Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
MI: A renewed push to ban seclusion, reduce restraint in Michigan schools
Newsday
Thousands of times a year in Michigan schools, students who are considered a potential danger to themselves and others — many of them children with disabilities — are physically restrained or put in seclusion. That’s despite an almost 10-year-old law aimed at reducing instances where students are secluded or restrained. The broad consensus is that schools should do more to reduce their reliance on these techniques, but there’s disagreement on whether new legislation is needed to make that happen. Current state policy makes it clear that schools should only consider physically restraining a student or confining them to a room away from others in emergency situations where a student is at risk of harming themselves or others. But critics say schools still too often seclude and restrain students, and the state should make it clearer what actually constitutes an emergency…
PA: Philly parents push Council to ban preschool suspensions citywide
Northeast Times
Several Philadelphia parents told City Council this month that their young children with disabilities were pushed out of preschool programs, sometimes on the first day. They urged lawmakers to ban the practice across all early childhood settings in the city. The testimony came during a City Council Education Committee hearing on preschool suspensions, expulsions and exclusions. Parents and advocates said the problem, often called “preschool pushout,” persists in publicly funded, school district and privately operated alike. They want the city to prohibit preschool exclusion across the board and invest more in early childhood funding and training…
TX: Texas has started handing out school voucher funding. Over 20,000 students have returned the money.
Texas Standard
The passage of Senate Bill 2 last year was a victory for Gov. Greg Abbott, who pushed hard for the program in 2023 but could not get it across the finish line. The money for these education savings accounts was made available to families starting this fall. But analysis from the Dallas Morning News found that over 20,000 students who were initially awarded vouchers returned the money without using it. Jessica Ma, who covers education for the Morning News, said the money is overseen by the Comptroller’s Office and the program numbers are still in flux.
It isn’t immediately clear why students might not accept their education savings account funds, Ma said. However, the data showed that over two-thirds of the students who returned the money were previously enrolled in public school — whereas some vouchers were given to students already enrolled in private schools. “This was interesting because proponents and politicians really promised that these school vouchers would help families leave public schools. And now critics sort of say this recent data casts doubt on that premise,” Ma said. “The state awarded students based on this priority structure. So, students with disabilities were first in line to get those funds. There were about 29,000 students in this tier who were deemed eligible, but our data shows that 7,000 of them opted out. So that’s nearly a quarter of eligible applicants in the first tier.” These numbers could point to the challenges families discovered when trying to use the funding for private education, Ma said…
KY: ‘So many more opportunities’: Kentucky law creates alternative diploma for students with special needs
WKYT
Starting in 2027, thousands of Kentucky students with moderate to severe disabilities will be able to graduate with something many of them never could before — a high school diploma…
NY: NYC still misses most deadlines for special education services after facing legal orders
Chalkbeat
New York City has long failed to quickly provide special education services even after families won legal orders for them, generating more than two decades of litigation. Three years ago, city officials embraced a federal court order requiring dozens of reforms to more swiftly provide services like speech therapy, tutoring, or tuition payments for students who can’t be properly served in public schools. But a key question has been surprisingly difficult to answer: Is the city actually providing services to students with disabilities more quickly? New data from independent auditors offers good news and bad news: More families are getting services and other payments within court-mandated deadlines — but the Education Department still blows past the legal timeframes in the vast majority of cases. “There has been some improvement,” said Rebecca Shore, the litigation director at Advocates for Children, which brought a class action lawsuit in 2003 that sparked additional court oversight. At the same time, she said, the city is “nowhere near” full compliance…
TX: Texas’ first year of school vouchers is starting. Students with disabilities find hope, but face obstacles
The Lawton Constitution
As the inaugural year of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts begins, North Texas families are preparing to leave their public school. They’re grateful to exit a system they say isn’t working for them. But finding a private school hasn’t been easy, requiring some to weather disappointment and scramble to cover additional costs…
Danisha Nunn wanted a school that could accommodate the needs of Ezra, her 8-year-old son with autism, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. They visited Novus Academy, a Southlake school that seemed a good fit. Then, she heard the cost. Her son was approved for a $16,000 voucher, but after the registration fee, the total came out to roughly $27,000. As a single mom, she said, “that was absolutely not feasible.”…
TX: ‘A hot mess’: HISD families brace for new school year under special education overhaul
Yahoo! News
Three days before Houston ISD’s new school year begins, some families say they’re still confused about which school their child will attend after the district’s special education overhaul. In July, the Texas Education Agency ordered HISD to meet with families before it reassigns about 5,000 students with disabilities to new campuses. Many families said they were waiting for answers days before the first day of class. Special education advocates told the Chronicle that the district mistakenly enrolled some students at the wrong campuses over the summer, while some families said they had not been granted in-person meetings with their child’s special education committee before the school year began – which is what the TEA ordered in its investigation into parents’ complaints. While some families said they were cautiously optimistic about their child’s new school, others planned to keep their child home until they received more information or pull them from the district entirely. “I think that it’s going to be a hot mess,” parent Naxhiely Ramon said. “I know that the first couple of weeks are usually rocky, but this has introduced a whole other level of uncertainty.”…
UT: Granite families worry special education changes could affect student services
2KUTV
When Bonniejean Brucks requested additional educational support for her 9-year-old daughter, Krista Grace, she expected Granite School District would build on the progress her daughter had made at her neighborhood school. Instead, Brucks said the request resulted in Krista being transferred to another elementary school several miles from home, replacing a short trip to Upland Terrace Elementary with roughly an hourlong bus ride each way. Now, as Granite School District prepares for the new school year, Brucks fears broader staffing changes could mean more families face similar disruptions. “They are truly not giving us any hope as a parent,” Brucks said…
AZ: Displacement of students, school evaluations violate federal law, Arizona Education Agency say
US News
The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind violated federal disability law last spring when it restricted placement options for students and predetermined where they should attend, the Arizona State Department of Education says. As it prepared to shut its west-side Tucson campus and move 15 miles away to Oro Valley, ASDB told its blind and low-vision students, along with those who lived in ASDB’s school dorms, they must attend a school within their home district starting in the 2026-27 school year. In a July 10 letter to ASDB Superintendent Annette Reichman, the state says families were not given all the options for where to place their students this coming school year, and that ASDB did not comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. According to the letter, the department of education “concludes that (ASDB) predetermined the placement of students and similarly situated students who are blind, visually impaired or receiving residential services for the 2026-27 school year in violation of the regulations that implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.”…
GA: Georgia first-grader with autism suspended over sandwich incident sparks special education debate
Cleveland.com
A Georgia family says its 6-year-old son with autism was suspended from school after biting his sandwich into the shape of a gun and pretending to point it at another student during lunch, an incident the parents argue reflects a broader pattern of discipline that failed to take the child’s disability into account, according to Atlanta News First. The family says the first grader at Sara Harp Minter Elementary School in Fayette County has repeatedly faced disciplinary action despite having an individualized education program, or IEP, designed to address his needs, The Daily Mail reported. According to school disciplinary records reviewed by Atlanta News First, the student accumulated more than 30 disciplinary incidents since 2023, including multiple suspensions, according to WALB. The records include allegations involving physical altercations with classmates, making gun noises while pointing a water bottle and drawing a picture depicting a pilgrim shooting a turkey. The sandwich-related suspension occurred during the previous school year…