will 100% certainty that no, teachers do NOT get a bonus for every special education student.
What you might be talking about is that there is no Fed $$ to the school system for 504 plan students. School systems get about 20% of what it costs to educate the typical special education system. They lose money on the deal, which is one reason my county is finding children not-eligible if at all possible.
The feds don't pay much of the cost of special ed, but they do fund Title 1 for poor kids (most of whom are illegal in California).
I am so thankful that kids that are not legally here can get all sorts of help when my daughter whose parents are legally in this country and have paid thousands and thousands of dollars to fund education cannot get the help she needs.
It's not even like she needs a whole lot of help. At the private school, the reading program is going to cost $1400 for the whole year.
She doesn't need a one on one aid. She is not severely retarded. She merely needs a multi-sensory reading program.