As a member benefit, WCRIS watches the headlines so you don’t have to. Recently, special education has been drawing the attention of the press. See the latest below:
According to Education Week, there’s three reasons why more students are in special education: 1) Inflexible curricula are leaving students’ needs unmet; 2) Autism and ADHD diagnoses are increasing; and 3) Social stigma around disabilities is decreasing.
While diagnoses and resulting IEPs are on the rise, school districts claim that it’s costing them money they don’t have.
The Irvine, Calif. school district fought a family in court for almost eight years over serving their child with dyslexia. The west-coast district cited that it occasionally will litigate such cases out of caution about establishing costly new procedures. The district spent $1 million fighting the case, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The news outlet also reported that, “Nationwide, special education disputes generated nearly 46,500 formal complaints or mediation requests in 2021-22, the most recent federal data, that’s up to 27% from the prior year.”
Across the country, 8.4 million students from ages 3-21 are identified as needing special education. By comparison, EdChoice roughly estimates that 12% of or 114,832 Wisconsin students are eligible for the state’s Special Needs Scholarship Program (SNSP), which requires a current IEP.
If you have questions about serving students with special needs in your school, whether via the state SNSP, federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or other means, please contact WCRIS. We’re here to serve!
