Arizona Capitol Times

As the federal office investigating and resolving discrimination cases involving students with disabilities dissolves, advocates are turning to the Legislature to bolster and peer deeper into the state complaint system. The Office of Civil Rights, housed in the U.S. Department of Education, previously stood as advocates’ first recommended stop for students with disabilities denied a free appropriate public education. But in the past year, the Trump administration halved the office’s staff and closed more than half of its regional offices, leaving the vast majority of complaints either dismissed or unresolved. 

Arizona is required by federal law to offer a state-level complaint system, too. But advocates say the mechanism in place now falls short, leading to a push to require the Arizona Department of Education to offer greater assistance to parents navigating the process and to publicly report the outcomes of prior and ongoing investigations. 

“How well is this system working in Arizona?” Karla Philip-Krivickas, chief policy and strategy officer for Champions for Kids, said. “Well, we don’t know.”