Covering Special Education Basics and Trends

Often riddled with acronyms and legalese, special education can be a highly complex topic on the education beat. But amid federal threats to legal protections for special education students, it’s an increasingly vital part of coverage.

During the Education Writers Association’s National Seminar in St. Louis last May, panelists shared practical guidance for covering the evolving special education landscape in light of recent shakeups at the federal level and spoke about their recent reporting. 

Here are top takeaways, reporting tips and some story ideas to help you improve and deepen your special education coverage. 

Participants 

• Alice Abrokwa, associate professor of law at the University of Virginia 
• Jessika Harkay, reporter at The 74 (formerly of the Connecticut Mirror) 
• Mandy McLaren, reporter at the Courier Journal (formerly of The Boston Globe)
• Marta Jewson, reporter and editor at The Lens (moderator) 

The Basics of Special Education

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: IDEA is a federal special education law that guarantees students a free and appropriate education and requires schools to identify students with disabilities and make a plan, known as an Individual Education Plan or IEP, that outlines the resources they’ll need to meet their goals.
  
  The law allows parents or guardians to file due process complaints with the federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) – which is housed in the U.S. Department of Education – if a student does not receive the special education services their schools must provide, explained Alice Abrokwa, who previously worked at the Office for Civil Rights. When IDEA was signed into law about 50 years ago and required schools to provide all students – regardless of ability – a free and appropriate public education, it was done so with the promise that the federal government would cover 40% of excess funding needed to educate students. But Congress has never met that commitment, Mandy McLaren said.
• Funding: A lack of funding is a key factor in most special education investigations, McLaren said. For example, a school district secluding students in padded rooms may be traced back to a lack of funding at the district to hire people trained to work with children with behavioral disorders.

Special Education Trends to Watch

• Office closures: The Trump administration laid off many OCR employees, closed seven of 12 regional offices and assigned different priorities to align with the president’s agenda. This means it may take longer for federal discrimination complaints, including those about special education, to be addressed. Even before those shifts, the office already had a backlog of cases.
  
  Legal battles to bring back laid-off civil rights employees are ongoing. Federal court records showed about 250 OCR employees – who the administration tried to fire in March – are expected to return to work, beginning with the reinstatement of 25 employees this September, The 74 reported. If all goes to plan, reporters should follow along as the reinstatements happen over the next few months.
• Lawsuits: Special education at the federal level is a constantly changing landscape, Abrokwa said. Several parties have filed lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, with much still up in the air. Efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education would likely impact special education.
• Changes in public attitudes: Along with a retrenchment of legal protections, there are signs of a cultural shift and resurgence in animosity toward people with disabilities, particularly autism, Abrokwa said.

Reporting Tips 

• Check out OCR annual reports: The reports break down the number and type of complaints that have been filed in the past year. In the fiscal year 2024 report, 52% of complaints filed concerned sex discrimination allegations, and 37% concerned disability discrimination allegations.Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against those with disabilities, opened the door for special education-related civil rights complaints. Those might include families who indicate their student is excluded from learning with students without disabilities, or families who may believe their student with disabilities does not have the proper support and accommodations.

  “This should be a concern to everyone who cares about civil rights,” Abrokwa said.

  Abrokwa encouraged reporters to download and archive those reports and other federal data because it may be removed in the future.

• Secure records: In her investigation for The Boston Globe, McLaren filed FOIA requests with school districts across Massachusetts. She found that wealthier districts offered more monetary settlements to families who sued the districts for not providing services to students with disabilities than less-affluent districts. The settlements required these parents/guardians to sign non-disclosure agreements in exchange for the district paying for specialized services students didn’t initially receive in public schools. Try requesting similar records in your state.
• Go to public meetings in person: At a city council meeting, Jessika Harkay witnessed a 19-year-old woman give an impassioned speech about graduating from high school without knowing how to read or write. Harkay chased after her to connect and eventually convinced the woman to share her story with the Connecticut Mirror, her former employer before she began working at The 74.Harkay said she cultivated a trusting relationship with the student by connecting with her on her level during a dozen meetings, few of which made it into her story
  
• Reach out to education lawyers for story ideas, Harkay recommended. 

Resources 

• Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates protects the legal and civil rights interests of students with disabilities. It also maintains a member directory for attorneys and advocates.
• Education Writers Association has another list of resources, from data sets to expert lists.
• National Center for Education Statistics has datasets tracking students with disabilities broken down by age, education environment, type of disability and more through 2023.