The economic consequences of autistic spectrum disorder among children in a Swedish municipality.

Järbrink (2007) mailed short forms to every family in one Swedish town that had a child with autism.

Parents wrote down how many hours they spent on extra care, what services the child used, and any money they paid out of pocket.

The town’s school and health offices added their own cost records.

Each child added about €50,000 in yearly costs to schools, health care, and community services.

Parents gave roughly 1,000 unpaid hours each year—equal to half a full-time job.

Most of the money went to special schooling and one-to-one aides, not to doctors or drugs.

Zhao et al. (2023) asked the same cost question in Beijing hospitals and also found schooling and therapy—not medicine—ate the biggest slice.

Croteau et al. (2019) followed Canadian kids for five years and showed costs stay high even after clinic visits drop; antipsychotic pills replace therapy hours as kids age.

Cidav et al. (2013) tracked U.S. Medicaid kids and saw the same age pattern: therapy dollars fall while institutional care dollars rise each birthday.

Burford et al. (2003) and Shabani et al. (2006) surveyed Swedish parents just a few years earlier; they reported lost work and social stress, giving the unpaid-time part of Krister’s price tag.

When you write an IEP or ask for aide hours, you now have hard numbers showing aides and school supports drive the biggest cost.

Use these figures to justify more aide time up front; it is cheaper than later institutional placement.

Also remind funders that every hour you add to the school day saves parents an unpaid hour at night.