Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
ID: Education department considers lifting special education age limit
Idaho Ed News
State leaders are considering increasing the age limit for special education services, after court orders in neighboring states made students eligible for services up to age 22. Idaho funds special education students in public schools through the semester they turn 21. But an order last year from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — the federal appeals court that covers Idaho — required Washington to fund special education services until a student turns 22. The Idaho Department of Education (IDE) this summer proposed increasing the age limit amid a round of updates to the state’s 465-page special education manual. But agency leaders removed the increase before the updates went to the State Board of Education for approval on Thursday. “We were just trying to be proactive,” said Jacque Hyatt, the IDE’s special education director. Instead, the department may address the age limit through the legislative process, because the change has a price tag attached to it, said Greg Wilson, chief of staff for Republican state superintendent Debbie Critchfield. It’s also unclear whether Idaho has to increase its age limit.
KS: Kansas families like mine need US Department of Education
Wichita Eagle
On Nov. 18, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon moved six key offices out of the U.S. Department of Education — a major step toward dismantling the agency entirely. As a mother of a child with autism and one with dyslexia, I am deeply opposed to these actions. Eliminating or hollowing out the Department of Education will directly harm millions of children, especially those with disabilities who rely on federally enforced rights, services, and protections every single day. For students with disabilities, the Department of Education is not just a layer of bureaucracy. It is the backbone of civil rights enforcement in America’s schools. Weakening it puts children like mine in immediate jeopardy.
AZ: Lessons learned from Arizona’s universal school choice program
K-12 Dive
Arizona’s ESA program launched in the 2011-12 school year with 144 students, and over the next few years, it served mostly targeted populations such as students with disabilities. In 2022-23, the program opened up to all students. ESAs provide K-12 families with public funds to spend on their child’s private or homeschool education, as well as for other educational expenses. Rand’s analysis found that ESA users in Arizona tend to come from school districts that, on average, have higher achievement levels, serve students from more affluent backgrounds, and have larger White populations. Most of the ESA funding that Arizona families received in fall 2024 — 60%, or about $120 million in 2025 dollars — went toward private school tuition, but Rand found a growing portion being spent on other education services like curriculum materials and tutoring, according to Rand.
CA: Opinion | CA lifeline for youngsters with special needs is in danger
Cal Matters
When my daughter’s development stalled and then regressed, her bright personality dimmed. Doctors said to wait. But as a clinician I suspected she needed urgent help — the kind that Early Start, California’s early intervention program, provides. What I feared most was losing the spark that made her unique. Early Start met us right at our breaking point, offering a lifeline and hope. The program transformed fragility into possibility and gave my child a voice. But the promise that shapes thousands of families like mine now hangs by a thread.
This summer Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill, extending tax cuts but slashing billions from Medicaid. In California, federal Medicaid funds sustain the regional centers that coordinate Early Start services for infants and toddlers with — or at risk for — developmental delays. With California facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, the future of such early interventions looks precarious. Losing federal support means the state must fill the funding gap or scale back, thus putting therapy, progress and hope at risk for countless children and families.
GA: ‘Students like Theo shouldn’t fall through the crack’: Parent propose a law to mandate inclusive graduation for students with disabilities
2020 was a significant year for millions of graduating high school seniors, as some schools right here in South Georgia hosted drive-thru, socially distanced, or virtual ceremonies, while others did not even have a ceremony. But one family remembers that time as a moment their disabled son was excluded from the one event that could define his life. After completing his individualized education plan, 21-year-old Thelonious Stoner, known as Theo, was able to graduate in 2019. “We didn’t know how severe his Autism would be. Theo’s quite profound. He’s nonverbal. Quite often, he would only sleep two hours a night. We made the decision to place him in residential care,” Matthew Stoner, Theo’s father, said. “He went to the public school here, and we are very proud of his time here.”
LA: Federal oversight of special education in New Orleans could soon end
Louisiana Illuminator
A decade of court oversight of special education services in New Orleans public schools, the result of a legal settlement, will most likely cease by the end of the year, the judge presiding over the legal settlement said Wednesday. The decision, if it comes to pass, would come at the request of the Louisiana Department of Education and the Orleans Parish School Board, which have been subjected to intensive monitoring under a consent decree since 2015. The agreement settled a 2010 class-action lawsuit that alleged the city’s charter schools discriminated against special education students in their application processes and did not provide them appropriate educational services, as federal law requires. The case was brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of parents and guardians of special-needs students in New Orleans schools. Though problems with special education continue to be identified at some New Orleans charter schools, the consent decree was intended to address systemic issues — whether the state and district are catching those issues and implementing plans to correct them — not individual students’ experiences, said U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey.
Zainey invited parents to share their experiences with the court and representatives from the Louisiana Department of Education and Orleans Parish School Board during informal hearings on Nov. 12 and 13. Most parents asked the court to continue the federal monitoring of New Orleans schools, but it’s unclear whether their statements will change Zainey’s plans. Zainey encouraged the state’s ombudsman, who connects families with resources and informs them of their rights in relation to special education, to connect with parents following their statements. But most of the parents speaking at the informal hearing were those who had already tried, and were still trying, to seek recourse through communication with district or state officials.
TN: LGBTQ+, disabled students face exclusion from private schools
Nashville Banner
More than 170 of the 241 Tennessee private schools eligible to receive state-funded vouchers in the first year of the Education Freedom Scholarship program have a publicly listed admission inclusion policy. Many of the schools post a version of this legal disclaimer: “Our school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.” Even within the different iterations of that statement, however, schools begin to carve out certain groups of students, with many removing references to sexual orientation and disability. In an analysis of school policies and handbooks — which are not uniformly available but are shared publicly at a school’s discretion — the Banner found schools routinely cite religious affiliation and low bandwidth to exclude LGBTQ+ students and those with disabilities from policies.
CT: UConn grapples with the legacy of a CT institution for the disabled
CT Mirror
English professor Brenda Brueggemann had driven by the memorial stone, the grassy grove, and the architectural shells of the shuttered institution every day for years on her way to teach at the University of Connecticut. The campus of the former Mansfield Training School, a state institution that, until the early 1990s, had housed people with intellectual disabilities, was now nothing more than a labyrinth of empty buildings along a stretch of Route 44, overgrown with ivy and left to rot on the inside. Then in 2022, a student of Brueggemann’s, who was researching how individuals with disabilities were treated in university settings, started digging through UConn’s archives. The work would lead to what Brueggemann called a “dark realization” about the history that was hiding in plain sight.
NC: Charlotte families worry about impact on special needs education programs amid federal layoffs
wcnc.com
Charlotte area families are voicing concerns about the future of kids with special needs and their access to a good education after the White House tried to lay off almost all the staffers at the Department of Education who manage those programs. A judge has temporarily blocked the firings during the shutdown, but many worry they’ll still happen, and the money used for the programs is not being managed during the shutdown either. Concerned parents point out that these are programs and a law that’s been in place for decades to protect students with special needs, and they’re now in jeopardy.
Kelsey Leyton has a very full life. The 20-year-old has always wanted to be a baker and is now studying to do just that at Rowan Cabarrus Community College. But not long ago, she was a student at Hickory Ridge High School, where she benefitted from what’s called IDEA — the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — which guarantees students with special needs get a free education. “This is going to sound very dramatic, but parents are concerned we’re going back 50 years to before IDEA existed and students with disabilities got an education,” Terry Leyton, Kelsey’s mom, said.
OH: Decision 2025 | After tax levy fails, school for children with developmental disabilities forced to close
WSAZ3
Voters in Lawrence County on Tuesday voted down a ballot measure that would have provided additional tax money for the Lawrence County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Lawrence County DD Superintendent Julie Monroe said that due to the measure failing, they will be forced to close the Open Door School and Early Intervention Program that provides education and services for children with developmental disabilities. The programs will close at the end of this school year. The ballot measure failed with 46 percent of the vote. The closings will affect more than 200 families, including 55 students at the Open Door School, which educates children with developmental disabilities.