Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
More State Special Education News is available in the Archive.
CA: Windsor district unfairly disciplines special education students, some parents say
The Press Democrat
The student was only 4 years old when he was suspended for the first time. He was in a transitional kindergarten class, a preparatory year that helps students develop fundamental social and emotional skills. By the time he was 5, the boy had been suspended five times in one semester of his kindergarten year. Those suspensions, his mother says, were for behaviors related to a delay in his ADHD diagnosis, a lack of support, and constant changes to his classroom environment by Windsor Unified School District officials. The boy bounced from general education classes to special education classes in his transitional kindergarten and kindergarten years, and frequent changes in his classroom supports halted his academic progress, his mother said.
CT: Deal struck: Revised special education funding bills pass after Lamont veto
WTNH
Connecticut’s Democrat-led state legislature passed two funding bills totalling $43 million for special education and nonprofit groups – capping two weeks of drama that saw the Democratic governor veto spending bills pushed by leaders of his own party only to strike a deal to secure that same funding by other means. For anyone unfamiliar with the intricate details of the state budget, the deal-making that took place Tuesday evening in the lead-up to Wednesday’s legislative session can seem trivial and confusing. “It’s complicated,” State Rep. Matt Ritter, the Democratic House Speaker, said. “I don’t know how to really describe it succinctly for the 6 o’clock viewers, but talks occurred, and we got there.”
DC: Parents of kids with special needs respond to Dept. of Education investigation into DCPS
ABC7 NEWS
Anacostia mother Andrea Jones said she had to fight D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) to get help for her son, who has autism spectrum disorder. “It was a lot of him just not being able to obtain the academics that he was entitled to,” she told 7News. Jones said she had to get an outside psychologist and a lawyer involved when her son’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) was taken away. Now her nine-year-old is thriving at a charter school. Because of what she went through, Jones isn’t surprised the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating whether DCPS is failing to meet the needs of students with special needs or disabilities. “It’s the ‘why now’ of it, especially when there have been talks of the Department of Education being defunded,” she said, alluding to reports that the Trump administration may be issuing an executive order to dismantle the department. “What does that mean, if they’re looking into this now? Is it really going to help our students, or is this really for political show?”
OH: Executive Budget cuts $95M for special education
Policy Matters Ohio
Ohio’s public school districts will lose more than $103 million in foundation formula funding over the next two years, including $95 million in cuts to special education funding, if the budget proposed by Gov. DeWine passes. A series of fact sheets from Policy Matters reveals how the Executive Budget manipulates cost estimates and property-tax data to shift responsibility for school funding onto local districts, reverting to a funding system that over-relies on local property taxes and levies, making a constitutionally guaranteed adequate education dependent on a child’s ZIP code. “We knew that schools would suffer if officials moved forward with the distorted math they’ve been using to calculate the state’s share of funding,” said co-author Ali Smith. “When we dug into the numbers, we were surprised at how much of the cuts come from special education.”
MN: Minnesota Bills Would Roll Back Bans on Seclusion and Expulsion for K-3 Students
The 74
Two years ago, Minnesota outlawed most suspensions and all disciplinary seclusion of very young pupils in schools. An outgrowth of an effort to curb police abuses in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, it was a change that advocates for children with disabilities and students of color had long sought. But now, bills before the state legislature would roll back these reforms and again allow schools to dismiss children in kindergarten through third grade. Three measures under consideration would strip a prohibition on “disciplinary dismissals” — the removal of children from schools — in grades K-3, loosen the definition of student behavior meriting exclusion from the classroom, end a requirement that schools try non-exclusionary strategies before dismissing a child and let schools once again punish youngsters by denying or delaying their access to lunch and recess. A separate bill would overturn a ban on seclusion for K-3 students — the practice of confining a child in isolation. Some people believe seclusion should be an option when a child’s behavior is out of control. Others call it punitive and cruel, particularly when used on very young children. That split was evident in testimony at a recent state House of Representatives hearing on the legislation.
PA: Here’s how a Pennsylvania school is setting students with autism, intellectual disabilities up for success
MSN
People with autism often face barriers to employment, but a private school in Middletown Township, Delaware County, is coming up with a solution. Davidson School, operated by the nonprofit Elwyn, opened a café on Feb. 3 so students can get real-world experience without even leaving campus. Twenty-one-year-old Keith Gould, who has autism and intellectual disability, works the cash register, pours coffee and keeps the snack shelves stocked. “I like working here and I like to get along with others,” Gould said. Davidson School serves 400 students with autism and other disabilities between the ages of 3-22.
TN: State Comptroller releases student ‘informal removal’ study
clevelandbanner.com
What would you do if you learned your disabled child was “informally removed” from their classes at school? How would you deal with the issue, and what steps would you take to fix the situation? On Wednesday, the Tennessee’s Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability (OREA) released a new report examining the practice of informally removing students with disabilities from schools in Tennessee.
TX: Voucher bills want to prioritize low-income families and be open to all students. Those goals might be at odds
crossroadstoday.com
In public hearings, during Capitol floor debates, and in rooms packed with their constituents, Texas lawmakers have pitched school vouchers as a tool that will primarily benefit low-income students — and not just, as their critics argue, offer taxpayer dollars to families already sending their children to private schools. “These are parents living paycheck by paycheck,” said Gov. Greg Abbott at a recent private school event in San Antonio. House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 2 — the signature school voucher proposals filed this year by each lawmaking chamber — would qualify virtually any family in Texas to receive taxpayer dollars through state-managed education savings accounts to fund their children’s private school tuition. If demand exceeds the $1 billion in proposed funding for the program, Republican lawmakers say they want to serve the most vulnerable Texans first. But both proposals’ broad eligibility — which would allow the vast majority of students in the state to apply — has prompted questions from education policy experts and public education advocates about whether Texas will live up to its promise of prioritizing the neediest children.
For a Texas mother of triplets with disabilities, school-choice debate feels hollow
Texarkana Gazette
It was still dark when Liz Piñón loaded her triplets into the family’s red van and set off for Austin. The children scrolled their phones as they made the four-hour drive from Crowley to the Capitol. Piñón glanced at her set of 12-year-olds: There was Santiago, her philosopher. Frida, her artist. And Felicita, her advocate. “All three of them are very different,” Piñón said. The Piñóns trekked down Interstate 35 to show lawmakers the faces of kids who could be left behind by a billion-dollar voucher-style program. Families such as the Piñóns, who are trying to educate children with disabilities, occupy a central yet complex position in this fight. Texas has a history of failing to adequately fund or provide special education in public schools — yet private schools are not required to admit all children with disabilities. The private campuses that exist solely to serve children with special needs have limited space. How the state would prioritize children with special needs remains one of the sticking points in the broader debate.