special education issues articles

Five Current Trending Issues in Special Education

The majority of students with disabilities is now served in general education classrooms as we embrace inclusive practices in our schools. The primary dynamics of the general ed classroom is changing due to these inclusive measures. Continuing scarcity of special education teachers and movement toward team teaching or co-teaching impact the process that districts approach special education as well. The lines are blurring in diagnosis, pedagogy, and instruction between a general education classroom and special education approaches to instruction. As mentioned, both here and in previous blog posts, the classroom is changing. The focus of educators is becoming more about supporting students who face trauma, catastrophic events, multiple disabilities, and special talents, all without the benefit of a clear diagnosis. This is leaving general education classroom teachers responsible for a greater need for understanding of student learning that falls outside the realm of a worksheet and basal reader. Let’s take a deeper look into some of the top five issues that are currently trending in the world of special education.

As technology continues to substantially alter the classroom, students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are especially targeted for extra support. By leveraging technology, classroom instruction can be enhanced with individual learning occasions, which allows teachers greater flexibility for differentiation in instruction through blended learning opportunities and the variety of Web-based, evidence-based practices. No longer are students stuck in a classroom they don’t understand, learning at a pace they can’t keep up with.

Trauma-Informed Teaching

Students and teachers are often faced with dire situations far outside their control. Managing these situations and addressing the emotional impact can make day-to-day instruction feel trivial in comparison. How do you face a traumatic event and continue to learn fractions? This school year, we have seen flooding, fires, tornados, mudslides, polar vortexes, and hurricanes affect communities. Surely these should be considered traumatic events! The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) counts natural disasters as traumatic events. The NCTSN defines a traumatic event as a “frightening, dangerous, or violent event that poses a threat to a child’s life or bodily integrity.” Each student reacts to trauma in his or her own way. While there is no clear-cut set of cues to spot, there are many resources describing possible signs of trauma to keep an eye out for. According to the NCTSN, there is a variety of behaviors that you might observe in students affected by trauma.

These students are dealing with issues that are far outside of the classroom, yet impact learning. How students deal is unique to them, but they do not qualify for special education services immediately. Trauma-screening resources are available for educators to help providers identify children’s and families’ needs. Knowing the signs and resources is a first step to managing a general education classroom with these special students. Students who face trauma certainly require special accommodations. Their world and work are significantly impacted by forces outside of their control. There are behaviors we can look for and resources we can put in place, but as educators, and often participants of the same catastrophic events, we need to be aware of the resources and act as part of the solution, not the only solution.

Homelessness

Educators are well aware of the impact of poverty on students and learning. But, do you know how many of your students are homeless? This is a challenge being faced by more students than you might expect, and under new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements, increased focus is being placed on monitoring the academic growth of this specific population. Again, these students fit outside the realm of traditionally acknowledged special education students. For homeless students, the classroom could be the one safe, stable place in their day-to-day lives, an important tether to the safety and security of routine and, perhaps most critically, an essential support in the journey out of poverty and into a better situation. These students are being forced to deal with significant, difficult, and interrelated challenges outside of the classroom that inevitably impact academic performance and the ability to participate in instruction.

At this point, it should come as no surprise that for children already identified as needing special education services, the stresses of homelessness can exacerbate learning problems. After all, transitions are often hard for children with exceptionalities—can you imagine anything more transitional than being without a consistent place to sleep every night? However, not all homeless students have gone through the evaluation process (or need to), so providing educational support and resources is not an option, but consider how difficult it must be for general education students to deal with the uncertainty of circumstances and continue to maintain focus on classroom instruction. Read our full blog post on strategies for educators and resources for you to connect your students .

Twice-Exceptional Students

One of the challenges teachers face, in addition to everything else on their plates, is providing material that is appropriate in content and grade level for every child. When discussing students with special needs, this can often refer to age-appropriate and skill-appropriate content. There is another population of students that must be reviewed with an eye toward their special needs. These children often get lost, and because of their talents, these students often find themselves hiding in the “average” populations. In education, students who qualify for gifted programs as well as special education services are described as “twice-exceptional” learners. Twice-exceptional (or “2E”) students demonstrate significantly above-average abilities in certain academic areas but also show special educational needs, such as ADHD, learning disabilities, or autism spectrum disorder. Because their giftedness often masks their special needs, or vice versa, they are sometimes labeled as "lazy" or "underperforming," even though that is not the case.

Educators recognize that 2E students exist—often in the shadows—of the classroom. However, the real challenge is how to accurately identify these students, understand the challenges that they face, and implement whole-child-based strategies to best support them. Savvy teachers are now learning how to allow these students to experience the same opportunities available for gifted students, learn in ways that highlight their strengths, and address their challenges at the same time.

Parental Support

We have talked at great length about some of the issues that students and teachers are facing within special education. Many of these topics are outside of the identification of diagnosis and recognition of special ed disabilities and guaranteed services. However, one common theme we have not discussed is the approach that must be considered when meeting with parents. You, as their child’s teacher, may be the very first person to indicate that there is an issue with their precious baby. Starting the conversation is hard—you can be met with tears or terror. The main thing to consider is that this is their child and that you only know one small piece of the puzzle. It is important from the beginning that you are part of the one unified team that supports students in the best way possible. At the end of the day, you and your students’ parents want the best for the children, and it’s important to remember that. You play an important role in students’ lives, so make sure that you’re making your voice heard, but be sure that you’re listening to what parents have to say. Keep children’s best interests in mind. Remember, you are an advocate, but they are the parents. Create a plan that you can all agree on—one that will find students where they are.

There is more legislation supporting students with special needs as being part of the general education classroom. Students with special needs are part of the general populations of their grade levels both in testing and in instruction. ESSA has clear limits on which/how many students can be classified for assessments (high-stakes exams), and the assessment world is moving toward the growth mindset, which celebrates a growth over final scores. It’s a position where special education teachers have lived for years.

Next Steps for Educators

Classroom teachers are amazing. It’s as simple as that. More and more students, either diagnosed or facing matters that are outside the standards of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) categories of special ed, are showing up in the general education classroom. This puts significant pressures on general education teachers. Continuing education, individualized instruction, and flexibility are paramount for these teachers. Legislation calls for some of these previously underrepresented populations to be accountable in high-stakes testing, without IEPs or provisions. This means that classroom teachers must be aware of how best to teach everyone in the classroom and not turn over the keys to a special education teacher. Teachers with special education certification may not be there or may be spread across many classrooms. Communication is key. Work with other teachers, parents, and students to create an environment of shared practice and success. Be sensitive to the journey your students are on; it may have hidden barriers we might not know about.

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What’s driving a special education teacher shortage and how schools are responding

John Yang John Yang

Claire Mufson Claire Mufson

Lana Green Lana Green

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Correction: A transcription error displayed the incorrect spelling of Nadene Stein. The name has since been corrected.

More than 7.5 million American students have disabilities that qualify them for individual education plans. But teachers trained in this critical area are in short supply. Special education teachers and administrators share how the shortage is affecting them, and John Yang speaks with Kimber Wilkerson, professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to learn more.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Seven and a half million American students, or roughly 15 percent of them, have disabilities that qualify them for special instruction, what's known as individual education plans. But teachers trained in this critical area are in short supply.

At the beginning of the current school year, 70 percent of schools surveyed said they had openings for special education teachers. We asked special education teachers and administrators to tell us how the shortage is affecting them.

Maryellen Robinson, Massachusetts:

You're spread thin and you're working with a student on a lesson to meet their academic goals, but you're also thinking about the student behind you who's working on maybe feeding or they're getting their medications, and you're thinking, how can I support that student when I'm working with another student?

My name is Maryellen Robinson. I am a special education teacher for students who have complex support needs in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sarah Davis, Minnesota:

My name is Sarah Davis. I'm a special education teacher in Minnesota, and I teach emotional and behavioral disorders. They have gone so far as to reach out to a temp agency to bring in para educators, which it helps having bodies in the building, but it's not the same as having a teacher who know, trained, and has specialized in behaviors and mental health.

Amy Quellette, Michigan:

My name is Amy Quellette. I'm in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. I'm a retired school teacher.

Nadene Stein, Massachusetts:

I'm Nadene Stein, assistant superintendent for pupil services for the Waltham Public Schools in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Amy Quellette:

It breaks your heart every single day as a teacher to know that you still needed more time with a student. And not only does it break your heart, but I could cry every single day worrying about the kids and that they need more time.

Nadene Stein:

I always have big box Kleenex in my office. That's part of my job. But usually when someone is upset about something, we can work together and we can figure out a solution that is going to benefit people and we can move forward. This year, I don't have a solution because I don't have people.

Sarah Davis:

The staffing shortage really makes me question if I want to spend the rest of my career in this setting.

Maryellen Robinson:

It makes me feel so sad knowing that there's such a shortage of people who want to go into this field and working with students like my own.

I really loved really working with those kids who were struggling, building that relationship and helping them see that, hey, this is a positive thing and I can help you through this. And then those successes, even though they feel very small, are huge for those students.

We got to do a very much better job celebrating these people and thanking them and supporting them, because I don't want them to leave. Let's get past this bump and with always the hope that it's got to get better next year. It has to get better.

The voices of special education teachers and administrators. Kimber Wilkerson is a professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kimber, we heard in that tape some of them talk about the burnout factor, that they are just so frazzled from all they have to do. How big a factor is that in the shortage?

Kimber Wilkerson, University of Wisconsin Madison: I think the job of being a special educator is a meaningful job that provides a lot of satisfaction. But the stresses and the pressures on teachers in schools right now, they are real. So it definitely contributes to people leaving their jobs faster than they might have in the past.

So in addition to that sort of burnout, because of all they have to do, what are the other factors that are behind this shortage?

Kimber Wilkerson:

You know, overall, in the last 10 years or so, there's been kind of an increase in this shortage of educators, and that's across the board. But special education has always been hit sort of the hardest of all the education professions ever since it became a thing in the 70s.

And so I'd say over the last ten years or so, there's been kind of an erosion in the public's view of teaching as a desirable profession, maybe some erosion of benefits and autonomy that teachers experience. So those things combine to create a public narrative that makes teaching and maybe special education less desirable than it was in the past.

Now, federal law guarantees students with disabilities an appropriate public education. How is the shortage affecting that?

The shortage of special educators has an impact on the quality of services that students with disabilities receive. Obviously, when special educators are spread more thin. So maybe in a school where there used to be three special educators for the middle school band, and now we're down an educator, and so you have two or sometimes even one special educator who's now serving that whole population.

Of course, that person's caseload is going to be higher, and the amount of individual attention that they're going to be able to give to specific students is decreased.

What are some of the things that schools are doing to try to bridge this gap, that bridge the shortage?

Schools in states have been sort of forced to be as creative as possible. In some cases, they're making it easier to become a special educator or a teacher. I don't personally think those are the best solutions because what it tends to do is bring in people who are less qualified and that less quality of preparation makes them burnout even faster and provide more poor quality services to kids.

But there are some really creative solutions in terms of trying to provide supports to career changers or people who work in schools already. Some of these are called grow your own programs, where they might take special education paraprofessionals and provide them with the education that they need to be certified. And these are individuals who've already been working with students with disabilities and already have kind of a commitment to that school community.

What should be done or what can be done to resolve this problem?

There are some efforts in different states to increase pay for teachers to try to make the work worth the effort. And there are also initiatives aimed at providing more professional development, more supports to be able to decrease caseloads.

And I think that the awareness of the problem and all the kind of creative solutions that universities and school districts and states are employing right now will likely and hopefully pay off in the coming years.

Now, I believe you were a special educator, and I believe your daughter is a special educator. Talk about why this role is so important, why having special educators is so important.

I'd say from my own perspective, it was a really impactful and meaningful career choice where I could see sort of my efforts paying off right in front of my eyes and investing in students who other people have kind of written off.

My own daughter decided to go into special education. She is actually an early career special educator. In her fourth year, you know, she feels pressures and she feels stretched thin, and she sometimes leans on me for ideas and support and I wish that more districts could provide more support to those early educators to help prevent them from getting burnt out.

And providing more support might be opportunities for those veteran or experienced educators to have some additional sort of impacts in their own buildings as well.

John YangG:

I'm curious what advice you had for your daughter or what advice you would have for any young person who's thinking of getting into this.

I'd say the thing that I try to stress the most is to remember why you got into it in the first place. Usually when people go into special education, they have, again, a desire to kind of invest in young people and try to help them achieve outcomes that other people might have decided they're not going to be able to achieve and to be an advocate for families.

Kimber Wilkerson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thanks very much.

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John Yang is the anchor of PBS News Weekend and a correspondent for the PBS News Hour. He covered the first year of the Trump administration and is currently reporting on major national issues from Washington, DC, and across the country.

Lana Green is a production assistant at PBS News Weekend.

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As School Returns, Kids With Special Needs Are Left Behind

For special-needs students, trying to return to the classroom, or just staying at home, presents a new set of challenges.

Camie Rodan straps her son, Solly, 5, into an assistive device that allows him to stand so he can practice skills and play with a sandbox at their home in El Segundo, Calif. Solly has cerebral palsy, and Rodan opted to pull him out of the school system to home-school during the pandemic. Credit... Patrick T. Fallon for The New York Times

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By Hallie Levine

• Published Sept. 16, 2020 Updated Sept. 17, 2021

This past summer, Ashley Garan was consumed with worry about her 9-year-old son, Max, who has severe autism. For the last four years, Max attended Giant Steps, a private special-needs school in Southport, Conn., but the school closed its doors permanently in June, citing concerns that it would not be able to keep students and staff safe during the pandemic.

While Max’s twin, Molly, was set to start the school year in Greenwich on Sept. 8, at the neighborhood public elementary school, there seemed very few options available for Max, who is intellectually disabled, nonverbal and prone to self-harming behavior such as banging his head into the wall. While he initially began his education in the public school system, by the time he was in kindergarten Garan had requested that the district outplace him to a private school.

“The staff wasn’t trained to handle his needs — I would hear horror stories about how he was lying in the middle of the hallway licking the floor,” she recalled.

Just over seven million, or roughly 14 percent, of public school students receive special education services, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed in 1975, school districts are required to provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. (In cases like Max’s, where a school district can’t meet a child’s needs, they are legally required to pay for a private education.)

When the coronavirus pandemic first hit, the Education Department stressed that all public schools that would be providing virtual or online education during the pandemic must continue to serve their students with disabilities. But a survey released at the end of May by the advocacy group ParentsTogether, found that 40 percent of kids in special education hadn’t received any support at all, and only 20 percent received all the services they were entitled to. Over a third were doing little to no remote learning, compared with 17 percent of their general education peers.

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Special Ed Shouldn’t Be Separate

Isolating kids from their peers is unjust.

In the fall of 2020, as my son and his neighborhood friends started to trickle back out into the world, my daughter, Izzy, stayed home. At the time, Izzy was 3 years old, ripe for the natural learning that comes from being with other kids. I knew by the way she hummed and flapped her hands around children at the playground—and by her frustration with me at home—that she yearned to be among them.

The question of where Izzy would attend school had been vexing me for two years. Izzy had been a happy infant, but she was small for her age and missed every developmental milestone. When she was eight months old, my husband and I learned that she had been born with a rare genetic disorder and would grow up with a range of intellectual and physical disabilities. Doctors were wary of giving us a prognosis; the families I found on Facebook who had children with similar disorders offered more definitive—and doomful—forecasts. When Izzy showed signs of some common manifestations (low muscle tone, lack of verbal communication, feeding troubles) but no signs of others (vision and hearing loss, seizures), I started to lose confidence in other people’s predictions—and to instead look to Izzy as the determinant of her own abilities.

While managing Izzy’s medical care and her therapy regimen, I also started the process of finding her a school in Oakland, California, where we lived at the time. I knew what options weren’t available to her, such as the small family-run preschool in a cozy Craftsman home that my son had attended. Private schools in general have fewer obligations to accommodate students with disabilities—they don’t directly receive government funding and aren’t covered by the federal special-education law that requires the provision of free and appropriate public education. California’s public preschools, at the time reserved largely for low-income families, weren’t an option, either, because our family exceeded the income threshold to qualify.

Read: Grieving the future I imagined for my daughter

Although kids with disabilities are spending more and more time in general classrooms, in the United States, “special” education still often means “separate.” Kids with disabilities rarely receive the same education as their peers without disabilities; commonly—or mostly, in the case of those with intellectual disabilities—they are cordoned off in separate classrooms. The one special-education preschool in Oakland I found that could accommodate Izzy would have sorted her into a siloed classroom for students with heavy support needs. The prospect of her being hidden away from other kids seemed unappealing to me—and unjust. As desperate as I was for Izzy to attend school, I didn’t want that to mean removing her at an early age from the rest of society.

Another approach—placing students with disabilities, with the support they need, into general-education classrooms—is known as inclusive education. If the goal of education is to prepare students for the real world, an inclusive approach makes a lot more sense. “Students educated in segregated settings graduate to inhabit the same society as students without disability,” writes Kate de Bruin, a senior lecturer at Monash University’s School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education. “There is no ‘special’ universe into which they graduate.”

In her role training teachers, de Bruin promotes tiered intervention systems where all students are given a base layer of general support, and additional services (small groups, more time, more detailed or focused instruction) are added on for students who require them. (For example, when doing counting activities, my daughter’s teachers and therapists often pair her with another child and incorporate her favorite toys.) Depending on the situation, a specialist might “push in” to the general classroom, sitting alongside a student at her desk to work one-on-one or they might “pull out” and remove the student from the classroom to find a quieter separate space.

There’s a concept in disability studies called “the dilemma of difference.” The legal scholar Martha Minow coined the term in 1985, and discussed it in her book Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law . The issue of whether students with disabilities should be treated as “different” or “the same” underlies many of the mechanics of special education. In both of my kids’ schools, specialists also build relationships with students without disabilities and include them in activities as a way to normalize disability and the basic human need for help. Thoughtful inclusion reinforces a paradox of the human condition: We are all different and the same.

Read: Is the bar too low for special education?

“Inclusion is quality teaching for all kids, designed to make sure that everybody gets access to quality instruction—and then for some kids, it’s intensified,” de Bruin told me.

In 2019, de Bruin published an analysis of 40 years of research on the benefits of inclusive education. She cites more than three dozen studies showing positive outcomes when students with disabilities are included in a classroom setting designed for all children, rather than siloed off for “special” instruction. In an inclusive model, she writes, students with disabilities achieve higher test scores and grade point averages, stronger math and literacy skills, and more developed communication and social skills. Some studies suggest that Individualized Education Programs, road maps for the schooling of students with disabilities, tend to be more ambitious and academically focused in inclusive settings; separate “special” schools (or siloed classrooms within schools) can sometimes resort to a focus on “life skills” instead of curriculum-based goals. Research has indicated that for students with disabilities, an inclusive education can have positive long-term effects on almost every aspect of their lives, including their likelihood of enrolling in college and graduating, finding employment, and forming long-term relationships.

A newer meta-analysis found mixed outcomes for inclusive education. The study doesn’t specify which types of disabilities are better served by inclusion or separate education; it merely states that some children “may benefit from traditional special education in a segregated setting” and that more tailored research is needed. If nothing else, the study’s inconclusive findings serve as a reminder that in my role as Izzy’s parent and advocate, some of the most important decisions I’ll make will rest not on data alone, but also on personal and moral judgments.

We know that failing to include students with their peers when they are young can leave them with deep and lasting psychological scars. In her memoir, Easy Beauty , the author Chloé Cooper Jones reckons with the emotional armor she built up over a lifetime of being excluded due to her physical disability, a congenital sacral disorder. “I’d believed completely that it was my nature to exist at a distance, to be essentially, at my core, alone,” she writes. “My body was constantly seen, but this thing I called my ‘self’ was invisible … People make spaces I cannot enter, teaching me how forgotten I am, how excluded I am from ‘real life.’”

Assessing how many U.S. schools are inclusive of students with disabilities is challenging. Sending students with disabilities to the same schools as their peers without disabilities is not the same as inclusion, which is an added layer of services within those general-education schools that allows students with disabilities to attend the same classes. Integrated schools, at least, have become very common—the U.S. Department of Education reported that, in 2020, 95 percent of students with disabilities attended regular schools. That’s considerable progress given that 50 years ago, before Congress codified their right to an education, only one in five children with disabilities attended school, according to the Department of Education; many lived full-time in residential facilities that resembled hospitals and prisons. In one well-known example , children with disabilities were warehoused in a “school” complex notorious for filthy conditions and rampant abuse.

Changes to federal legislation propelled this shift. In 1975, a law now known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) made it more difficult for school districts to separate students with disabilities from their peers, which led to a massive increase in the proportion of students with disabilities attending regular schools.

But a federal law like IDEA doesn’t reach into individual classrooms. In 2020, only 66 percent of students with disabilities spent 80 percent or more of their time in general classes; 30 percent spent significant time in segregated classrooms. Inclusion rates plummet for students with intellectual disabilities, just 19 percent of whom spent 80 percent or more of their day in general classes. In 2020, students with disabilities were more than twice as likely as their peers without disabilities to drop out of high school. The lack of a high-school diploma layers on an additional disadvantage: The national employment rate for people with disabilities hovers around 20 percent.

In fairness, inclusive models require resources that not all schools have access to. An inclusive program that provides individual and small-group support for students with disabilities will require more funding to pay a larger staff—a problem, given that well-trained teachers and specialists are becoming harder to find. Since 2010, nationwide enrollment in teacher-preparation programs has decreased by 36 percent , with a handful of states facing declines of 50 percent or more. Laurie VanderPloeg, the former director of the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education, told me that the pandemic hit special-education teachers and their students especially hard, given the challenges of remote learning. “We have high demand; we simply don’t have a good supply of teachers to develop the effective workforce we need,” VanderPloeg explained, referring to a recent study estimating that at least 163,000 underqualified teachers—long-term substitutes and others without appropriate training—are teaching in U.S. schools.

VanderPloeg believes the shortage could be reduced by de-specializing teacher training. In her vision, all teachers, not just special-education teachers, are equipped with techniques to handle a much wider range of abilities. “What we’ve done in the past is focus on specific disability needs, instead of the teaching practices,” VanderPloeg said. “All teachers need to be trained to address all needs. That’s good teaching.”

Whether due to the teacher shortage or other factors such as dwindling school funding , it’s clear that many families don’t feel that their children with disabilities are getting an appropriate education. During the 2020–21 school year, families in the U.S. filed more than 20,000 IDEA-related complaints against schools, less than half of which were resolved without a legal hearing. In California, the state with the most people (and students), special-education-related disputes rose 85 percent from 2007 to 2017.

But despite funding and staffing challenges, de Bruin and other experts view historical bias as the primary hurdle to inclusion. “The problem we’re dealing with is a very entrenched attitude that these children remain ineducable,” de Bruin told me.

As the pandemic raged on and Izzy’s school search grew more urgent, I began to doubt that I just hadn’t looked hard enough and that an inclusive school would pop up out of nowhere. Stuck at home, Izzy wailed with boredom.

I contacted a special-education advocate who happened to work in New York City. The advocate recommended several schools and programs in the city, including a highly rated program for autistic students, a growing movement of intentionally inclusive classrooms , and a Brooklyn preschool with a 25-year history of integrating children with disabilities into regular classrooms. In all my searching, I hadn’t found any such programs in California.

“Can you move?” the advocate asked. She was serious.

Read: The pandemic is a crisis for students with special needs

California had been the backdrop for my entire adult life. It’s where I built my career, earned a master’s degree, developed deep friendships, met my husband, got married, and had two kids. And in the summer of 2021, my husband and I packed up our Oakland bungalow, stuffed our kids into the minivan, and drove away.

Morning drop-offs at Izzy’s new school in Brooklyn are chaotic: Pedestrians maneuver around parents crouching to hug their toddlers, their goodbyes drowned out by garbage trucks. Izzy’s wheelchair appears, pushed by Alanna, Izzy’s dedicated teacher and aide, whom Izzy greets with a gentle high five. I deposit Izzy into the wheelchair; she kicks her feet in anticipation of the day ahead. She might work on her expressive language by mastering ASL signs for “ready” or “music,” or on her receptive language by learning to recognize signs for body parts—two goals specified in her Individualized Education Program. Like her classmates, Izzy is occasionally expected to perform “helper of the day” duties (sorting the attendance ledger, helping a teacher pull lunch boxes from the fridge), which Alanna modifies so Izzy can do them from her wheelchair. In photos shared by her teachers, I can see from the proud smile on Izzy’s face that she gets satisfaction from helping others.

Alanna’s role is to include Izzy by making adaptations that allow her to participate; in official-speak, this is called “accessing the curriculum.” Recently, Izzy had trouble sitting through a 20-minute art lesson. Alanna gradually increased Izzy’s time in the class by a few minutes each day, moved her materials to a quieter spot in the classroom, and found some thicker oil pastels (which require less strength to hold than standard ones). Alanna also helps other kids relate to Izzy by demystifying her disabilities and framing them in neutral and age-appropriate terms. When they call now-5-year-old Izzy a “baby,” Alanna reminds them that Izzy is their same age with a smaller body. Her friends vie for a turn joining her for collaborative games in speech therapy, or to ride with her in the elevator. During recess, Izzy’s wheelchair is a choice prop for playing “queen”—the lucky throne bearer gets to rule the playground kingdom. I recently got a text from the father of one of Izzy’s classmates, a 5-year-old girl who’d been slithering around at home on her stomach—army-crawling in the way toddlers do before they learn to walk. When her dad asked what she was doing, the girl said, “I’m strong like Izzy.”

Izzy and her friends are different and the same. They have different learning needs, but they share a love of barn animals and ukuleles. Sure, Izzy is unique, rare, one in 10,000. But in an ideal world, no child’s specialness would override their contribution to a shared humanity, or be used to justify their separation from everyone else.

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Many kids are struggling. Is special education the answer?

FILE - A student visits a sensory room at Williams Elementary School, on Nov. 3, 2021, in Topeka, Kan. Schools contending with soaring student mental health needs and other challenges have been struggling to determine just how much the pandemic is to blame. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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The COVID-19 pandemic sent Heidi Whitney’s daughter into a tailspin.

Suddenly the San Diego middle schooler was sleeping all day and awake all night. When in-person classes resumed, she was so anxious at times that she begged to come home early, telling the nurse her stomach hurt.

Whitney tried to keep her daughter in class. But the teen’s desperate bids to get out of school escalated. Ultimately, she was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, failed “pretty much everything” at school and was diagnosed with depression and ADHD.

As she started high school this fall, she was deemed eligible for special education services, because her disorders interfered with her ability to learn, but school officials said it was a close call. It was hard to know how much her symptoms were chronic or the result of mental health issues brought on by the pandemic, they said.

“They put my kid in a gray area,” said Whitney, a paralegal.

Schools contending with soaring student mental health needs and other challenges have been struggling to determine just how much the pandemic is to blame. Are the challenges the sign of a disability that will impair a student’s learning long term, or something more temporary?

It all adds to the desperation of parents trying to figure out how best to help their children. If a child doesn’t qualify for special education, where should parents go for help?

“I feel like because she went through the pandemic and she didn’t experience the normal junior high, the normal middle school experience, she developed the anxiety, the deep depression and she didn’t learn. She didn’t learn how to become a social kid,” Whitney said. “Everything got turned on its head.”

Schools are required to spell out how they will meet the needs of students with disabilities in Individualized Education Programs, and the demand for screening is high. Some schools have struggled to catch up with assessments that were delayed in the early days of the pandemic. For many, the task is also complicated by shortages of psychologists .

To qualify for special education services, a child’s school performance must be suffering because of a disability in one of 13 categories, according to federal law. They include autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities like dyslexia, developmental delays and “emotional disturbances.”

It’s important not to send children who might have had a tough time during the pandemic into the special education system, said John Eisenberg, the executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

“That’s not what it was designed for,” he said. “It’s really designed for kids who need specially designed instruction. It’s a lifelong learning problem, not a dumping ground for kids that might have not got the greatest instruction during the pandemic or have major other issues.”

In the 2020-2021 school year, about 15% of all public school students received special education services under federal law, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Among kids ages 6 and older, special education enrollment rose by 2.4% compared with the previous school year, according to federal data. The figures also showed a large drop in enrollment for younger, preschool-age students, many of whom were slow to return to formal schooling. The numbers varied widely from state to state. No data is available yet for last year.

While some special education directors worry the system is taking on too many students, advocates are hearing the opposite is happening, with schools moving too quickly to dismiss parent concerns.

Even now, some children are still having evaluations pushed off because of staffing shortages , said Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan. In one district, evaluations came to a complete halt in May because there was no school psychologist to do them, she said.

When Heather Wright approached her son’s school last fall seeking help with the 9-year-old’s outbursts and other behavioral issues, staff suggested private testing. The stay-at-home mom from Sand Creek, Michigan, called eight places. The soonest she could get an appointment was in December of this year — a full 14 months later.

She also suspects her 16-year-old has a learning disability and is waiting for answers from the school about both children.

“I hear a lot of: ‘Well, everyone’s worse. It’s not just yours,’” she said. “Yeah, but, like, this is my child and he needs help.”

It can be challenging to tease out the differences between problems that stem directly from the pandemic and a true disability, said Brandi Tanner, an Atlanta-based psychologist who has been deluged with parents seeking evaluations for potential learning disabilities, ADHD and autism.

“I’m asking a lot more background questions about pre-COVID versus post-COVID, like, ‘Is this a change in functioning or was it something that was present before and has just lingered or gotten worse?’” she said.

Sherry Bell, a leader in the Department of Exceptional Children at Charleston County School District in South Carolina, said she is running into the issue as well.

“In my 28 years in special education, you know, having to rule out all of those factors is much more of a consideration than ever before, just because of the pandemic and the fact that kids spent all of that time at home,” said Bell.

The key is to have good systems in place to distinguish between a student with a lasting obstacle to learning and one that missed a lot of school because of the pandemic, said Kevin Rubenstein, president-elect of the Council of Administrators of Special Education.

“Good school leaders and great teachers are going to be able to do that,” he said.

The federal government, he noted, has provided vast amounts of COVID relief money for schools to offer tutoring, counseling and other support to help students recover from the pandemic.

But advocates worry about consequences down the line for students who do not receive the help they might need. Kids who slip through the cracks could end up having more disciplinary problems and diminished prospects for life after school, said Dan Stewart, the managing attorney for education and employment for the National Disability Rights Network.

Whitney, for her part, said she is relieved her daughter is getting help, including a case manager, as part of her IEP. She also will be able to leave class as needed if she feels anxious.

“I realize that a lot of kids were going through this,” she said. “We just went through COVID. Give them a break.”

Sharon Lurye in New Orleans contributed to this report. The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Top 10 Special Education Issues for the 2023-24 School Year

Authors and contacts, related industries.

K-12 Education

Harris Beach has a team of four attorneys paying close attention to issues and news in the special education arena. Based on their knowledge of the field, they have assembled a list of issues for school districts, special education administrators and others in the field to be aware of and, perhaps, address proactively.

The top 10 identified issues:

1. Special Education Staff and Program Shortages

Even before COVID, staffing and program shortages were common in the field. The pandemic exacerbated the problem.

In some cases, such as transportation, the shortage is common throughout education. Bus drivers have been in great demand throughout the country.

Harris Beach attorneys recommend school districts, when possible, consider sharing transportation duties with other districts in situations such as transporting students to out-of-district programs.

The problem should also be addressed by the highest levels of the school district, not left to the special education director. Coordination with your Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) is essential. The special education director needs to work closely with the superintendent and the transportation director to work out arrangements for all students.

With teacher shortages, districts should persistently advertise for teachers and short and long-term substitutes.

Special education administrators also need to be proactive with superintendents about their needs so the superintendents can encourage BOCES to create needed programs.

Remote learning could be an answer in some circumstances. It is not appropriate for all students or services, but it is for some. Just be aware of certification issues if the remote program is offered from a different state.

Finally, in some instances home services could be an option, but this should be a temporary option, not a long-term solution.

It is imperative that districts have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in place for a student, even if the program does not currently exist. The Committee on Special Education (CSE) must ensure that the student has an IEP in place that is able to be implemented.

2. Compensatory Services

As a result of COVID and staffing shortages, some students may have missed certain services.

Districts should look back and determine if services were missed because, under some circumstances, compensatory services are necessary to make the student whole.

Requests for compensatory services increased after COVID as more parents became aware that districts must make up services in circumstances in which students did not make expected progress.

For districts, it may be easy to know if services are owed. It is more difficult to pinpoint how much services are owed because students are not automatically entitled to one-for-one make-up sessions. For example, a student who misses 100 hours of speech-language therapy is not automatically entitled to 100 hours of compensatory speech-language therapy. Rather, the inquiry is based on the student’s progress and the student may need more or less to make up a gap in expected progress.

The CSE should consider data on student progress to help determine how much services are owed. Focus on whether the student achieved their annual goals and what was missed by collecting and reviewing the data to identify the deficit and what is needed to address it. Progress Monitoring data from the student’s last year’s IEP will be key information to help determine what if any compensatory services may be due to the student for the 2023-2024 school year.

In some cases, administrators and the parent can work out an agreement on compensatory services. That is ideal, but the district should be certain to document the agreement in writing separate from the IEP. The district should also document the provision of any compensatory services.

3. Managing Student Behaviors and Mental Health Issues

This is a major issue right now, perhaps exacerbated by COVID and a lack of services to address mental health, Harris Beach attorneys note.

One potential issue is Child Find violations. Child Find is a district’s duty to identify and evaluate all students who are reasonably suspected of having a disability. Those students should be referred to the CSE.

School districts should be mindful that students may qualify under special education law, or Section 504, as a student with a disability, even when the student is doing well, when their mental health condition does not allow them to attend school regularly, get through their day or develop appropriate peer or adult relationships.

Districts frequently provide pre-referral services that are too intense and for too long to students with social-emotional and/or behavioral difficulties. These pre-referral interventions are often similar to special education-level support and could indicate the student should have been referred and an IEP developed.

When students exhibit behaviors that interfere with learning, districts should conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and put a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) in place.

By referring and getting IEPs and BIPs in place, the district is better serving the student and in a better position to defend its plan, attorneys say

4. Pressure to Reduce Suspensions/Restorative Justice

Harris Beach attorneys caution that students with disabilities are protected from discipline for behaviors outside of their control through the manifestation determination review (MDR) process.

Harris Beach attorneys have noticed an increase in suspensions as student behavioral needs have increased for all students, including those in general education and special education. On the other hand, the pressure to keep children in the classroom is strong; the attorneys anticipate future legislative limitations on suspending all students, including students with disabilities.

The state is encouraging Restorative Justice, the attorneys said. This is a theory of justice focused on mediation and agreement rather than punishment. It is based on inclusionary practices that bring students and teachers together. The state has initiated free training to districts on Restorative Justice techniques. Using this alternative approach does not, however, remove the requirement to conduct manifestation determination reviews when student behavior results in the number of suspensions and/or removals from school that trigger the manifestation determination review safeguards.

5. Services for Students Beyond 21 Years of Age

One of the biggest issues affecting particularly New York school districts this year is providing services to student with disabilities through age 22 — an additional year that will likely impact district budgets.

A U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that Connecticut must make available a free appropriate public education (FAPE) until age 22 for students with disabilities (SWDs) who had not received a high school diploma led to New York’s State Education Department to opine that New York school districts must do the same.

The legal requirement is now that a FAPE must be available to students until they either earn a high school diploma or turn 22, whichever occurs first. However, “SED’s Office of Special Education recommends that school districts consider providing such services through the end of the school year in which the student turns 22 or upon receipt of a high school diploma, whichever occurs first.”

This change in eligibility of services will likely have significant impact on school districts across New York. Administrators, boards of education, and special education professionals will need to plan for increasing budget allocations to fund these additional services. It remains unclear whether the Board of Regents and NYSED program offices will provide additional funding and guidance to support districts in meeting these new special education programming and service requirements. The Harris Beach Education Team previously issued a Legal Alert on the subject of services until age 22 .

6. Increase in Independent Educational Evaluation Requests

More parents are asking for Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs), perhaps because of COVID, staffing shortages or increased awareness.

Harris Beach attorneys recommend districts be proactive. The school district should have an IEE policy and procedure in place identifying the district’s criteria for IEEs, including evaluator credentials, fees, and geographic location. Although it is permissible to reach out to the parent and ask why they want the evaluation, districts cannot require parents to provide a reason. Rather, parents are entitled to IEEs when they disagree with a CSE evaluation conducted by the school district. The school district’s response to a parent’s request for an IEE must be to either grant the request or initiate an impartial due process hearing to demonstrate the district’s own evaluation was appropriate and/or to enforce the district’s IEE criteria. Notably, it is often less expensive to grant the request, but there are some circumstances in which districts decide to initiate due process.

Also, if an independent evaluation is requested, the district should provide parents with an updated provider list for them to select an evaluator. The list should contain active providers within the district’s defined geographic area, who have qualifications and credentials equal to those required by the district and pricing acceptable to the district. Regularly check community rates for evaluations to set your fee parameters.

7. Students Viewed as a Threat to Others

When a student with (or without) a disability is viewed a threat to others, a district will face pressure from two sides: the parents and state requirements to maintain educating the student in the least restrictive environment, as well as the teachers, students, parents of students and others who perceive the student as a threat.

It is advisable for every district to have threat-assessment procedures and a trained team to analyze each threat and determine whether it is a true or passing threat. Students with disabilities who are disciplined for making threats are entitled to manifestation determination review protections when warranted because of the length of suspension or removal.

If a nexus is found between the student’s misconduct and disability, the district may pursue an Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) if the misconduct involved a weapon, drugs, or resulted in in serious bodily injury. Placement in the alternative setting may be for up to 45 school days, but no longer than the length the suspension would have been. The CSE ultimately determines the IAES placement for a student.

The other option is to initiate due process and ask an independent hearing officer to order placement in an IAES because the student is a threat to harm themselves or others. The district would need to prove the student is dangerous, which is often challenging.

8. Greater Pressure to Mainstream Students with Disabilities

Many parents naturally want their children with disabilities to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers. Parents want placement in the least restrictive environment, and this is also required by law. Districts must remember that it is the least restrictive appropriate environment, Harris Beach attorneys say. Some students need smaller environments with less distractions and more individual attention.

Attorneys recommend districts remain patient and be sure to consider the parent’s perspective. CSEs are reminded that it must exhaust all potential supplementary aids and services within a setting before recommending a more restrictive setting for a student. Has the district tried all possible supports and accommodations? Have all options been exhausted? Personal aides? Assistive technology? Behavioral intervention plan?

The key is to try everything reasonably possible and see if it works. There will be pressure, perhaps from inside the building or parents of other students, to separate a student, but districts need to exhaust all reasonable options before placing the student in a more restrictive setting. Sometimes those options will work for a student. But if the interventions are not successful, , the parents may see that the student is not making progress in the setting and accept a change. Either way, the district will be in a better position to defend its decision.

9. Service Animals

School districts are seeing an increase in students being accompanied by service animals in school.

Districts are understandably cautious about service animals in schools because of the distraction they may cause, but there are two questions administrators must ask before granting or denying a request: (1) Is the animal necessary for a disability (if it isn’t obvious, such as a student with blindness)? And, (2) what task is the animal trained to perform?

If the answer is yes to a disability, such as anxiety, and yes to the task, such as applying deep pressure in a stressful situation, the district must grant the request. There’s not a lot of wiggle room, Harris Beach attorneys say. The right to a service animal is a distinct set of rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, independent of the requirements/rights under the IDEA.

After the animal has been admitted to school, the district will be in a better position to assess the extent to which the service animal is able to perform the task for which it was supposedly trained. The district will also determine the extent to which the animal disrupts school operations or poses a threat to others. Under those circumstances, the service animal may be excluded from the school setting.

10. Reading Instruction

Reading is a hot-button issue for many parents and advocates. Parents of children with reading disabilities frequently make demands for an IEP to include specific teaching methodologies, evaluator credentials, the amount of instruction time and staffing ratios for instruction. Some independent evaluators make blanket recommendations on reading, such as every student should have one hour of daily individual instruction.

But districts should determine reading instruction, including specific annual goals, based on the individual needs of the student. Ultimately, the IEP goals drive the instruction, and a student’s teacher has the authority to identify the appropriate methodology to address those goals. Except in rare exceptions, decisions regarding teaching methodology should be made by teachers in the classroom, not at CSE meetings.

Reading intervention is frequently provided on a building-level basis so CSEs do not include the specialized reading on student IEPs. But for students with disabilities who require specialized reading instruction, specific content such as annual goals, frequency and duration of service, staffing ratios and instructional settings should be included in the student’s IEP.

These 10 issues will significantly impact the special education field in New York and across the country over the next school year. Harris Beach’s Education team will monitor these issues and other related issues and report back on developments.

f you have questions about this legal alert or related education matters, please contact attorney Howard J. Goldsmith at (518) 701-2736 and [email protected] ; attorney Anne M. McGinnis at (585) 419-8613 and [email protected] ; attorney Jeffrey J. Weiss at (716) 200-5141 and [email protected] ; attorney Andrew R. Mark at (716) 200-5263 and [email protected] ; or the Harris Beach attorney with whom you usually work.

This alert is not a substitute for advice of counsel on specific legal issues.

Harris Beach has offices throughout New York state, including Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, Long Island, New York City, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse and White Plains, as well as Washington D.C., New Haven, Connecticut and Newark, New Jersey.

One of the biggest issues affecting particularly New York school districts this year is providing services to student with disabilities through age 22 -- an additional year that will likely impact district budgets.

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As School Year Begins, Special Education Teacher Shortages Remain a Challenge

As people with disabilities begin or prepare for the 2024-2025 school year, the challenge of special educator shortages persists. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), 39 states and Washington, DC, report shortages of special education teachers among various disciplines and ages. Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont are not reporting special education teacher shortages. Shortages of specialized instructional support personnel, from school counselors and psychologists to speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists, also persist. ED collects data on a wide range of shortage areas and has a searchable database with historical information dating back to 1991. Special educators have persisted as a top shortage category for decades. Improving how states and districts attract, prepare, and retain special educators is a top priority for CEC. You can learn more about our federal efforts by reading our issue brief on educator shortages . 

You can explore historical data on teacher shortages via the ED's database .

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The Coronavirus Crisis

Families of children with special needs are suing in several states. here's why..

Anya Kamenetz

Vanessa Ince's daughter, Alexis, has a rare chromosomal abnormality and autism. Alexis has thrived at her public school in Wailuku, Hawaii, and loves spending time with her classmates.

Ince says when the COVID-19 pandemic closed her school in Wailuku, the effect on her daughter's well-being was "devastating."

"Alexis regressed so severely. She was previously, I would say, 95% potty trained and she started wetting herself." She also regressed in other areas, her mother says: She went back to crawling and stopped trying to use her communication device.

Ince says her daughter, who is 10, especially seemed to miss being around other children, as well as her regular routines, structure and stimulation. She went from a "happy, bubbly, loving-life child," to wandering the house aimlessly. "She just looked flat and empty and not really there."

Coronavirus Live Updates

Education dept. says disability laws shouldn't get in the way of online learning.

Ince and her husband have filed a lawsuit seeking to get Hawaii's Department of Education to pay for the services Alexis needs in a facility where she can see other children.

They are part of a growing number of parents around the country who are suing schools and state education departments over this issue. The Ince's attorney, Keith Peck, has also filed a suit seeking class action status for all families in the state who argue their students' Individualized Education Plans have been breached during the pandemic. (Hawaii's Department of Education did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.)

There is also a suit seeking national class action status, filed in New York City, that claims would-be plaintiffs in 20 states and growing.

Peck says that because Hawaii is a single, statewide school district, it makes it easier to try to join students' complaints together into one claim. "We want a systemic approach to address people's need for compensation," Peck says.

But advocates and experts say the very nature of special education means it's hard to come up with a single solution that works for everyone — or a remedy under existing rules and laws to even start to address the problem.

Advocates and attorneys who specialize in special education tell NPR that across the country, remote learning did not work very well for many students with disabilities.

Survey Shows Big Remote Learning Gaps For Low-Income And Special Needs Children

First of all, students who are from low-income families are overrepresented in special education, and may not have had devices or Internet access. That can add up to "automatic denial of their free, appropriate public education," says Bill Koski. He directs Stanford Law School's Youth and Education Law Project, which represents low-income students with disabilities in legal cases.

Secondly, students with attention deficit or communication difficulties may not be able to focus on computer screens for significant amounts of time.

And then, occupational, physical and speech therapists, for example, often touch students to guide them, and there aren't good substitutes for that over video chat.

A touchier question is whether districts have been trying hard enough to meet special education students' needs and fulfill their obligations under federal law during the pandemic.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued guidance in March urging flexibility under the law during school shutdowns. She announced that special education law shouldn't stand in the way of the shift to online learning, and that students who missed out on therapies, for example, should be re-evaluated in the fall and receive "compensatory services," if necessary.

Koski, the advocate at Stanford, says there is a widespread understanding of the difficulty districts have been in. "There was almost a grace period during the shutdowns in the spring. Everybody was like, OK, this is uncharted territory." But now, he says, complaints, as well as simple requests for reevaluations, are likely to mount, which leads to its own problem: a backlog of paperwork that can lead to delays in resolving each case.

Alexander Campbell is a 14-year-old with autism who advocates for his fellow special education students in the state of Virginia with the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. He said the pandemic has made existing inequalities worse.

"Students aren't receiving equitable services during regular normal schooling," he says. "And now that it's in the pandemic, it's been even worse, to the point where the school systems are trying to convince students and parents not even to receive services at all."

When Campbell's high school closed down, they sent his parents a letter dated April 16th asking to amend his Individualized Education Plan to suspend certain services. Campbell's family refused to sign. (His school did not respond to NPR's request for comment.)

Like Koski, Campbell says that, "we should be reasonable with schools saying, you know, that they can't provide every accommodation." For example, usually Campbell is allowed to chew gum in order to help him focus in class, and, "I don't expect them to get in the car and bring me a pack of gum to my house." But for fellow students whose families may be poor or may not speak English well, he's concerned about schools trying to push them to give up services they're entitled to.

Educators Get Creative To Serve Students With Disabilities

Campbell's concern is echoed by Wanda Blanchett, the dean of the education school at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She says that special education has historically been a "struggle" with its roots in the civil rights movement. To this day, Black and brown students tend to be overrepresented in certain kinds of special education, meaning this struggle intersects with issues of race, class and English-speaking status.

"Even though we have the legal protections, we know there are, every day, children that are guaranteed these services and they're not provided services when there is no pandemic," Blanchett says. "So it is certainly conceivable and real that these services have been disrupted [during the pandemic]."

But Julie Mead, who researches legal issues related to special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says there's a potential problem with these lawsuits.

"Students with disabilities require programming that is special. That's the whole point — 'special' education," she says. In other words, for the very reason that each of these students is different, and needs different services, it may be harder to get courts to recognize them as a class, Mead says. She notes that, ever since a 2011 Supreme Court decision, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, certifying a class for a class action suit has gotten more complicated.

"What often becomes difficult is that judges look at this and say, 'Wait a minute. Kids with disabilities are so different, I'm reluctant to certify this as a class action because I'm not confident that we could come up with a remedy that satisfies everybody's needs.' "

And yet, Blanchett says, "what we did last March as a stopgap measure is not sufficient for this fall." All these suits and complaints express a very real feeling among many families that they need schools to step up and do a better job taking care of students with disabilities.

Students with mental health struggles linked to absenteeism and lower grades, showing clear need for more in-school  support

Research Scientist and Co-Director of the Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE), University of Southern California

Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern California

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Amie Rapaport, Ph.D. receives funding from the Hewlett, Smith Richardson, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and from the Institute of Education Sciences.

Morgan Polikoff receives funding from the Hewlett, Smith Richardson, Overdeck Family, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, as well at the National Institutes of Health.

University of Southern California provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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Parents are reporting worse mental health for their children than they did a decade ago, but different groups of children are struggling with mental health in markedly different ways .

That’s what our team at the University of Southern California’s Center for Applied Research in Education found using a widely used mental health screening measure. More specifically, we found that preteen boys – the subgroup with the worst scores – struggle more in areas that include externalizing behaviors like hyperactivity, inattentiveness and conduct problems. For teen girls – the subgroup with the second-worst scores – struggles were especially pronounced in more internal problems like anxiety and depression.

These results confirm an upward trend in student mental health concerns that began before the pandemic but was likely exacerbated by school shutdowns, social isolation and other child and family stressors brought on by COVID-19.

Additionally, we found these mental health screener scores – which we refer to as “difficulties scores” here – are linked in important ways to grades and attendance. That is to say, those who had lower grades and lower attendance were much more likely to have difficulties scores in the highest, most concerning range.

Among students with good attendance at the halfway point in the school year, only about 1 in 14 had a high difficulties score. But among students who were chronically absent at the halfway point, nearly 1 in 4 had a high difficulties score.

Similarly, students who earn some Cs in schools are three to four times more likely to have a high difficulties score compared with students earning all As and Bs – 19% vs. 6%, respectively.

As high scores on the mental health screener are predictive of specific types of mental health diagnoses – like anxiety, mood or conduct disorders – these results provide new insights into the complex relationships between mental health and school outcomes.

Why it matters

Children are struggling with mental health in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Various data sources have highlighted the increased rates of teen suicides , emergency room visits and anxiety and depression in school-age children. They are also struggling academically , while rates of chronic absenteeism continue to be higher than ever .

There are opportunities for schools to address these trends by providing school-based mental health services. These services include one-on-one counseling or therapy, case managers who can coordinate various services for students in need, and referrals to outside resources. And in fact, our research shows almost three-quarters of parents whose students use school-provided services are satisfied and find them helpful.

But many schools are not offering these supports – or at least, parents are unaware of them. Our study found that 59% of high-income respondents reported that mental health resources were available in their children’s schools, compared with 37% of low-income respondents. Yet low-income students are more likely to take up those supports when they are available. Over half of respondents from the lowest income group reported that their child made use of mental health services when available, compared with 11% of respondents from the highest income group.

There is considerable unmet student need for mental health supports, as 20% of parents whose children are in schools without such supports say they would use them if offered. These results suggest there is an opportunity for schools to invest in not only supplying mental health services, but ensuring they reach the students most in need.

What still isn’t known

While our research confirms important links between children’s mental health and their school outcomes, we do not yet know which is causing the other. For instance, some students may be staying home from school more because of anxiety and depression, while other students who miss school for illness or other reasons may develop anxiety over time as a result.

What’s next

For schools and families to address worsening child mental health and academic outcomes, researchers must seek to better understand the underlying causes of increasing mental health concerns and absenteeism in children. Research is also needed to explore differences in the relationship between mental health and school outcomes for different subgroups of students – by income level or by racial subgroups. This can potentially inform how schools to respond to problems that threaten student well-being.

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Artificial Intelligence for Enhancing Special Education for K-12: A Decade of Trends, Themes, and Global Insights (2013–2023)

• Published: 19 August 2024

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• Yuqin Yang 4 ,
• Linbaiyu Chen 1 ,
• Wenmeng He 2 ,
• Daner Sun 3 &
• Sdenka Zobeida Salas-Pilco 1  

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This paper provided a review of 210 studies on AI-enhanced special education from 2013 to 2023. Through bibliometric analysis, this review aimed to explore trends, focus areas, developments, and evolving themes of the field of AI for enhancing special education. Several noteworthy findings emerged from our analysis. The trend analysis of publications and citations revealed distinct phases, including an initial exploratory phase (2013–2016) followed by a period of rapid development (2017–2023). keyword co-occurrence networks and emergent word mapping highlight AI’s transformative potential, especially in autism spectrum disorder interventions and advancements in learning environments. Emerging trends focus on mathematics learning outcomes and educational equity, evolving through phases of understanding AI's support and integrating advanced tools like virtual reality and educational robots. Topic clustering analysis revealed categories including cognitive rehabilitation and ethical AI integration, emphasizing personalized instructional environments. Implications for research stress the need to bolster foundational skills and explore innovative teaching methods, including addressing challenges in gamified learning and integrating AI seamlessly. The review reveals a need for larger sample sizes and longitudinal studies to enhance statistical robustness and real-world relevance. In educational practices, using AI tools like apps, robots, and simulations can boost engagement and support social and academic progress. Tailored interventions for specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia, through intelligent tutoring systems, offer promise for positive learning outcomes. Policymakers are crucial in facilitating technology integration by ensuring comprehensive teacher training, increased funding for tech infrastructure, and strong leadership. Initiatives targeting underserved communities aim to promote equity and access to transformative resources. This study highlights AI’s transformative potential in special education, advocating for inclusive and personalized learning environments with ethical Al solutions to address unique challenges faced by special needs students.

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Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education, Central China Normal University, NO.152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430079, P. R. China

Linbaiyu Chen & Sdenka Zobeida Salas-Pilco

Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, S.A.R, China

Hubei Key Laboratory of Digital Education, Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

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The first author was responsible for writing paper and organizing the research work. The second author contribute to do data analysis and interpret part of data. The third author contribute to do part of literature review and data analysis. The fourth author contributed to the writing of results. The fifth author proposed the framework and participated in the writing process.

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Yang, Y., Chen, L., He, W. et al. Artificial Intelligence for Enhancing Special Education for K-12: A Decade of Trends, Themes, and Global Insights (2013–2023). Int J Artif Intell Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00422-0

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00422-0

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https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/08/19/fines-for-parents-for-taking-children-out-of-school-what-you-need-to-know/

Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know

Every moment in school counts and days missed add up quickly. Evidence shows that pupils who have good  attendance  enjoy better wellbeing and school performance than those who don't.  

The school day is split into two sessions – one session counts as a morning or afternoon spent in school. There are only a few occasions where a child is allowed to miss  school , such as illness or where the school has given permission because of an exceptional circumstance.  

However, if your child misses school without a good reason, local councils and schools can intervene and you may be issued a fine.  

We’ve also introduced a national framework which will mean all councils have the same rules in place for when they need to consider a fine. We explain more on this below.  

It’s important to note that children with long-term medical or more serious mental health conditions, and those with  special educational needs and disabilities  may face additional barriers.  

For children who face complex barriers to attendance, schools should have sensitive conversations with children and families and work with them to put support in place for their individual needs.  

How much could I be fined if my child misses school?    

In the majority of cases, schools and local authorities will try and provide support to help you improve your child’s attendance first, but if this isn’t effective or the absence is for unauthorised term time holiday, parents may face paying a fine.  

It’s the responsibility of the local authority to decide when to issue fines to parents, meaning the process varies from council to council.  

However, under the national rules, all schools are required to consider a fine when a child has missed 10 or more sessions (5 days) for unauthorised reasons.  

From August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country will be  £80 if paid within 21 days , or  £160 if paid within 28 days . This rate is in line with inflation and is the first increase since 2012.  

In the case of repeated fines, if a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160.  

Fines per parent will be capped to two fines within any three-year period. Once this limit has been reached, other action like a parenting order or prosecution will be considered.  

If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500.  

Money raised via fines is only used by the local authority to cover the costs of administering the system, and to fund attendance support. Any extra money is returned to the government.  

How can you be sure parent fines are fair?  

Fines are a last resort, and parents will be offered support to help improve their child’s attendance first. The vast majority of fines for unauthorised absence (89%) are issued for term time holidays.  

If your child is facing barriers to school attendance due to special education needs or disabilities (SEND), schools, local authorities and wider services are required to work together to provide the right support in the first place.  

What if my child needs to miss school?   

Your child must attend every day that the school is open, unless:  

• Your child is too ill to attend that day.  
• You have asked in advance and been given permission by the school for your child to be absent on that day due to exceptional circumstances.  
• Your child cannot attend school on that day because it is a day you are taking part in religious observance.  
• Your local authority is responsible for arranging your child’s transport to school and it is not available on that day or has not been provided yet.  
• You are a gypsy/traveller family with no fixed abode, and you are required to travel for work that day meaning your child cannot attend their usual school.  

What happens if my child misses school without a good reason?   

If your child is absent and you haven’t received advance permission from the headteacher to take your child out of school, the school and local council may take action.  

Before that, your child’s school and your local council are expected to support you to improve the child’s attendance before any measures are put in place .  

These measures can include:  

• Issue a fixed penalty notice, otherwise known as a ‘fine’  – your local council can give each parent a fine. If you do not pay the fine after 28 days you may be prosecuted for your child’s absence from school.  
• Seek an Education Supervision Order from the family court  – if the council thinks you need support getting your child to go to school but you’re not co-operating, they can apply to a court for an Education Supervision Order. A supervisor will be appointed to help you get your child into education. The local council can do this instead of, or as well as, prosecuting you.  
• Prosecute you  – this means you have to go to court. You could get a fine, a community order or a jail sentence up to three months. The court could also give you a Parenting Order.  

Why is attendance important?   

For most pupils, the best place to be during term-time is in school, surrounded by the support of their friends and teachers.  

This is important not just for your child’s learning, but also for their overall wellbeing, wider development and their mental health.  It’s not just children who fail to attend school who miss out, but  those around them too.    

We’re working with schools and local councils to improve attendance by supporting  them to reset the relationship between schools, families and the government to ensure children have the best start to life.  

You can read more about what we’re doing to help schools improve attendance on the Education Hub .  

You may also be interested in:

• What are 'ghost children' and why is attendance so important?
• Why is school attendance so important and what are the risks of missing a day?
• School attendance and absence

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Tim Walz's son Gus has a learning disorder. Can his visibility help disabled Americans?

CHICAGO – When Jessica Anacker was in junior high, a teacher pulled her out of English class one day after she was bullied by a student because of her learning disability.

Instead of disciplining the tormenter, “she blamed me for being bullied,” Anacker said.

An angry Anacker fired back, telling the teacher, “It’s your job to take care of it.”

Now president of the Texas Democrats With Disabilities caucus and a delegate at this week’s Democratic National Convention , Anacker is thrilled that there could soon be someone to "take care of" such issues at the highest level of government.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz , Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris ' running mate, has spoken openly and lovingly about his 17-year-old son, Gus, who has ADHD , along with a nonverbal learning disorder and an anxiety disorder. Walz and his wife, Gwen, both former teachers, said recently in a statement to People magazine that they never considered Gus’ conditions an obstacle.

"Like so many American families, it took us time to figure out how to make sure we did everything we could to make sure Gus would be set up for success as he was growing up," the couple said.

"It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback − it’s his secret power," they said.

When Walz delivered his acceptance speech inside the packed United Center arena Wednesday night, Gus watched from the audience with his mother and sister, Hope, and sobbed.

"That's my dad!" he exclaimed.

From the stage, Walz honored his family. “Hope, Gus and Gwen – you are my entire world, and I love you,” he said.

Gus Walz sprung from his seat, moved by his father's words.

He pointed his index finger, saying "I love you, Dad."

Advocates for Americans with learning disabilities believe the Walz family's openness about their son and their willingness to speak publicly about the experience will raise much-needed visibility that could help others who are going through similar experiences.

“It’s a good thing when people in politics, who are running for office, are comfortable discussing disability issues and don’t view it as a topic that is taboo or something that we shouldn’t discuss,” said Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Washington-based Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

When public figures are open about their experiences with disability or those of their family, that can lead more people to feel comfortable disclosing their own disabilities or talking about their family’s experiences, Gross said.

“That’s helpful,” she said, “because in order to talk about the needs of the disability community, we need to be comfortable discussing disability as a society, just like we talk about the needs of any marginalized population.”

'Now is the time': Democrats again dream of electing female president after Hillary Clinton's loss

In a sign of how important the Harris-Walz campaign views disability rights, Gwen Walz made a surprise appearance Tuesday at a meeting of disability advocates at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She made no mention of her son during her brief remarks but said her husband believes strongly “that every student and every person deserves a chance to get ahead.”

Walz is not the first vice presidential nominee who has a child with a disability. Sarah Palin , the Republican nominee in 2008, has a son, Trig, who has Down syndrome. Trig was an infant when his mother was running for vice president. Palin cradled him in her arms on stage after delivering her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Amy Coney Barrett, appointed to the Supreme Court in 2020, also has a son with Down syndrome.

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'Fighting spirit': LGBTQ voters see hope in Harris campaign amid attacks from right

In their statement to People magazine, Tim and Gwen Walz said they noticed Gus’ special abilities at an early age.

"When our youngest Gus was growing up, it became increasingly clear that he was different from his classmates," they said. "Gus preferred video games and spending more time by himself."

When he was becoming a teenager, they learned that in addition to an anxiety disorder, he has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, a brain development condition that starts in childhood and is marked by trouble with maintaining attention, hyperactivity and impulse control difficulties.

ADHD in adults is relatively common and affects between 139 million and 360 million people worldwide, according to the Cleveland Clinic. With treatment, people usually have limited effects from it.

Can she keep this up? Kamala Harris energizes Democrats and shakes up presidential race

Anacker, the Texas delegate at the Democratic convention, said it’s important for people with ADHD and other learning disabilities to have people in positions of power advocate on their behalf.

Anacker is neurodivergent , a nonmedical term used to describe people whose brains develop or work differently from most people. She also has a speech impediment and dysgraphia, a neurological condition in which people have difficulty turning their thoughts into written language.

In high school, she remembers dissolving into tears because she couldn’t draw a picture of a frog during science class. As an adult, she has never been fully employed, she said, because employers have a difficult time making accommodations for her disability.

No matter who wins the election in November, advocates hope the needs of Americans with disabilities will become a priority for the next administration.

Gross’ group, for example, would like to see expanded home and community-based services through Medicaid, which she said is one of the most urgent issues facing Americans with autism. Many states have long waiting lists for such services, and people who provide those services are underpaid, which leads to huge staff turnover, Gross said.

In addition, advocates hope to see an expansion of employment services, a realignment of government research to focus more on quality-of-life issues, and a federal ban on use of seclusion or restraints in public schools except in cases when they are needed to prevent physical danger, like stopping someone from running into a busy street.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth , an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs and partial use of her right arm when her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a grenade, said Walz’s openness about his son will benefit all Americans with disabilities.

“For so long, disability was a hidden thing – you took care of your loved ones, but you didn’t talk about it publicly,” Duckworth, D-Ill., said after speaking to disability advocates at the Democratic convention. “Many disabled people stayed in the home, are not out in the workplace, and we really need to normalize those people with disabilities in a normal society so that you can get the job, you can show people you can do the job.”

Regardless of the election outcome in November, Walz is already spotlighting ADHD and other learning disabilities just by talking about his son during the campaign , advocates said.

“We love our Gus,” Tim and Gwen Walz said in their statement. “We are proud of the man he’s growing into, and we are so excited to have him with us on this journey."

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.