Special Education
Laws & News
Across the States
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.
IN: ‘Why am I so bad?’ Indiana schools suspend tens of thousands of students with disabilities
WBAA
Bella’s school first suspended her in Kindergarten. Five-year-old Bella had hit a teacher’s aide and run out of the classroom. A month later, the school suspended her after she tipped over a desk and fled the school. Eight days later, she was suspended again for defiance. By December of last year, Bella had been suspended at least 15 times. “She started questioning herself, ‘Mom, why am I so bad? Mom, I’m sorry. Why did God make me like this?’” Kristin said. Bella has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, a diagnosis characterized by impulsiveness and difficulty focusing, sitting still, and staying organized. After the pandemic, out-of-school suspensions in Indiana increased to the highest level in a decade. Yet state education officials have not prioritized addressing the statewide increase in suspensions.
ME: Districts share positive signs after special education for young children shifted to schools
Maine Morning Star
Timothy Tweedie, superintendent and principal of the Veazie Community School, said he’d seen an uptick in students entering kindergarten with unmet special education needs in recent years and wanted to get a jump on addressing that. So last year, the school became part of the first cohort of districts to take over responsibility for providing special education services to preschoolers with disabilities, as the state began its process to implement that change broadly over the next four years. “Some of our earliest learners were not receiving the services that they really needed before they were school age, and so we’re playing catch up with several students,” said Tweedie, whose district is among 17 now working with the Maine Department of Education to implement those changes. Students’ progress in these district-run programs has exceeded expectations, said Debrajean Scheibel, the special education director at Veazie Community School.
MI: Hundreds of Michigan families’ civil rights cases impacted by federal cuts
Chalkbeat
There was a time George Finley Jr. was on the honor roll. After the seventh grader started having epileptic seizures a couple of years ago, he experienced memory loss. Now, he’s far behind where he should be academically. The Detroit Public Schools Community District agreed in November to pay for outside tutoring to help him catch up, records show. That still hasn’t happened, and the school year is near its end. “My son is not progressing,” said his mother, Sheri King. She was close to getting an answer from the district. But the Trump administration gutted the U.S. Department of Education’s workforce weeks later, and the civil rights attorney who was helping facilitate King’s communication with George’s school stopped responding to her emails. His position, along with hundreds of others, was eliminated. With new leadership, the department shuttered more than half of its regional civil rights enforcement offices, which had investigated and resolved complaints for decades. Now, remaining offices must take on the backlog of cases.
OH: Ohio voucher cost increases as lawmakers debate public school funding
The Columbus Dispatch
Two years ago, Ohio did what few other states had done before it: it allowed every family to receive a voucher to pay for private school. The move was praised by school choice advocates, who said it would give opportunities to children who would never otherwise attend a private school, and criticized by public school leaders, who warned the move would siphon funding for public schools. Enrollment in the program ballooned in its first year, from 23,333 students receiving vouchers in 2022-23 to 79,728 students in 2023-24. The state will spend $475.4 million this year on vouchers through the program for about 88,000 students. Now, Republican lawmakers are considering further expansion, with savings accounts to allow families to use public funding for private non-chartered schools not eligible for vouchers, even homeschooling. And they are proposing cuts to public schools – $100 million over two years in the governor’s budget plan. Critics say the program is unconstitutional and draining funds from districts that serve all students, not just those accepted into private schools. Thompson, who has also served as a superintendent in Northeast Ohio school districts, said the expenses go beyond the voucher itself. School districts now also have to pay to transport students who use vouchers and pay for special education needs, such as reading specialists.
OK: Special education teachers offered $20,000 bonuses to move to Oklahoma
Oklahoma Voice
Oklahoma is offering bonuses up to $20,000 and thousands more in retention incentives to attract special education teachers to the state. The Oklahoma State Department of Education budgeted $1.875 million for the initiative with the goal of attracting 110 more teachers to special education classrooms in the 2025-26 school year, the agency announced Monday. The money will come from a federal fund called IDEA Part B, which supports students with disabilities. Special education teachers working in schools out of state could earn a $20,000 signing bonus if they accept a position in an Oklahoma public school. A newly certified special education teacher could earn a signing bonus of $10,000 to enter the profession.
WI: Dept. of Public Instruction: State superintendent calls for special education reimbursement increase, expanded mental health training amid rising incidents of seclusion and restraint
WisPolitics
State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly today called for increasing the special education rate and expanding mental health training programs available to Wisconsin schools as part of the 2025-27 biennial budget. The message comes as the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction published a report on the use of seclusion and physical restraint in schools during the 2023-24 school year, showing an increase in the practices. The data, reported to the DPI by school districts under 2019 Wisconsin Act 118, shows a 15.3 percent increase in incidents where seclusion was used on students, and an increase of 16.9 percent in incidents where physical restraint was used on students compared to the prior school year (2022-23).
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.
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 would 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.