With major changes happening in Washington, families are increasingly turning to states to help resolve special education disputes.
Data collected from 33 states shows that written complaints related to special education are up nearly 48%.
The Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education asked all states to voluntarily supply data on the number of complaints they received as well as mediation and due process hearing requests for each of the last three years. So far, 33 have obliged.
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The states reported that they received 12,398 complaints during the 2025-2026 school year. That’s up significantly compared to the previous two years when there were fewer than 8,400 complaints lodged annually.
The jump comes as the U.S. Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights, which fields complaints of disability discrimination in schools, have been in upheaval. Last year, the Education Department laid off hundreds of civil rights staffers and closed seven of 12 regional offices.
Subsequently, the Government Accountability Office found that the Office for Civil Rights resolved more than 7,000 of the 9,000-plus discrimination complaints it received between March and September 2025, dismissing about 90% of cases.
The Education Department is now working to shift some civil rights responsibilities to the Department of Justice and is moving many functions of its Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The situation at the federal level could be influencing the rise in state special education complaints, said Chad Rummel, CEO of the Council for Exceptional Children.
“We do not know why the data shows such a drastic increase in written complaints, but OCR’s failure to respond to parents and families in a timely manner has caused a lack of faith in what the department is providing in terms of support for parents,” he said.
The complaints are likely putting pressure on states.
“This is adding to the workload of state education agencies who need support and guidance from a strong Department of Education,” Rummel said. “And unlike the Department of Education, which simply dismissed thousands of complaints last year, states will spend additional hours and resources to deal with these complaints.”
