A record number of kids are in special education – and it’s getting harder to help them all

More American children than ever are qualifying for special education, but schools are struggling to find enough teachers to meet their needs.

A record 7.5 million students accessed special-education services in U.S. schools as of 2022-2023, including children with autism, speech impairments and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder . That is 15.2% of the public-school student population, up from less than 13% a decade earlier, the most recent federal data shows.

Several factors are driving the increase. Pandemic disruptions left kids with lingering learning and behavioral challenges. Parents have become more assertive about asking for services, as the stigma around special education has lessened. Autism diagnoses have also risen in recent decades, and the state of Texas has seen a boom in special education after changing an approach that had limited access.

Students with disabilities benefit from services like speech therapy, specialized reading lessons or personal classroom aides. Yet many schools report being understaffed in special education. And now, districts face growing pressure on their budgets as federal Covid relief aid is set to expire this fall .

“We are in a situation right now that is not sustainable,” said Kevin Rubenstein, who oversees special education for an 8,000-student suburban Chicago district. “We continue to struggle to make sure that we have enough teachers in place.”

Georgia parent Joshua Caines appreciated the special-education services his local public elementary school provided for his now 12-year-old son, whose autism and ADHD affect his attention and ability to hand-write, among other things.

Caines worried, though, about middle school, and whether a larger campus and class sizes would overwhelm his son, who learns better around people he’s familiar with. So he moved him to a Christian private school for sixth grade, where he’s in classes with less than 10 students.

“It wasn’t a decision that we took lightly,” said Caines, who works as a pastor. “If I felt my child could get the resources he needed in public school, we would have kept him there.”

GROWING NEEDS, REDUCED STIGMA

Under federal law, children in public schools qualify for special education if they are identified as having certain disabilities that hinder their educational performance. School staff work with families to create an individualized education program, or IEP, which details a student’s goals and supports. Parents who disagree with what’s being offered can legally challenge school districts.

Virtual learning during the pandemic initially made it more difficult for students with disabilities to receive services and to get identified for special education. Some parents helping their children at home, however, became more aware of challenges they faced, which expanded while school buildings were closed.

Since students returned to school, special-education teachers say they are seeing more mental-health issues and extreme behaviors , including students hitting staff, making lewd remarks and throwing furniture. Having the right support, like an aide to help a student calm down when they get stressed, can alleviate the behaviors.

“Traditionally there have been a lot of kids who were able to skate by and maintain at a level where they didn’t get flagged,” said Katy Chaffin, a special-education teacher in San Diego. “When you take years of school closure, for those kids, they’ve fallen so much farther behind.”

Decades ago, special-education students were often isolated from the rest of the school community. Now, students with disabilities are increasingly integrated into general-education classrooms. This has led parents to be more open to utilizing special education.

“That is where kids belong—together and seeing that everybody is different,” said Lisa Honas, an elementary school principal in Idaho whose 6-year-old daughter has Down syndrome and is nonverbal.

BUDGET STRAIN

As more students qualify for services, persistent recruiting challenges for special-education teachers and aides and federal funding shortfalls have challenged school districts.

In the fall of 2023, one in five public schools reported not being fully staffed in special education, a higher rate than any other teaching position, according to a federal survey.

School budgets have been flush of late and have risen over time. But money is expected to be tighter as temporary Covid aid winds down.

The 1970s-era federal law that created the special education system authorizes federal funding for up to 40% of the costs to provide the services, but the federal contribution has always fallen far short of that. Adjusted for inflation, regular federal funding for the law has fallen since 2010, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Department of Education.

A separate legal avenue for children with disabilities is a 504 plan, which guarantees school accommodations like extra time on tests. The share of students receiving a 504 has risen from 1% in school year 2009-2010 to 3.3% in 2020-2021, according to an analysis of federal data by Perry Zirkel, an education law researcher.

Implementing these plans is “all at the cost of the local district’s budget,” said Zirkel, because there is no additional funding provided by states or the federal government like there is for students on IEPs.

Special-education numbers have grown at an especially fast clip in Texas—from under half a million students in 2015-2016 to over 700,000 in 2022-2023. In 2018, following a Houston Chronicle investigation , the U.S. Department of Education found the state pressured school districts to keep disability figures low.

“Kids were being underidentified for years and years and years,” said Alyssa Potasznik, a special-education teacher in Texas until 2022. Potasznik left the state because she said the challenges of getting back on track after the Education Department investigation—with limited staffing and funding—were too great.

Now teaching special education at a high school in Portland, Ore., she feels a different kind of pressure. “You have such a short time to be able to help these kids,” she said. “It can be demoralizing when you don’t feel you can give them the support needed for them to live the lives they want to lead.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL

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