Special education enables students with disabilities to access the resources they need to succeed in school and their future careers. Individualized programs help children and youth with disabilities to reach their full potential without excluding them from traditional schooling (unless absolutely necessary). IDEA is the major law governing special education in the US and guarantees children and youth with special needs a “free appropriate relevant public education”, regardless of their disability or its severity. The latest data from the US Department of Education suggests that 7.2 million children and students with disabilities were receiving special education services under IDEA in the 2020-2021 school year.
To better understand the current state of special education, this guide provides an in-depth analysis of the laws and regulations that govern it. It also looks at how families, schools, and districts are finding ways to meet the particular needs of disabled children and youth amid the several challenges the system has been facing in recent years.
The Foundation of Special Education in the US
IDEA
Special education programs became mandatory in the US in 1975 when Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA). The law was formulated as a response to the discriminatory treatment of students with disabilities by public education agencies.
Before EHA, academic expectations for people with learning and thinking differences were low, and they generally didn’t receive the help they needed to succeed in school. In 1990, EHA was amended to strengthen protections for people with disabilities and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This federal law governs special education in the US. It provides rights and protections to infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities, from birth through high school graduation or age 21 (whichever comes first). Parents and guardians also have rights under this law. These include using IDEA’s mechanisms for resolving disputes or obtaining an independent educational evaluation (IEE) of their child.
To receive special education services under IDEA, students must demonstrate a disability in one of 13 categories, including:
- Specific learning disability (SLD)
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Speech or language impairment
- Visual impairment
- Hearing impairment
- Orthopedic impairment
- Intellectual disability
However, the presence of one of these disabilities doesn’t automatically qualify a student for special education—the disability must significantly impact the child’s development. To be eligible for special education, they must require it because of that specific disability. For example, a child with ADHD would only be eligible if the condition severely affects learning and behavior in school.
FAPE and LRE
IDEA entitles every eligible student to free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE).
FAPE is an educational right for children with disabilities in the US, guaranteed by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and IDEA. Under Section 504, FAPE is defined as the “provision of regular or special education and related aids and services designed to meet the student’s individual educational needs as adequately as the needs of nondisabled students are met.” The requirements for FAPE under IDEA are more detailed than those under Section 504. IDEA defines FAPE as customized special educational and auxiliary services to meet a person’s particular needs, at public expense (e.g., no cost to parents and caregivers).
LRE is one of the key principles that guide a student’s special education program. It entails placing special education students in the same classrooms as other children to the “maximum extent possible.” Special classes, separate schools, or removal from general education classrooms should occur only when a child’s disability is so severe that “supplementary aids and services can’t provide the child with an appropriate education.”
IEP
For children to receive special education services, they need an Individualized Education Program (IEP)—a plan that identifies the instruction, assistance, and support a student needs to be successful in school. The ultimate goal of IEPs is to prepare the student for further education, employment, and independent living.
It’s important to know that parents or guardians play a significant role in the IEP process. They collaborate with a team of professionals to identify the student’s unique educational needs, develop annual goals, and determine the placement, program modification, testing accommodations, counseling, and other special services that the student needs.
The Challenges and Silver Linings of Recent Years
Funding
IDEA requires schools to provide free appropriate public education to students with disabilities. When this federal law was passed in 1975, Congress committed to fund 40% of the average national K-12 expenditure per student. States and school districts have to make up the difference, while states are also responsible for distributing IDEA funds to their school districts. Nevertheless, in the five decades since the law has been enacted, federal funds have never covered 40% of special education costs. And that’s not where the challenges with special education funding stop—according to Education Week, education funding is “fundamentally broken.” Cost-sharing arrangements between states and districts vary from state to state, resulting in a great share of the cost burden falling on local school districts. Since not all of them have the same opportunities to raise revenue, they might not always be able to bear the additional costs of providing proper services to students with disabilities.
In a change of course, the Biden-Harris Administration announced $16.3 billion for IDEA Grants in its 2023 budget for education. The funding is intended to support about 7.4 million students from Pre-K through K-12 with special education and related services. In addition, the budget doubles funding to $932 million for IDEA Part C. These grants have been shown to improve academic and developmental outcomes and are expected to strengthen early intervention services for children with disabilities.
The increased funding would also help states implement key reforms to expand the enrollment of “underserved children, including children of color, children from low-income families, and children living in rural areas.” Furthermore, the funding of IDEA workforce preparation grants will be doubled to $250 million to support a pipeline of special education teachers, as most states face shortages.
While these are notable steps forward, the financial challenges facing special education are far from over. This is mainly because the current complex, disjointed system for funding special education makes it extremely difficult to determine the true costs and what adequate funding should look like. More needs to be done to make special education in the US thrive, and proper government funding is essential.
The COVID-19 Pandemic
It will take some time to fully assess the pandemic’s impact on education, especially for individuals from vulnerable groups. However, available data indicate that students with disabilities were among those most affected by COVID-19’s disruption of schools and communities. It was a tough time for the education system, and both the students in the early years who needed to adjust to new environments and the older students preparing for graduation and employment needed additional assistance. As schools closed at the beginning of the pandemic, most students fell behind for lack of needed support. Parents and guardians also struggled with the long delays in reviewing and updating their children’s IEPs to reflect the new reality.
The good news is that the deadline for most special education claims that occurred due to COVID-19 school closures has now been extended. Until recently, the statute of limitations for these claims was two years. That meant that families had only two years after a problem arose to request a hearing with the state’s Office of Administrative Law to resolve the issue. The new law extends the deadline for filing requests “related to COVID-19 school closures and periods of virtual, remote, hybrid, or in-person instruction” that occurred between March 18, 2020, and September 1, 2021, to September 1, 2023.
School Emergencies
As society struggles with implementing safety measures in the aftermath of the increasing number of mass school shootings, those who may not be able to run, hide, or fight in an emergency must be taken into consideration. Students with mental and physical disabilities need different strategies to protect themselves.
Special education teachers emphasize that individualized planning is key when preparing for school emergencies. They often spend a great amount of time developing plans for students with disabilities, discussing safety strategies with parents as part of the IEP meetings, and training students on how to respond in emergencies. The exact plan usually depends on the type of disability a student has—for example, wheelchair users might need a specific hiding place in the classroom because they wouldn’t be able to hide under a table or bench.
While IDEA protects students with disabilities from discriminatory practices that could jeopardize their safety, it doesn’t cover the protocols that educational institutions should have in place to protect them in an emergency. A fact sheet published by the US Department of Education’s Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center provides useful resources for students, teachers, and parents about emergency preparedness for those with disabilities. The guide also includes a list of best practices that schools should consider when developing detailed emergency plans.
The Bottom Line
Special education refers to the programs that support students with mental, physical, emotional, and behavioral disabilities. Since IDEA has been enacted in 1975, special education in the US has come a long way—children and youth are now guaranteed adequate schooling in an appropriate setting, based on an individualized plan. However, there is still a long way to go before special education reaches the ideal originally envisioned, and proper state funding plays a major role in this.
