Special Education
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Across the States
GA: School districts spend thousands on special education legal battles
Behind the Investigation
Georgia school districts are spending thousands of dollars fighting parents in special education legal battles — while families say their kids aren’t getting the services they need. In this Behind the Investigation, Atlanta News First Investigates digs into how much districts are spending on lawyers, what parents are up against, and what’s at stake for students with disabilities.
IL: Special education gaps are pushing CPS students from school to school. Can the school board fix it?
The Chicago Reporter
Carla Rivera’s 5-year-old son is in kindergarten, but he is already attending his third school. Rivera, 48, a parent outreach coordinator who lives in Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood, said she first noticed that her son was not meeting some developmental milestones when he was about a year old. She sought early intervention services but said delays in getting him evaluated meant he did not begin receiving occupational and behavioral therapy until he was about 2½ years old. When it came time for school, Rivera said another problem emerged: The schools closest to her did not necessarily have the special education services her son needed. Her son attended Henry Clay Elementary for pre-K3, Wendell Smith Elementary for pre-K4 and now attends George Washington Carver Elementary for kindergarten. Each move came down to which schools offered the program he needed and whether classrooms had enough support, Rivera said.
For parents trying to get their children the services and resources they need inside Chicago Public Schools, identifying the problem can be only the beginning. Families also have to figure out who has the power to fix it. That question carries more weight ahead of Chicago’s November school board election: When a school doesn’t have the staff, services, or resources a student needs, who is responsible for fixing it?
Mi: Michigan wants to scrap rarely used special ed rule. Child advocates fear harm
Bridge Michigan
Michigan special education advocates say a proposed change in state rules could cause learning disruptions for children with disabilities. Currently, when a parent or guardian files a special education complaint with the state, the Michigan Department of Education can require that the student remain in their current classroom or specialized program while it investigates. The department wants to strike this so-called “stay put” provision, arguing that it applies to legal proceedings rather than departmental investigations and that it has only been invoked once in the 47-year history of the state complaint process. It says the change aligns with federal disability law.
Advocates like Heather Eckner, director of statewide education at the Autism Alliance of Michigan, say the state should retain that option because removing a child from their educational setting while the state investigates could cause the student to lose instructional time and lead to “behavioral or emotional regression.” “You should be looking at how to enforce this, not remove it,” Eckner told Bridge.
TX: How AI tools halved this district’s IEP prep time
Education Week
Since rolling out an artificial intelligence tool last school year, one Texas school district has cut the time it takes to craft a special education student’s individualized education program (IEP) from hours to an average of just 45 minutes. Mesquite independent school district, in a suburb just east of Dallas with about 38,000 students, developed an AI tool that consolidates data from across district platforms and helps special educators draft more nuanced, personalized IEPs. AI has the potential to save special educators a tremendous amount of time on paperwork that siphons time away from classroom instruction, experts say. But without proper guardrails and training, districts risk running afoul of federal student privacy laws or removing the critical human element from IEP development.
Nationally, a growing number of special education teachers say they use AI platforms to draft all or part of students’ IEPs. Fifty-seven percent of special education teachers who responded to a 2025 survey by the Center for Democracy and Technology said they used AI to help with IEPs or 504 plans during the 2024-25 school year, up from 39% in 2023-24. Additionally, 31% use AI to identify trends in student progress for goal setting, 30% summarize IEPs and 504 plans, and 28% help choose accommodations.
TX: Parents, advocates press FWISD to deliver promised special education services
Fort Worth Report
They don’t attend the same school. They aren’t in the same grade. They don’t even share a diagnosis. But Kim Medford’s seventh grader and Ashish Talwar’s first grader share one thing: a parent who says making sure Fort Worth ISD follows their special education plan has become a second job. As cars buzzed by, the two stood outside the gates of FWISD’s District Service Center alongside other parents and advocates from Literacy Fort Worth. They want the district to make special education meetings work for children — and to prove the services it promises actually reach the classroom. Both parents want FWISD to do its job. “I’m a nurse by trade, but I’ve become my son’s caseworker,” Medford said. “It’s not our job to act as daily auditors,” Talwar said. Caroline James, executive director of Literacy Fort Worth, said parents shouldn’t have to become full-time case managers to make sure their children get basic support. James has attended more than 100 special education meetings in 10 Tarrant County districts. None are doing a great job, she said. “We are failing students and families at scale,” James said.
AZ: A classroom-spending mandate could cost students with special needs [Opinion]
News From the States
What if a plan to increase teacher pay and improve Arizona schools actually hurts our most vulnerable population — our students with special needs? I’m a mom to a child with Down syndrome. I am also an educator with nearly two decades of experience as a teacher and school administrator in both district and charter schools. While the idea of mandating schools spend 60% of their money in the classroom in order to raise teacher pay sounds great — like most people, I agree that teachers deserve more money — the reality is that more state control over our local budgets is not the answer. While Proposition 320 would impose that mandate, it would not offer one dollar more to school district budgets to increase teacher pay. Rather, it would mean that the state simply will expect them to adjust their budgets. And how would they do that? By making cuts to critical components that are not “direct instruction” — things like special education services, transportation, facility maintenance, technology, nutrition services, fine arts and sports may experience budget cuts because they are not direct instruction. The most concerning of those potential cuts would be to special education
CT: CT Education Dept. hires special ed attorney to improve complaint process
Hartford Courant
The Connecticut State Department of Education announced Wednesday it has hired Kathleen Reiser to fill a newly-created role of dedicated special education attorney. The department created the position to address longstanding dissatisfaction with the state complaint system, a key tool for parents who feel schools are not meeting their children’s special education needs. Parent attorneys said the state’s findings in those complaints were often legally suspect. In January, the consulting firm WestEd recommended CSDE hire a special education attorney to address the issue.
IL: Parents blast conditions students are being taught in at CPS schools
NBC Chicago
Special education students at a Chicago school are being taught in offices, hallways, storage rooms, stairwells and in classrooms with asbestos, some parents say. The parents say students are facing the questionable conditions at Prescott Elementary School, located in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. They say their concerns are being ignored, and they’re deciding to take a stand. “I am frustrated, disappointed and looking for some action for issues we have encountered now for four months,” said parent Ana Ribeiro. “When the burden falls only on kids with disabilities, this is not a space issue, it is a discrimination issue. I am advocating for my child, but all the children as well.”
NE: School resource officers in Omaha-area schools have used force on students dozens of times since ’21
Flatwater Free Press
When Katy Eilers first learned officers at OPS carried the shock gloves, she called her son’s school, Millard North High, to ask if the officer there did, too. In a recorded conversation shared by Eilers, Rebecca Kleeman, spokeswoman for Millard Public Schools, returned her call, confirming they did. At this realization, Eilers, on the verge of tears, asked Kleeman if she could guarantee the officer would know about her 16-year-old son’s heart condition and not shock him. “I am not the least bit worried about this, but I can sure tell you are,” Kleeman responded, “and I want to keep you on the phone until I can reassure you.” Kleeman then asked her, “Is your son going to slam someone to the floor and try to kill them?” Eilers responded no. “Is he going to pull a weapon on someone in the middle of the school and try to kill somebody at school?” Kleeman asked. “No, ma’am,” Eilers said again. “Your son’s going to be just fine, ma’am,” Kleeman responded.
Kleeman said in an email to Flatwater that she was trying to reassure Eilers and convey that officer use of force in schools is rare, reserved for situations presenting an imminent threat to students or staff. On reflection, Kleeman said, she would have conveyed that to Eilers with less extreme examples. But Eilers remains unassured. She said she knows SROs can use force on students for nonviolent situations, too, ones where they may simply be resisting. And her son, who has autism, can have outbursts or difficulty communicating. “It crosses my mind at least once a day if my son’s going to get misinterpreted or something,” she said, “And get the glove instead of the care he needs.”
MN: School leaders push back on $250M in special education cuts
KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News
Special education and school leaders say Minnesota shouldn’t cut $250 million in special education funding, a cut that’s scheduled to kick in automatically next year. If lawmakers won’t, or can’t, repeal the cut, a special Blue Ribbon Task Force has found places to trim budgets members say will do the least harm to students. “These aren’t just dollars; these are children. These are our children, and that’s what I really hope that legislators will keep in mind,” said Maren Christenson Hofer.