Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
WA: WA lawmakers poised to give schools a special education victory
Seattle Times
Washington lawmakers are likely to eliminate a longstanding limit on special education spending — a change advocates call a civil rights victory years in the making. This move, coupled with an overall boost to special education funding, would bring at least a little relief to school districts, in the neighborhood of about $150 million annually. It’s a notable commitment, especially this year, as lawmakers seek to balance a multibillion-dollar hole in the state’s budget. “It’s going to help,” Chris Reykdal, superintendent of public instruction, said in an interview Thursday. Under current law, Washington only provides state funding to cover special education for up to 16% of a district’s total student population. Over 100 school districts have more than 16% of their students receiving special education services, according to the state education department.
TX: How Education Department’s end could hurt Texas special ed
The Texas Tribune
President Donald Trump’s order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education last month came with promises that federal dollars for special education will stay intact. In CNN’s State of the Union, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said protections for students with disabilities are “not going to be disrupted,” but added that she wanted to see special education services be “monitored and taken care of at the state level.” McMahon’s comments align with Texas Republican leaders’ desire to shrink the federal government’s role in education and give states more discretion in how they manage federal resources for public education. But while Texas schools will still receive about $1.3 billion a year in federal special education funds, disability rights advocates fear the changes will mean the state will be left with few guardrails to make sure the money is going toward the students it was intended for.
CT: Lawmakers unveil plan to fix special education costs
NBC Connecticut
Democrats on a new Select Committee on Special Education unveiled a plan Monday meant to help local school districts keep costs down. The identical proposals come as municipalities say special education costs are driving up budgets. “We are at a crisis point,” Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox (D-Trumbull) said. “We are at a point where special education in Connecticut is not sustainable.” Gadkar-Wilcox and Rep. Maryam Khan (D-Windsor), co-chairs of the committee, said the bill was aimed at helping school districts with costly outplacements. The proposal would include financial aid to help school districts add or expand special education programming within their schools.
CT: Why CT special education funding bills are dividing advocates
CT Mirror
Special education advocates are split on whether two proposed bills are the best steps forward in tackling concerns about the quality of student services, cost, and accountability. Leaders of the Select Committee on Special Education described House Bill 7277 and Senate Bill 1561 at a news conference Monday morning as “a historical way for Connecticut” to pay for special education and make the school systems and their services more equitable for students with disabilities. But more than 700 written statements were submitted opposing the bill and tuition caps. Many who opposed the bill, whether in writing or at the public hearing on Monday, were parents, special education lawyers, and some lawmakers who were on the committee. “This is not a good bill, or at least, needs a tremendous amount of work,” said Andrew Feinstein, a longtime special education attorney and legislative chair for the advocacy group Special Education Equity for Kids of Connecticut. “There are some good sections, which we support, but by and large, this effort to destroy private providers, which is absolutely what this bill will do, is just unacceptable.”
OK: Oklahoma lawmakers vote to end discrimination against special-needs children
OCPA.ORG
Members of a state House committee have voted to end a two-tiered system that forces the families of children with special needs to jump through hoops that other families are not subjected to when accessing a school-choice program. “We have two very different forms of school choice available for us today,” said state Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid. “If you are a family with a student—with a traditional student—you can access those funds from day one. If you are a family with a special-needs student, you can’t. We make you wait a year. We make you jump through a hoop that we don’t ask our traditional students to do. We are discriminating as a state against our special-needs students.
TX: Texas House approves private school voucher program
WA: Bill to fully fund special ed progresses through WA legislature
Cascade PBS
Washington lawmakers are on the cusp of eliminating a special education funding cap, which critics said was straining school finances, hurting students, and putting the state at risk of a major lawsuit. On a 97-0 vote, the House amended, then passed Senate Bill 5263 this week to put Washington, for the first time, on a course to fully fund special education in its public schools. It also adjusted two other funding levers in the bill to drive more dollars for special education to the state’s 295 school districts. All told, roughly $870 million more will be sent out over the next two budgets. That sum is a compromise with the Senate, which wanted to spend closer to $2 billion.
WA: Lawsuit accuses special ed school districts of neglect and abuse
Seattle Times
Two Tacoma-area families are suing the owner of a now-shuttered private special education school, alleging that school staff abused and neglected vulnerable students. The Northwest School of Innovative Learning was Washington’s largest publicly funded but privately run school for children with disabilities until it closed in early 2024. Its owner, Kirkland-based Fairfax Behavioral Health, shut down the school after a state investigation found an “unacceptably high” number of incidents in which staff restrained and secluded students. A 2022 investigation by The Seattle Times and ProPublica revealed that for years, the school, also known as Northwest SOIL, was accused of injuring students and isolating them in small rooms while failing to provide a basic education. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Pierce County Superior Court, also takes aim at Tacoma Public Schools and University Place School District, saying both districts were responsible for these students’ education and kept them at Northwest SOIL despite knowing about some of the problems.
LA: State, school district ask judge to end federal scrutiny of New Orleans special education
The Lens
The Louisiana Department of Education and Orleans Parish School Board have asked a federal judge to release them from a decade-old judgment, instituted on behalf of special-education students who weren’t receiving services from charter schools in the early days of New Orleans’ decentralized school district. In February, in a request filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, school officials argue that they have met the requirements laid out in the 2015 settlement and have continued to “implement robust approaches to monitoring, accountability and support of schools and their students.” Lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center – who represent the kids who don’t receive special-ed services – are pushing back, asking judges to maintain the consent judgment. “For families in New Orleans public schools, the system remains woefully unable to address the needs of students with disabilities,” SPLC wrote in a reply filed with the court last week, on March 25. The lawyers’ concerns are backed up by a broad audit on special-ed monitoring by the state of Louisiana. The state failed to monitor 43 of 100 school systems to ensure students with disabilities received legally protected services, auditors determined.
CT: State leaders put focus on special education funding
NBC Connecticut
State and local leaders visited New Britain High School on Monday morning to highlight the work of special education teachers and staff. It comes on the heels of celebrating National IEP (Individualized Education Programs) Writing Day, which is the first Monday of April. “No two IEPs are alike. And they are key to ensuring equitable education,” Sinthia Sone-Moyano, a deputy commissioner with the state Department of Education, said. In New Britain, State Rep. David DeFronzo said 2,000 out of the 9,000 students require special education programs. Last month, lawmakers allocated an extra $40 million for special education. It’s something many school districts are grateful for, but as they become more reliant on outsourced help, their budgets keep stretching.