The purpose of this study was to determine the services required by students in special education programs and to estimate the cost of adequately funding special education in Taiwan. Questionnaires were administered to 300 special education teachers at the elementary school level to identify the services required. Thereafter, two focus group interviews were organized to determine the service categories and their cost. The results show that the costs for special education programs vary significantly according to severity of disability, and the weighting for mildly, moderately, and severely disabled students was found to be 3.7, 4.5, and 5.2, respectively. The costs also vary significantly according to the category of disability, and the weighting was found to range from 3.6 for emotionally disabled students and to 5.9 for hearing impaired students. These findings suggest that the current special education funding formula in Taiwan, which ignores these cost differences, should be revamped.