Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
ME: ‘It broke him, and it broke me’: Maine parents, educators describe trauma from restraint and seclusion
Yahoo.com
Krystal Emerson never imagined her son would spend his days at school being forcibly moved against his will by school staff and shut in an empty room. But during the 2023-24 school year at Ellsworth Elementary-Middle School, that’s what happened — at least 18 times, according to Emerson and school district incident reports reviewed by the Maine Morning Star. Staff members put the 7-year-old boy in holds, forced him into empty rooms, and did not let him out until he calmed down or his parents picked him up. “It broke him, and it broke me,” Emerson said. The trauma became so severe that her son, now a third grader, no longer attends school in person, she said. What happened to Emerson’s son is not an isolated case. Across Maine, schools use restraint and seclusion on students more than 10,000 times each year, according to Maine Department of Education data. A 2021 state law limits restraint and seclusion to emergencies. But as Maine educators report more challenging student behavior in the years since pandemic school closures, there have been calls to allow school staff to restrain and seclude children more often. A newly proposed bill would broaden the circumstances under which school staff could restrain or seclude students, igniting debate among educators, parents and lawmakers about how to manage student behavior without inflicting harm.
TX: School discipline code rewrite to take immediate effect as bill passes Texas Legislature
Dallas News
Educators have long urged lawmakers to revamp school discipline laws, detailing horror stories about suffering injuries on the job from violent students. In a poll cited by the state’s 2023 Teacher Vacancy Task Force report, nearly half of educators listed discipline and safe working conditions as a top concern. Education justice advocates cautioned against a return to zero-tolerance discipline that led to disproportionately high numbers of Black children and those with disabilities being punished – saying that exclusionary discipline is detrimental to a child’s development as well as the school climate. The new law would make it easier to kick young children out of class by allowing for students below third grade to be removed for “conduct that results in repeated or significant disruption to the classroom.” This comes nearly a decade after lawmakers banned out-of-school suspensions for these littlest learners, except for serious offenses such as bringing a gun or marijuana to class.
CA: California agrees to include religious schools as special education placements
K-12 Dive
The California Department of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District will include religious private schools as potential placements for students with disabilities, according to a settlement agreement reached Monday between the school systems and a group of Jewish parents and schools. The agreement means public funding for special education could be used for tuition at religious schools. The parents and schools sued the state and district in 2023 because school systems wouldn’t consider Orthodox Jewish schools as potential school placements for students with disabilities, which they claimed was unconstitutional religious discrimination. The agreement is a “win for religious liberty,” the plaintiffs said, but public school advocates and those promoting the separation of church and state said it would expand the use of taxpayer-funded money for religious education.
ME: Schools report thousands of restraints and seclusions per year, but the real number is higher
Louisiana Illuminator
Maine students have been restrained and secluded more than 22,000 times a year in some years. But the real number of times educators put students in holds, move them against their will, and shut them alone in small rooms is likely much higher. Restraint and seclusion are widely condemned practices that create lasting trauma for students, their families, and the educators involved. That’s why every use is supposed to be documented and reported to the state. But over the past decade, only 24 out of more than 250 private schools and public districts in Maine have consistently reported their numbers. Maine law mandates annual reporting to the Maine Department of Education, however, the department did not say whether there was any penalty for failing to report.
NY: NYC schools suspend students with disabilities longer than legally allowed
Chalkbeat
New York City’s public schools routinely flout federal rules designed to prevent schools from removing children from class for long periods due to behavior related to their disabilities, a Chalkbeat investigation has found. To examine the discipline process, Chalkbeat obtained hundreds of pages of special education records and rulings from impartial hearing officers who reviewed appeals from families whose children with disabilities received lengthy punishments. Those records, as well as interviews with more than a dozen parents, advocates, and school officials, reveal a pattern of schools failing to properly consider a student’s disability during the suspension process. As a result, some students are serving longer punishments than legally allowed, a problem that disproportionately affects Black students. The removals can compound academic struggles among students who are often far behind their peers.
TN: Informal removals of students with disabilities from classrooms raise concerns
wbir.com
As students across East Tennessee wrap up the school year, many families of students with disabilities are meeting with educators to discuss how to support their children moving forward. However, a recent report from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Educational Accountability (OREA) highlights that not all removals of students from classrooms are being documented, raising questions about how these students are being supported. These instances, known as “informal removals,” happen when students with disabilities are sent home during the school day due to behavioral issues, but the removal is not recorded as a suspension or expulsion. Without documentation, families miss key protections under special education law. “It was both concerning because we were removing these kids from the learning environment,” said Jeff Strand, a former special education teacher. “But also I watched as it didn’t accomplish anything. It removed the child, it didn’t solve any problems and we just kicked the can down the line and that’s not how you help these kids be successful.”
CA: Protestors rally in Hanford amid statewide push against education cuts
ABC30 Fresno
Several dozen people gathered in Hanford on Saturday morning. Attendees were seen making signs while hoping to rally for change. At one point, the large group of people even stopped traffic while marching through the city. The California Teachers Association hosted rallies across the state. Organizers say they felt it was important to speak up. “Our special ed students and their families rely on the services we provide to them. And when cuts to those programs happen, then it impacts the families, the students and the educators as well,” said Allison Colley.
CA: Special education students left out of Cal State East Bay’s commencement
msn.com
On Friday, Cal State East Bay held its first of several commencements for the weekend. Kristin Vogel-Campbell is on the board of directors for the university’s Center for Disability Justice Research. “Everyone should feel like they belong, that they are included,” Vogel-Campbell said. In 2023, a new program was created called Think By the Bay, that gave students with intellectual and developmental disabilities access to campus and courses. This year, the first cohort of three students is finishing the program. They are not graduating with degrees, which the university says makes them ineligible for commencement. Vogel-Campbell asked if they could participate anyway.
ID: How Trump’s DOE cuts could harm students with disabilities in Idaho
ProPublica
Time and again, the U.S. Department of Education has been the last resort for parents who say the state of Idaho has failed to educate their children. In 2023, the federal agency ordered Idaho to stop blocking some students with learning disabilities, like dyslexia, from special education. That same year, it flagged that the state’s own reviews of districts and charters obscured the fact that just 20% were fully complying with the federal disability law. Last year, it told the state it must end long delays in services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, which could include speech or physical therapy. Now, President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle the department. Idaho’s superintendent of public instruction, Debbie Critchfield, has celebrated the proposal. She insisted that the move would not change the requirement that states provide special education to students who need it. That would take an act of Congress. But parents and advocates for students with disabilities say they are worried that no one will effectively ensure schools follow special education law.
MI: Advocates urge DPSCD to ensure students with disabilities get services
Chalkbeat
Sharon Kelso tries to do everything she can to help Detroit families navigate the often confusing and complicated world of special education. The advocate is frequently on the phone, listening to parents complain that their child has yet to receive an individualized education program, or IEP, a plan that spells out what services and accommodations students with disabilities should receive, as required by federal law. Sometimes, families want her guidance for talking to teachers and school administrators. She also gets calls from parents whose child has an IEP, but they need help. “A lot of times I call the schools, have the parent come in, give their complaints, sit and look at the IEPs and work through them and try to help them as much as I can,” she said. “But I’m only one person.” Kelso’s work highlights an issue that education advocates, school employees, and board members say has persisted for years in the Detroit Public Schools Community District and across the state: delays in conducting or complying with evaluations for special education services.