Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
MD: Work group tries to make sure special education students aren’t forgotten in education reform
Maryland Matters
The Maryland State Board of Education unanimously accepted final recommendations of a 58-member Blueprint special education work group Tuesday aimed at ensuring students with disabilities aren’t forgotten in the state’s multibillion-dollar education reform plan. The group met for nearly two years to produce 27 recommendations in the report that are connected to the five pillars in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future: early childhood education, teacher diversity and retention, college and career readiness, more resources for student success, and governance and accountability.
NJ: Gopal bill to reform school funding and special education support passes
Insider NJ
The Senate passed legislation sponsored by Senator Vin Gopal to reform New Jersey’s school funding system and enhance support for special education services. The bill, S-3917, makes targeted changes to the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA), strengthens transparency and predictability in how aid is calculated, and establishes a new task force to review the state’s special education funding model. “At its core, this legislation is about equity, clarity, and sustainability,” said Senator Vin Gopal, a Democrat representing Monmouth County. “These reforms are a product of listening to school leaders, educators, and parents across New Jersey who have all said the same thing: we need a fairer, more predictable system,” Gopal said. “With this bill, we are making school funding more transparent, helping districts meet the rising cost of special education, and laying the groundwork for smarter, more equitable investment in public education.”
PA: Pennsylvania debuts special education apprenticeship to combat teacher shortage
Insight Into Academia
Amid a persistent statewide shortage of special education teachers, a pioneering apprenticeship program aims to change the game in Pennsylvania. Gwynedd Mercy University (GMercyU), the Bucks County Intermediate Unit (Bucks IU), and Bucks County Community College have launched the Commonwealth’s first undergraduate pathway focused on training and certifying PK–12 special education teachers. Approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry and the Department of Education, the initiative combines college coursework, on-the-job experience, and teacher certification—all while participants remain employed full time. “This apprenticeship creates a sustainable pipeline for special education teachers by making certification more attainable for individuals already working in our schools,” said Deborah E. Schadler, PhD, PRSE, coordinator of undergraduate education at GMercyU.
KS: Kansas sees 12,000 special education student rise in past decade
The Beacon
There were 82,000 special education students in Kansas public schools in 2024-2025. That’s 12,000 more than a decade ago. The 12,000-student increase is not a massive share of the 500,000 students in Kansas public schools. But the steady increase in special education students is making more demands on already overworked teachers. “We are feeling that as a district,” said Ryan Alliman, executive director of student support services at Wichita Public Schools. The increase contributes to a broader trend in education. Teachers are handling more students with less help, leading to longer days and more stressful work. Districts are trying to hire additional staff, but they can’t find qualified applicants. It’s a cycle that leads to burnout.
OR: Parents oppose cuts to services for disabled children in Central Oregon
The Bulletin
A group of parents, caregivers, and teachers of special needs children asked the High Desert Education Service District to reconsider budget cuts Tuesday night that would decrease services their children rely on while attending Central Oregon schools. High Desert ESD board members answered questions about funding and acknowledged parents’ concerns, but ultimately passed the budget. If the budget was not passed by June 30, the regional service provider, which provides specialists for disabilities, early intervention, and early childhood education for children through age 5 and more, would run the risk of not having any funding at all. The district’s 2025-26 $90.6 million budget is 2% less than its 2024-25 budget, and it anticipates a 22% reduction in federal grants.
PA: 5 Central Bucks School District staff members in Doylestown, Pennsylvania fired after investigation into alleged abuse
ABC7 Chicago
A Pennsylvania school board voted Wednesday night to terminate five of its staff members after an investigation uncovered alleged abuse inside a special education classroom. In April, Central Bucks School District Superintendent Steven Yanni was placed on leave following a report from the nonprofit, Disability Rights Pennsylvania. It accused Yanni and several other administrators of misleading police and parents about the child abuse allegations. According to the report released, students were physically restrained, water intake was restricted, a student was found naked, and physical punishment was used inside an autism support classroom at Jamison Elementary. The alleged abuse happened from September to December of 2024. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office has said it does not consider this a criminal matter. So far, no charges have been filed against anyone involved.
TN: Tennessee Board of Education considering rule change for students with disabilities placements
Chalkbeat
Tennessee may soon make it easier for schools to temporarily remove some students with disabilities from their classrooms. The proposed rule being considered by the Tennessee Board of Education would amend existing guidelines to allow schools to move a student deemed a “disruptive force” to a more restrictive environment before they’re evaluated in a functional behavioral assessment. A 2022 state rule requires schools to perform these formal assessments, which identify behavioral causes and guide behavior intervention plans, when a student has exhibited dangerous or highly disruptive behavior. The proposal has cautious support from disability advocates, who acknowledge that the rule guidance could be needed to allow schools to safely educate students. But they caution that the move should be a carefully considered option, not the norm.
TX: Lawmakers failed kids with disabilities, advocates say
The Texas Tribune
Texas lawmakers this year added $100 million to a scholarship fund to help families across the state pay for early child care, an extraordinary investment that may ease a waitlist to help thousands of children. However, advocates say legislators fell short in creating more opportunities for the state’s youngest living with disabilities. “Most families with children with disabilities are really struggling in one area, if not multiple,” said Bethany Edwards, director for research and evaluation at the Center for Transforming Lives, a North Texas nonprofit that helps single mothers. Edwards is also a parent of a child with disabilities. “And there’s a lot that can happen from a policy standpoint to change these systems, but change seems to happen very slowly,” she said. Expanding the state’s public preschool programs to children with disabilities and incentives for more and better training for child care workers were among the proposals that fell short this year. Texas lawmakers ended the legislative session on June 2.
TX: Texas bill establishes program to support students with intellectual, developmental disabilities
The Daily Texan
After he graduated from high school in Temple, Texas, Aidan Guerra, who has autism, said he had three options: get a job, go back to school, or move out. Guerra wanted to attend UT like his siblings did. He said his mother wanted to find a way for Guerra to go to school after graduation and receive the same support he had in high school. His family found the solution in E4Texas, a three-semester program at the Texas Center for Disability Studies, which combines classroom, career, and independent living instruction to help students with or without a disability find employment. On May 3, he became one of the 67 students who have graduated from the program since it began in 2018. “E4Texas gave me a chance to go to my dream school and learn how to live on my own to build a future,” Guerra said. On May 26, Texas House Bill 2081 was signed into law, establishing the Building Better Futures Program.
WA: Child rights advocates New WA school discipline rules roll back protections
Public News Service
Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has revised its public school discipline policies, and advocates for children said the changes weaken student protections, and OSPI did not seek enough community feedback. One of the new rules removes requirements for schools to consider alternative forms of discipline before suspensions or expulsions. Derick Harris, executive director of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable, said that since Black students are twice as likely to face disciplinary actions compared with white students, they will be unfairly affected by the change. “This appears to me to be some rollback to a bygone era of zero-tolerance policy,” Harris contended. Eric Holzapfel, chief engagement officer for the League of Education Voters, criticized OSPI for doing only the bare minimum to engage the community about the new rules, arguing they did not give enough notice for the public hearings, and there were not enough of them.