NARRATIVE REVIEW The Impact of Funding Models on the Education of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder † Umesh Sharma 1, *, Brett Furlonger 1 and Chris Forlin 2 1 Monash University, Australia and 2 Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong *Corresponding author. Email: Umesh.Sharma@monash.edu (Received 21 August 2017; revised 24 October 2017; accepted 29 October 2017) Abstract Currently, there is no consensus as how best to fund inclusive education for students with autism spectrum disorder. In this narrative review, we examined a range of funding models internationally in an attempt to identify the range of best practices for resourcing inclusive education. Three databases were searched along with various policy documents to identify the range of existing funding models. Three models of input, throughput, and output funding were identified from which 7 key considerations were extrapolated to provide what was expected to be relevant information to policymakers, researchers, and educators seeking to discover effective ways to fund inclusive education for students with autism spectrum disorder. Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; access to general education curriculum The growing trend for children to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been accompanied by increasingly large enrolments in their neighbourhood classrooms. This is the context in which the current review is written. The lack of consensus regarding how best to fund their inclusion is possibly related to the heterogeneity of the population on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who often present with wideranging instructional and behavioural challenges. A key purpose of the current review is therefore to examine how best to fund the inclusion of students with ASD in order to improve their opportunities to receive appropriate levels of quality education. In this narrative review, we examined a variety of international funding models that have been used in an attempt to create best practices for supporting students with ASD within inclusive classrooms. We opted for a narrative approach, as it is best used to summarise different primary studies from which conclusions may be drawn into a holistic interpretation, may include publi- cations other than those in peer-reviewed journals (government documents and conference pro- ceedings), and is best suited for comprehensive topics as they pull many pieces of information together into a readable format (Baumeister & Leary, 1997). This narrative review fits into the ‘overview’ category as defined by Green, Johnson, and Adams (2006). In contrast, systematic reviews are best suited for focused topics and for making clinical decisions (Cronin, Ryan, & Coughlan, 2008). The review included 22 documents published between the years 2003 and 2015. We anticipated that the findings of the review would be relevant to policymakers, research- ers, and school leaders in a range of countries who are looking for effective ways to fund inclusive education for students with ASD. Findings from the current review were used by the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training (2016) in their ‘Review of the Program for Students with Disabilities’. † The editorial review of this manuscript was managed solely by Michael Arthur-Kelly. © The Author(s) 2019 Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education (2019), 1–11 doi:10.1017/jsi.2019.1