Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
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.
IA: Cedar Rapids sees progress on restraints, more work ahead
The Gazette
At a school board work session last week, the Cedar Rapids school district reported that the number of students restrained in response to aggressive behavior has dropped considerably. Between 2018 and 2021, restraints were used 4,145 times. From 2023 to 2026, restraints were used 734 times, including a low of 190 restraints in the 2025-26 school year. We’ve been critical of the district’s use of restraints and seclusion in multiple editorials, so the latest report showing the use of restraints declining is good news. Cedar Rapids did away with the use of seclusion in October 2022.
It was in September 2022 that the district reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which concluded, after a lengthy investigation, that the use of restraints and seclusion discriminated against students with disabilities who were disproportionately subjected to these disciplinary actions. The department required Cedar Rapids to end the use of seclusion. The settlement also directed the district to limit the use of restraints, revise its procedures and practices, and implement them consistently in all schools.
MD: School board to work with unions to expand use of cameras in special ed classrooms
The Frederick News-Post
The Frederick County school board voted 6-0 on Wednesday to move forward with a memorandum of understanding with its three labor unions on a limited expansion of its camera pilot program in special education classrooms.
The implementation of the camera pilot program followed an October 2025 arrest of a former FCPS education instructional assistant, charged with sexually abusing multiple students in special education classrooms at Oakdale Middle School and Carroll Manor Elementary School
MI: Michigan seeks to improve graduation rates for students with disabilities
WILX
Michigan education officials are expanding efforts to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. The Michigan Department of Education said recent gains in graduation rates and other performance measures demonstrate progress, but officials say additional work is needed to ensure students with disabilities receive the support necessary to succeed in school and beyond. State data shows the four-year graduation rate for students with disabilities reached about 62% during the 2024-25 school year, a 5% increase from the 2014-15 school year. The department also found that students with disabilities who spent at least 80% of their school day in general education settings graduated at a significantly higher rate. Those students posted a graduation rate of 68.5% during the 2024-25 school year. The findings are helping shape the department’s strategy moving forward, with officials emphasizing stronger collaboration between general and special education programs.