Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
PA: Rising special education costs hit PA school districts as federal funding fails to keep pace
fox43.com
As school districts across Pennsylvania finalize their budgets, many are facing difficult financial decisions tied to the rising cost of special education services. Educators and school leaders say growing enrollment, increasingly complex student needs, years of federal underfunding and recent cuts to federal special education programs are putting pressure on local budgets and taxpayers. According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), the percentage of public-school students receiving special education services has increased from about 15% to nearly 21% over the past decade, representing roughly 350,000 students statewide. “Many of these students also have more complicated needs and services that are required for them to be in those schools learning,” said Chris Lilienthal, spokesperson for the PSEA.
TX: Another Houston-area school district is consolidating special education programs for the upcoming school year
Houston Public Media
As Houston ISD faces a federal civil rights investigation over its plans to consolidate special education services, another large district in the region is making similar changes to how it serves students with disabilities. Cy-Fair ISD, the third-largest school district in Texas, has quietly consolidated several of its special education programs for the upcoming school year. The “Adaptive Behavior” program, which services students with emotional and behavioral difficulties, was offered at as many as 14 elementary schools in Cy-Fair ISD this year. However, starting this August, the program will be offered at eight campuses, according to a district spokesperson. The latter move will require transferring students to new campuses to access the specialized programs. District spokesperson Joel Weckerly said the consolidations of the early childhood program will affect approximately 200 students, and another 40 will be affected by the adjustments to the behavior program that caters to students in kindergarten and higher grade levels.
WV: Coalition urges immediate pause on West Virginia school closures
WCHS-TV
School closures and consolidations have impacted many areas in West Virginia, with nearly 20 schools currently at risk of closing their doors. Together for Public Schools West Virginia is a coalition that is now urging state lawmakers to put an immediate pause on school closures to give enough time to make changes to the school aid funding formula after no changes came from the legislative session. “We’re asking for a relief fund for small and rural schools to support them while they’re getting the funding formula figured out,” Together for Public Schools volunteer Avery Thrush said. Thrush said this pause could prevent closures.
This year, state lawmakers spent $114,000 on a study regarding the current formula. Researchers recommended the state give more money to districts with higher numbers of students in special education and to put more constraints on the Hope Scholarship. Ultimately they did not use this feedback to push any bills across the finish line. County school boards were even working alongside the Legislature and the State Department of Education to start a special education fund, which fell through. “We’re harming our students with disabilities, we’re harming our rural students and we’re harming our littles in elementary school who are having to get on these buses and go far distances,” Thrush said.
CO: Bill strengthening protections for students with disabilities signed into law
KOAA
On Friday, Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 125 (SB 125) into law. It strengthens protections for students with disabilities and creates a formal state level complaint process for families when students are denied accommodations.
After signing SB 125 into law, Governor Polis addressed funding in a signing statement: “Unfortunately, SB26-125 charges the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) with enforcement of the law, but only if CDE receives adequate funding in the next two years from gifts, grants, donations, and ‘other agreements for resources,’ including through contracts with third parties or other state agencies.”
TX: Texas’ school discipline push drives kids to ‘jail-like’ DAEP schools
Hechinger Report
Angela Comfort still can’t explain exactly what went wrong. Her son, Jordan, an honors student in Garland, Texas, got in trouble with school officials this February for distributing flyers on campus about a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Students all over North Texas were planning a walkout, and the teen was eager to participate. Instead, administrators suspended him and warned further punishment was possible.
Students with disabilities are more likely to end up in DAEPs, and when they do they are unlikely to get the services and accommodations they are owed under federal law, advocates said. “They’re placed more often. A lot of times we find that they struggle more, and we find that they stay longer,” said Colleen Potts of Disability Rights Texas, a nonprofit legal group. “Not every kid learns the same, and the DAEP does not have the ability to be individualized like the main campus would.”
TX: Texas school police investigation: 5 takeaways
The New York Times
Anabelle Jaramillo’s first and only encounter with the police officers in her Texas high school happened when she was accused of stealing a $13 classroom doorbell in 2024. Anabelle, a 17-year-old honor student, told an assistant principal that she had accidentally knocked the bell loose, she said in an interview. Still, the administrator called the officers, who arrested the teen for theft. When Anabelle pulled away, the officers wrestled her onto her belly and handcuffed her.
The student, who is asthmatic and has panic attacks, gasped for air on the floor for three minutes, video footage shows. Anabelle is among the thousands of students in Texas who have had physical encounters with school police officers in recent years. Many of these interactions have occurred since state lawmakers passed legislation in 2023 requiring an officer on each public school campus.
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TX: From school closures to staff cuts, Texas admins will detail budget woes to lawmakers
Houston Public Media
The influx of nearly $8.5 billion to Texas schools last year did not stop many from cutting programs, eliminating staffing and closing campuses.
On Monday, school leaders from across the state will detail the financial challenges still plaguing their districts roughly a year after receiving the significant increase in funding. The Texas House Public Education Committee hearing will focus on the implementation of House Bill 2, which provided schools with new money for teacher pay, educator training and special education. Lawmakers will gather recommendations on ways to better prepare teachers for careers in the classroom and improve services for children with disabilities.
Lawmakers also approved significant changes to how Texas pays for special education. Districts will soon receive money for students with disabilities based on the needs of each child, as opposed to the classroom setting the school assigns them to. Those changes take effect next school year. The state now must reimburse districts $1,000 for each evaluation of a child suspected of having a disability, which can cost between $1,000 and $5,000 or more to complete. Notably, public schools must conduct and pay for the special education evaluations of families wanting to participate in the new voucher program if they request one. Texas’ voucher program launches next school year, which public school officials have noted could result in additional funding losses if students leave their campuses for other options.
TX: Cy-Fair ISD officer repeatedly used hogtie restraint on fifth grader
One Monday afternoon in October 2023, a Cy-Fair ISD police officer tracked down a fifth-grader who had run away from his school for students with behavioral challenges. The boy had left campus before. But this time when he wouldn’t get in the police car, the officer took an unusual step. He cuffed the boy’s hands, shackled his ankles and bound them together behind his back using a controversial technique known as a “hogtie,” according to internal district records obtained by The Houston Chronicle and The New York Times. Then, the officer left the boy face-down in the backseat of his car for nearly 20 minutes. The hogtie technique has been linked to breathing-related deaths, and many city police departments across the country have banned it.
PA: Philadelphia will end separate support program for some special education students
Chalkbeat
The Philadelphia school district plans to wind down a special education program that separates some students with additional learning needs into their own classrooms. The program, called Intensive Learning Support (ILS), is meant to help students who are significantly behind their peers academically. Classes are generally small, with fewer than 20 students, and include special education interventions along with general curriculum instruction. The district declined to share how many students were in the program this school year. But the district plans to end the program at the end of this school year to educate more special education students alongside their peers, said Nathalie Nérée, the district’s chief of special education and diverse learners. Many ILS students will be placed into general education classrooms, which can have more than 30 students, and will get additional services throughout the school day, she said. “We look at student data, we look at their growth. For the growth of students in intensive learning support, it was minimal to none,” said Nérée. The move, Nérée said, is part of her effort to end Philly’s practice of educating a large share of special education students separately from their peers.
PA: PA districts receive thousands in state grants to encourage special ed careers
pennlive.com
The Pennsylvania Department of Education will award grants to 26 schools to encourage students interested in careers in special education. Education Secretary Carrie Rowe announced the awards as part of the Developing Future Special Educators program. The Shapiro administration awarded more than $1.4 million to 77 school groups in 2024. “Career education programs help students make informed decisions about the next step — whether that’s college, a job, the military or an apprenticeship,” Rowe said. “For students who see themselves leading their own classrooms one day, the Developing Future Special Educators program helps them take that step with confidence.” Schools received grants of up to $20,000 each. They will provide more than 800 high school students with early exposure to careers as special education teachers and opportunities to earn college credits before high school graduation.