Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
FL: In Florida, swim lessons for kids with autism aim to curb deaths
NPR
Mackenzie Wesley sports a big grin and bright blue Lilo & Stitch swim gear as she runs into her weekly swim lessons. It’s fitting, because the 5-year-old has something in common with movie character Lilo: She adores water. “Whether it’s the pool or beach, she enjoys it fully,” says her dad Steven Wesley. Mackenzie isn’t alone: Many kids with autism share a natural love for water because it can be sensory bliss — the feeling on their skin, the pressure and the sparkle of the water can all be soothing. Lucky for her, Mackenzie lives here, less than an hour outside of Miami in a state that’s dotted with bodies of water. But there’s a tragic reality tied to that fact, as Mackenzie’s mom, Brittany Bucknor, is all too aware. “In Florida, there’s water everywhere, and also with kids her age, and also just being on the spectrum, it’s a very — way higher — rate of having an incident of drowning.” Kids with autism are 160 times more likely than other children to die from drowning, according to a seminal 2017 study from Columbia University.
CA: Bakersfield mothers continue their fight for cameras to be installed in special education classrooms
KERO
Mothers with special needs children part of the Bakersfield City School District took to a recent board meeting to present 5,000 signatures asking for cameras to be placed in special ed classrooms.
CT: Special education complaints increasing in CT. ‘Things are tough’
Hartford Courant
After a special education student in Seymour Public Schools was restrained and secluded 53 times in seven months, the child’s parents filed an official state complaint. The state determined that in two of the 53 occasions, it was “unclear” if physical restraints were necessary, according to documents obtained by the CT Mirror. As a result of the complaint, the district was required to provide a training for staff who interact with the student. That was one of 267 complaints filed in Connecticut last year and a part of a growing trend: More parents of special education students in Connecticut and across the nation are engaging in the formal dispute resolution process in special education. Experts say it could point to a heightened understanding of special education law — and some say parents’ use of artificial intelligence could play a role.
ID: Special ed faces two changes, but the budget crunch isn’t going anywhere
Moscow-Pullman Daily News
Debbie Critchfield is starting a new state special education program — while watching an overhaul at the federal level. They are two big changes — two important transitions — affecting special education services for roughly 41,200 Idaho students. And Critchfield, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, is also hoping to see a changing mindset on Idaho’s special education crisis. “For people that have been outside of the educational system for a while, I respect and can appreciate why this feels new and sudden. We haven’t talked about it,” Critchfield said in a recent Idaho EdNews interview. “I’m hoping that I don’t have to convince people anymore that it’s a thing.” No matter how things play out, Idaho is still going to face a serious special education budget problem.
NJ: Jersey City BOE special ed audit report referred to authorities; criminal probe underway
Hudson County View
At Thursday’s over seven-hour meeting, the third-party firm that conducted the audit, Lerch, Vinci, and Bliss LLP, released a 3-page summary of their findings. While the full 80-page audit report was referred to law enforcement, authorities directed the board not to release the full audit to the board or public so as to not impede an ongoing investigation, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Norma Fernandez. “We made the necessary changes to the varying departments as we received feedback. The last part was the special education department … Following the release of part one of our districtwide special education audit, the auditing firm has been completing the highly complex second phase,” Fernandez added. “This phase evaluates allowable expenses under Chapter 192 and 193 for special education services provided to students attending non-public schools outside our immediate jurisdiction.”
TX: Special education parents in Houston ISD searching for answers ahead of changes in services
Houston Public Media
A small group of parents gathered Wednesday night looking for advice on how to combat the controversial changes to special education Houston ISD is implementing for the upcoming school year. Texas’ largest school district is consolidating special education services to select campuses beginning in 2026-27, which prompted an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The move would require some students to be transferred from their neighborhood school to another school in the district that would be tapped as a hub to provide a variety of special education services. In early May, the district sent letters home with parents informing them of the changes and if their child’s program was affected. Special education advocate Karen Mayer Cunningham held Wednesday’s meeting in the parking lot of Bellaire High School, one of the impacted campuses that’s moving some special education programs to Sharpstown High School. She advised parents to immediately file formal complaints with the Texas Education Agency, to ignore those letters from the district and show up at the campus listed in their child’s Individualized Education Plan on Aug. 10, the first day of the upcoming school year.
TX: Texas promised children with disabilities up to $30K vouchers. Fewer than 30 got the full amount
MSN
One of the biggest selling points of Texas’ new private school voucher program was that it would support students with disabilities, offering up to $30,000 in state-funded accounts for tuition and other services. The possibility drew thousands of applications from across Texas, and hundreds of families flooded public school districts with requests for special education evaluations to qualify for higher amounts. However, fewer than 30 students with disabilities actually received the $30,000 maximum, according to data from the Comptroller’s Office. That’s less than 1% of applicants who indicated that they had a disability. It’s something the Texas Education Freedom Account directors tried to warn parents about earlier this year. “Most students will receive less than the maximum,” a handout about special education vouchers read. But many families still hoped that they would get closer to $30,000 to pay for private schools dedicated to students with disabilities, which can easily cost between $25,000 to $60,000 a year, according to a Chronicle analysis. One in four of the over 100,000 students awarded vouchers had a documented disability, and their average funding award was about $16,000, or roughly half the maximum amount, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
CA: School districts are struggling to keep up with surging special education needs
Governing.com
Over the past decade, the number of students with disabilities in American schools has exploded. In San Diego County, the trend has been particularly acute.
In 2015, La Mesa Spring Valley Schools, for example, served 1,424 students with disabilities. By 2025, that number had increased to 2,225. That striking increase came even as the number of overall students in the district dropped significantly. Over just a few years, more than one in five students had become legally entitled to special education services in the district. The same trend has played out countywide. Since 2015, local schools have lost tens of thousands of students. But over the same period, the number of students with disabilities has increased significantly.
NH: NH lawmakers question school voucher program tracking
Valley News
New Hampshire lawmakers charged with overseeing the state’s $50 million school voucher program are raising concerns about how the program tracks academic progress for the nearly 10,600 students enrolled. The Children’s Scholarship Fund New Hampshire, the private nonprofit running the state-funded Education Freedom Account program, says it does not require parents to demonstrate that their child is getting the educational supports needed to learn. That’s unlike public schools, which must monitor whether special education interventions are successful. The nonprofit also does not publicly report how its students are performing academically, unlike public schools, which must publicly report student performance on standardized tests.
TX: AP Exclusive: The private school choice boom leaves behind many kids in public school
Texarkana Gazette
The Catholic school tour ended, and Maria Contreras felt an overwhelming desire to enroll her 7-year-old. But first, a difficult question for the principal. The second-grader has trouble focusing. He doesn’t listen to teachers and runs around the classroom, she explained. Could he be expelled? More families across the country are experimenting with private school as states — and soon the federal government — use taxpayer-supported scholarships to encourage them to leave public school. Soon, half of all American schoolkids will be able to apply for state money to finance a private education, and many states will offer the scholarships even to families with high incomes. In theory, these programs are supposed to give children an educational opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have. In reality, students already in private or home school are most likely to benefit, an analysis by The Associated Press shows. The reasons are complicated. In some cases, public school families don’t know about these scholarship programs, known as vouchers or education savings accounts. They may lack transportation to get their kids to private school. Some worry their child won’t survive in a more strict disciplinary environment. Sometimes, as in Texas, the latest state to join the already $10.5 billion private school choice movement, the law is written to benefit families who know how to navigate complicated education systems.