Proposed in the report is a model quantitative cost accounting system designed to help school districts gather and report data useful in determining equitable reimbursement formulas for special education as compared with general education. Included are sections on the approach and methodology used to construct a hypothetical school district, concepts underlying the proposed cost system (such as ongoing analysis of planned versus actual expenditures), advantages of a standard cost system in special education (such as enabling educators to compare the costs of actual and alternative educational programs), curriculum and accounting applications, possible uses of the system by legislators and school administrators in such areas as preparing budgetary requests and planning future program, and pre-implementation recommendations (such as field testing the system in actual school districts). Discussed in a concluding section is the operation of the cost accounting system in a hypothetical school district. Two separately bound indexes contain detailed statistical and descriptive data on the hypothetical district. (LH)