Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
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 were placed in them during time-out sessions. The photos, posted by a former school board member, were from the St. Regis Mohawk School in the Salmon River Center School District, in the upstate New York community of Akwesasne near the Canadian border, prompting a state investigation that led to school staff being placed on leave and the superintendent’s temporary reassignment. “We recognize the pain, concern, and distress these events have caused, and we are truly sorry for the harm and trauma this has resulted in for our community,” Jason Brockway, the board’s president, said in a Dec. 18 statement. “We want to be clear: the circumstances surrounding these allegations do not reflect the values and standards of care that guide this district.” Chrissy Onientatahse Jacobs, who posted images, says it’s not enough. “I want to see (Superintendent) Stanley Harper terminated. I want to see the Assistant Superintendent Angela Robert terminated. The special education director, Alan Gravel, I want him terminated,” Jacobs told USA TODAY in an interview.
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, have been overrepresented in special education since 1968, when the U.S. Office for Civil Rights first began tracking school district data. The starkest disparities appear in categories that depend on perception, such as learning disabilities and emotional disturbances, where bias too often determines outcomes. We know that students of color, with the exception of Asian students, are identified for special education at a higher rate than their white peers. Black students are 40% more likely to be identified with a disability and are three times more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled.
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 special educators moving to general education or leaving the classroom entirely. That’s why Pennsylvania’s Attract-Prepare-Retain initiative—which personalizes mentoring and support for special education teachers, leaders, and aides who may be isolated in their own districts—could serve as a model for states looking to stabilize their special education workforce. “When we talk to our [special education] teachers, many of the reasons that they are leaving are, they don’t feel supported by their administration, their administration doesn’t understand what their job is or how to support them to do their job,” said Carole Clancy, Pennsylvania’s director of special education.
‘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 district and sheriff’s department in southern California. After presiding over the racial and disability discrimination lawsuit since 2021, U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal approved settlement agreements last fall ordering Moreno Valley United School District (MVUSD) to pay the minor plaintiff, “C.B.” $1.2 million and Riverside County and its sheriff’s department to pay $650,000 to the boy, who was 10 and 11 years old when he was allegedly mistreated by campus security officers (CSOs) and deputy sheriffs assigned as school resource officers (SROs).
A behavior plan created for C.B. with a team including his parents and special education teacher called for interventions such as “de-escalation, patience, communication, and waiting” when he acted out, the lawsuit said. But school police, unaware of the behavior plan and untrained in how to handle conflicts involving students with disabilities, instead injured and traumatized C.B., the lawsuit claimed, when they immediately resorted to physically restraining him, sometimes tackling him, sitting on him, and handcuffing his arms behind his back before hauling him away in a police vehicle.
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 issue of The Atlantic, staff writer Rose Horowitch observes the ways student disability accommodations have changed the landscape of universities—but not for the better. She writes, at the beginning of her article, “Administering an exam used to be straightforward: All a college professor needed was an open room and a stack of blue books. At many American universities, this is no longer true.” Why? Per Horowitch, “Professors now struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation.” There are so many of these students, she claims, because “more young people [are] getting diagnosed with conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, and depression.” But, per Horowitch, the rise in diagnoses is not the only cause of the surge in accommodations. She notes, “Universities [are] making the process of getting accommodations easier.”
COPAA Applauds Bipartisan Introduction of the Keeping All Students Safe Act
In response to the introduction of the Keeping All Students Safe Act H.R. 6617/S. 3448 (KASSA) in the U.S. Congress, COPAA CEO Denise Marshall issued a statement endorsing the bill and reiterating COPAA’s deep commitment to ensuring that “no child is subjected to abusive treatment under the guise of providing educational services.” KASSA was introduced on December 11 in the House by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), Rep. Abraham Hamadeh (R-AZ), and Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA). In the Senate, the sponsors are Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). The bill would make it illegal for any school receiving federal funds to seclude children, would ban dangerous restraint practices such as prone, supine, mechanical, or chemical restraint, and would significantly limit the use of physical restraint. KASSA requires schools to inform parents when physical restraint occurs, allows a private right of action for families, provides grants to states for training school personnel, and mandates that states monitor implementation, collect and report data, and increase transparency and oversight to prevent future abuse of students. As a leader on KASSA, COPAA will launch Hill outreach activities when Congress returns in January.
Thirty-Five Senators Call for ED Oversight Hearing
Led by Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), all Senate Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee submitted a letter to Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on Thursday calling for an immediate oversight hearing with Education Secretary Linda McMahon concerning what they describe as the “systematic dismantling” of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The Senators assert that six interagency agreements announced on November 18 would transfer more than 50 major education programs—representing over $30 billion annually—to federal agencies that lack the requisite expertise and operational capacity to manage them. They argue that this move constitutes “an unlawful effort to advance the Administration’s stated goal of dissolving the Department” and warn that dispersing programs across multiple agencies will generate confusion, disrupt services for tens of millions of students, and exacerbate recent funding cancellations and withholding of funds. COPAA has also been urging Congress to conduct oversight hearings and is currently conducting outreach meetings with Hill offices. Email Congress TODAY about the need to protect children with disabilities and investigate executive violations of statutory requirements under federal education laws.
National Academy, TBI Must be Considered a Long-Term Health Condition
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released Examining Traumatic Brain Injury as a Chronic Condition, a readout and report on data demonstrating why traumatic brain injury (TBI) should be considered a long-term health condition. NASEM notes that the recommendation is grounded in analysis of the biological processes of TBI -that shape outcomes over time- and are examined in combination with the multifaceted comorbidities that can continue or arise well after the initial injury. The report also includes personal accounts that highlight the real-world consequences for individuals with TBI and reinforce the need for ongoing, cross-disciplinary support to promote recovery and overall quality of life.
Belonging by design: A Conversation with Max on the promise of IDEA
AASA
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a landmark commitment that ensures every student, regardless of ability, has the right to learn, participate, and belong in public education. At Margaretville Central School, IDEA is more than a law. It is a daily promise — a promise that students like Max are seen, valued, and supported as full members of our school community.
Parents, advocates rally around special education for 50th anniversary of landmark law
WUNC
It’s been 50 years since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was signed into law, and the milestone comes at a time when parents and activists are concerned about funding cuts for services. Rallies were planned outside multiple congressional offices on Friday to call for more adequate funding for special education services and to protest cuts and the dismantling of the Department of Education. A rally held Friday at U.S. Rep. Tim Moore’s office in Cornelius called for continued support. About two dozen people held signs out in the frigid air. Some went inside to officially commemorate IDEA’s anniversary with cupcakes, coffee, and a singing of Happy Birthday. Moore’s office was empty, but they taped a pledge they hope he’ll sign to the door. The pledge calls on Moore to advocate for fully funding the act, keeping it housed at the Department of Education, and resisting cuts to services for students with disabilities.
Ed Department recalls staffers who handle complaints from students with disabilities
Disability Scoop
The U.S. Department of Education is bringing back hundreds of staffers to tackle a backlog of civil rights cases — including complaints of disability discrimination in schools — after keeping them on administrative leave for most of the year. More than 200 employees of the agency’s Office for Civil Rights were among the nearly 1,400 staffers the Education Department tried to lay off in March, but the status of their jobs has been mired in litigation since then. Now, the workers are being told to return to work as soon as next week.
Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPAA, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of students with disabilities and their families, welcomed the Education Department’s move to reinstate staffers in the civil rights office. “We have stated all along that OCR cannot fulfill its obligations on a skeleton staff,” she said. “The fact they are returning them seems to be an acknowledgement that the firings were ill-advised,” Marshall said. It’s important that families and advocates continue filing complaints with the Office for Civil Rights when alleged discrimination occurs.
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As Justice Department priorities shift, concerns about protection of students’ civil rights escalate
Hechinger Report
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 actively monitors places it has investigated to ensure they’re following through with changes. When the Educational Opportunities Section acts, educators and policymakers take notice. Now, however, the Trump administration is wielding the power of the Justice Department in new and, some say, extreme ways. Hundreds of career staffers, including most of those who worked on education cases, have resigned. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also has been decimated, largely through layoffs. The two offices traditionally have worked closely together to enforce civil rights protections for students. The result is a potentially lasting shift in how the nation’s top law enforcement agency handles issues that affect public school students, including millions who have disabilities.
How one lawyer helped reshape special education at the Supreme Court
Education Week
A new documentary is shining fresh attention on a major special education ruling the U.S. Supreme Court decided last term, spotlighting the lawyer who not only won that case but has played a role in several landmark victories for students with disabilities in recent years. “Supreme Advocacy,” a 40-minute film from Bloomberg Law, pulls back the curtain on how a single case moves through the Supreme Court—from the time it is taken up by the justices through legal briefs, oral arguments, and then a decision. (Released Dec. 2, it is available for free on YouTube.) The filmmakers chose as their subject Roman Martinez, a partner at the firm Latham & Watkins and a rising star of elite appellate specialists who primarily argue before the nation’s highest court.
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COPAA and Partners Express Major Concerns with Federal Dyslexia Bill
COPAA and partners in the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) have sent a letter to Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Representative Erin Houchin (R-IN) to raise concerns and express opposition to the 21st Century Dyslexia Act (S.3010/H.R. 5769) as currently written. The issues raised range from consternation with the timing of a bill that proposes to amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) “when oversight and accountability for the nation’s core law that protects students with disabilities is under threat”, along with specific issues regarding the bill’s proposal to add back a mandate for states to use the IQ-discrepancy model as part of a Dyslexia evaluation. While COPAA and allies absolutely share the bill sponsors’ goal -to ensure all students suspected of having Dyslexia are provided early screening, intervention, education services, and eligibility under IDEA as soon as possible- the advocates also told Congress, “[the bill] specifies the IQ-discrepancy diagnostic or ‘severe discrepancy’ model which IDEA already allows…[and] due to years of research and practice –showing that this model lacked both validity and reliability in determining the existence of an SLD, including dyslexia– and, with bipartisan agreement in 2004, Congress eliminated the sole requirement to use this model when evaluating a student suspected of having an SLD.” The letter points out that due to IDEA’s current flexibility, eleven states have eliminated the requirement for districts to use IQ achievement discrepancy and 39 states still allow it. COPAA’s federal policy advisor, Laura Kaloi, who has firsthand experience as a parent with the use of IQ-discrepancy to determine Dyslexia, has written a blog about the need to prevent this particular change to IDEA.
Comments Requested on New Federal Education Tax Credit
The Treasury Department (Treasury) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have released a formal query seeking public comments regarding the implementation of a new individual tax credit created under HR 1, which became law in July. Beginning January 1, 2027, taxpayers in qualified state programs may claim a nonrefundable credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) that fund elementary and secondary school scholarships for low-and middle-income students. States must opt into the program by sending the IRS a list of SGOs that meet federal requirements before contributions in that state can qualify. Treasury and the IRS plan to issue proposed regulations and are requesting feedback on issues such as state certification of SGOs, state procedures to ensure accurate certifications, and how multi-state or otherwise unique scholarship organizations should be treated. They are also seeking input on reporting and recordkeeping rules for SGOs. Commenters are encouraged to use the Federal e-Rulemaking portal. All comments must be received by December 26, 2025. COPAA is examining the IRS query and will make a decision about commenting this week.