Federal Legislation & News
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50 Years of IDEA: 4 Things to Know About the Landmark Special Education Law
Education Week Fifty years ago, Congress dramatically expanded schools’ responsibilities when it passed the nation’s primary special education law, requiring children with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education” alongside their non-disabled...
The inside view of McMahon’s plans for special education
POLITICO Disability advocates alarmed by the Trump administration’s plans for special education say a recent meeting with Education Secretary Linda McMahon did not alleviate what one participant described as “grave concern.” McMahon and Assistant Secretary for Civil...
‘A shifting system’: concerns over students’ civil rights rise as DoJ changes priorities
The Guardian Within the justice department’s civil rights division is a small office devoted to educational issues, including seclusion, as well as desegregation and racial harassment. The division intentionally chooses cases with potential for high impact and...
Time out box for special needs students sparks outrage
MSN.com Photos of a structure resembling a shipping container with four wooden exterior panels and a padded interior appeared on Facebook on Dec. 15. But what, or rather who, was in the containers continues to spark outrage due to claims that special needs children...
Why tracking racial disparities in special education still matters
The Michigan Chronicle Classrooms should be places of opportunity, not obstacles. But for many students with disabilities, especially students of color and English learners, school often reinforces the inequities it’s supposed to erase. Black students, for example,...
Inside one state’s bold plan to keep special education teachers
Education Week Special education has grappled with chronic staff shortages for decades. But efforts to support and retain new teachers can shortchange the specialized needs of educators serving students with disabilities, contributing to a constant revolving door of...
‘Let me go!’: Judge sides with black middle schooler with disabilities who was cuffed four times by school police, issues scathing order to California school district
Atlanta Black Star The parents of a Black middle school student who was repeatedly physically restrained and handcuffed by school police for misbehavior related to his disabilities have won out after a precedent-setting five-year legal battle with the local school...
The dangerous over-accommodation myth
Psychology Today Students in K-12 and college have been battling a new development when seeking accommodations for mental disabilities such as autism, ADHD, anxiety, and depression: a backlash against accommodations for invisible disabilities. In the January 2026...
DE: Delaware Dept. of Ed settles discrimination lawsuit involving incarcerated students with disabilities
Delaware Public Media The Delaware Department of Education settled a federal lawsuit alleging incarcerated students with disabilities weren’t provided required services. The U.S. District Court approved a consent decree requiring Delaware’s Ed. Department to implement...
MI: Lawsuit, investigation target Mississippi’s special education failures
SPLC E.J. and her mother are plaintiffs in a 2024 Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit, Jamison et al. v. Greenville Public School District, and the other children are at the center of an ongoing SPLC investigation into the state’s longstanding practice of...