Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
KY: ‘So many more opportunities’: Kentucky law creates alternative diploma for students with special needs
WKYT
Starting in 2027, thousands of Kentucky students with moderate to severe disabilities will be able to graduate with something many of them never could before — a high school diploma…
NY: NYC still misses most deadlines for special education services after facing legal orders
Chalkbeat
New York City has long failed to quickly provide special education services even after families won legal orders for them, generating more than two decades of litigation. Three years ago, city officials embraced a federal court order requiring dozens of reforms to more swiftly provide services like speech therapy, tutoring, or tuition payments for students who can’t be properly served in public schools. But a key question has been surprisingly difficult to answer: Is the city actually providing services to students with disabilities more quickly? New data from independent auditors offers good news and bad news: More families are getting services and other payments within court-mandated deadlines — but the Education Department still blows past the legal timeframes in the vast majority of cases. “There has been some improvement,” said Rebecca Shore, the litigation director at Advocates for Children, which brought a class action lawsuit in 2003 that sparked additional court oversight. At the same time, she said, the city is “nowhere near” full compliance…
TX: Texas’ first year of school vouchers is starting. Students with disabilities find hope, but face obstacles
The Lawton Constitution
As the inaugural year of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts begins, North Texas families are preparing to leave their public school. They’re grateful to exit a system they say isn’t working for them. But finding a private school hasn’t been easy, requiring some to weather disappointment and scramble to cover additional costs…
Danisha Nunn wanted a school that could accommodate the needs of Ezra, her 8-year-old son with autism, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. They visited Novus Academy, a Southlake school that seemed a good fit. Then, she heard the cost. Her son was approved for a $16,000 voucher, but after the registration fee, the total came out to roughly $27,000. As a single mom, she said, “that was absolutely not feasible.”…
TX: ‘A hot mess’: HISD families brace for new school year under special education overhaul
Yahoo! News
Three days before Houston ISD’s new school year begins, some families say they’re still confused about which school their child will attend after the district’s special education overhaul. In July, the Texas Education Agency ordered HISD to meet with families before it reassigns about 5,000 students with disabilities to new campuses. Many families said they were waiting for answers days before the first day of class. Special education advocates told the Chronicle that the district mistakenly enrolled some students at the wrong campuses over the summer, while some families said they had not been granted in-person meetings with their child’s special education committee before the school year began – which is what the TEA ordered in its investigation into parents’ complaints. While some families said they were cautiously optimistic about their child’s new school, others planned to keep their child home until they received more information or pull them from the district entirely. “I think that it’s going to be a hot mess,” parent Naxhiely Ramon said. “I know that the first couple of weeks are usually rocky, but this has introduced a whole other level of uncertainty.”…
UT: Granite families worry special education changes could affect student services
2KUTV
When Bonniejean Brucks requested additional educational support for her 9-year-old daughter, Krista Grace, she expected Granite School District would build on the progress her daughter had made at her neighborhood school. Instead, Brucks said the request resulted in Krista being transferred to another elementary school several miles from home, replacing a short trip to Upland Terrace Elementary with roughly an hourlong bus ride each way. Now, as Granite School District prepares for the new school year, Brucks fears broader staffing changes could mean more families face similar disruptions. “They are truly not giving us any hope as a parent,” Brucks said…
AZ: Displacement of students, school evaluations violate federal law, Arizona Education Agency say
US News
The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind violated federal disability law last spring when it restricted placement options for students and predetermined where they should attend, the Arizona State Department of Education says. As it prepared to shut its west-side Tucson campus and move 15 miles away to Oro Valley, ASDB told its blind and low-vision students, along with those who lived in ASDB’s school dorms, they must attend a school within their home district starting in the 2026-27 school year. In a July 10 letter to ASDB Superintendent Annette Reichman, the state says families were not given all the options for where to place their students this coming school year, and that ASDB did not comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. According to the letter, the department of education “concludes that (ASDB) predetermined the placement of students and similarly situated students who are blind, visually impaired or receiving residential services for the 2026-27 school year in violation of the regulations that implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.”…
GA: Georgia first-grader with autism suspended over sandwich incident sparks special education debate
Cleveland.com
A Georgia family says its 6-year-old son with autism was suspended from school after biting his sandwich into the shape of a gun and pretending to point it at another student during lunch, an incident the parents argue reflects a broader pattern of discipline that failed to take the child’s disability into account, according to Atlanta News First. The family says the first grader at Sara Harp Minter Elementary School in Fayette County has repeatedly faced disciplinary action despite having an individualized education program, or IEP, designed to address his needs, The Daily Mail reported. According to school disciplinary records reviewed by Atlanta News First, the student accumulated more than 30 disciplinary incidents since 2023, including multiple suspensions, according to WALB. The records include allegations involving physical altercations with classmates, making gun noises while pointing a water bottle and drawing a picture depicting a pilgrim shooting a turkey. The sandwich-related suspension occurred during the previous school year…
IA: ACLU of Iowa urges schools to get rid of School Resource Officer programs
CBS2 Iowa
A new report from the ACLU of Iowa says federal data shows Black students and students with disabilities are disproportionately referred to law enforcement and arrested in Iowa schools. The ACLU said about one-quarter of Iowa schools have a school resource officer, or SRO. Those law enforcement officers are typically assigned to schools to assist with security, mentor students and prevent crime. “A black student in Iowa is referred to law enforcement at twice the rate of all other students that are not black and arrested at nearly four times the rate of all other students that are not black,” said Jacob Sarasin, an attorney and legal fellow with the ACLU of Iowa. “Despite again no evidence of behavioral differences. Students with disabilities is referred to law enforcement or arrested at 2.3 times the rate of a student without disability.”…
NC: Funding model for students with disabilities leaves some N.C. schools scrambling
Border Belt Independent
Bladen County school officials said in January the district would need an additional $1 million to educate students with disabilities last school year. Cheryl White-Smith, the district’s inclusive education director, told school board members the number of students in the exceptional children’s program increased by more than 100 over the last decade. Meanwhile, she said, the costs of providing occupational, speech and other therapies have skyrocketed. Local Superintendent Jason Atkinson blamed the deficit on the way North Carolina funds exceptional children’s programs. The state pays $5,309 per student enrolled in the services, but limits funding to 13% of a district’s total student population. If the number of students exceeds that cap, the district has to pay the difference. Across the state, 102 of the 115 public school districts exceed the cap, according to data from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. In Bladen County Schools, 17% of students were enrolled in exceptional children’s services last school year. “This is a systemic issue,” Atkinson said during the school board meeting in January. “Most districts are dealing with the same issues we are.” Many district leaders and public school advocates had hoped the General Assembly would lift the funding cap when it passed a long-awaited state budget this summer. But lawmakers kept it in place while touting other education spending, including 8% average teacher raises over the next two years…
PA: PPS spent $1.4M settling special education disputes over 5 years
Pittsburgh’s Public Source
PPS has spent nearly $1.4 million over the past five years on settlements and parents’ legal fees in special education disputes, according to data obtained by Public Source through a Right-to-Know Law request. That figure excludes fees paid to the district’s primary legal counsel, Weiss Burkardt Kramer, which said it could not separate settlement-related costs from other billable services. During the same period, PPS spent more than $1.4 million on compensatory education for students with disabilities whose education was disrupted during COVID. Some cases end in resolutions through Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings or state mediations. School districts often settle with parents to provide compensatory education. Few cases go to a formal due process hearing. “Settlements, while they will resolve an individual case, the barriers remain, and without those barriers being addressed, it continues,” said Cindy Duch, parent training and information director at the PEAL Center…