US Special Education Report Cards Released for 2025
As the US Department of Education gets unraveled, they are still publishing their annual reports on the state of education in each state and US territory for Disabled Learners… I was surprised and would have lost a bet on this!
If you want to see what Project 2025 will look like, you can use the sad state of federal funding of special education – down below 16 percent – and far below the long promised 40 percent or 50 percent level that has never been met. This is a depressingly consistent trend from both parties.
… and you can see the consequences with the ridiculously low rate basic, remedial compliance with IDEA – only 19 states and 1 territory actually complying with the law for 2025.
HAPPY FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY IDEA????!?!?!?!?
First, the 46th Annual Report on IDEA to Congress (this did come out later than usual – previously, it has arrived by April in my experience).
Given the way data lags, this report reflects data through 2022.
Second, there are the “IDEA Compliance” Reports for each state.
As noted above, 19 states and 1 territory are in full compliance with IDEA.
Or, more pointedly, 31 states are NOT in compliance with a basic education law that turns 50 this year.
This looks like a slight reduction from last year. There seems to be a cadre of states consistently compliant with the law, a notably larger group that have never been in full compliance with the law and a modest number of states that wobble on the edge.
– My home state of California is, regrettably, in the category of states that have never been in full compliance with IDEA as far as I can determine :(
Now its time for me to do some data analysis.
I’m truly glad these reports were published this year. I hope that the reports continue.
Most frustratingly, no one seems to talk about this data. It is important and should be used to inspire better performance by all of our schools for our disabled students.
Additional Information
Managing Through the Noise: How Superintendents See Shifts in the Federal Role in Education – interesting, however, comments like such as having to do “less compliance work” is not inspiring given the dismal outcomes for disabled students…
Office for Civil Rights Recent Resolution Search – was also recently updated (via Special Education Action – a good article). I’m not a fan of how OCR works, but that it is a topic for another day.
