State education agencies saw a 46% jump in the number of written state complaints in special education during the 2025-26 school year compared to the year before, according to new survey responses from 31 states.
The self-reported survey data, collected by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, shows that during the 2024-25 school year there were 7,907 written state complaints. That number rose to 11,523 in the 2025-26 school year.
Written state complaints trigger a state-led investigation into a special education-related concern brought forward by anyone, which can include parents and community members. There is no cost to filing a written state complaint, unlike special education due process complaints, which typically involve assistance from an attorney.
Special education written state complaints increase
Families losing faith in OCR
CEC and NASDSE said that while there is no single reason for the increased rate of written state complaints, many families have reported a lack of faith in the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to resolve their concerns, the organizations said.
During the second Trump administration, OCR has significantly reduced its workforce and closed seven of 12 regional offices that assist with reviewing and investigating K-12 and higher education discrimination complaints filed to the Education Department.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report in February found that between March and September 2025, OCR received more than 9,000 complaints and resolved 7,072 of those complaints, mainly by dismissing 90% of them.
“We’ve heard anecdotally from local and state directors that the continued underfunding of special education and personnel shortages are leading to this increase, as is the growing perception that the US Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights are less responsive to parents,” said CEC Executive Director Chad Rummel, in an Aug. 7 email.
"Given the turnover that state departments are already feeling, this is an additional burden on their time and makes us worry about how much more they can handle if there continues to be less federal support and less action happening in the Office of Civil Rights,” Rummel added.
The Education Department under the Trump administration has said it aims to reduce federal red tape and to give states and districts more decision-making authority over how they spend federal K-12 funds.
Several OCR functions are transferring out of the Education Department and to the U.S. Department of Justice under an interagency agreement announced in June between the two agencies. Civil rights investigation processes and enforcement are among the responsibilities that are shifting to DOJ.
Some have voiced concerns that DOJ doesn't have the capacity to address K-12-related complaints. In a June 25 interview with K-12 Dive, however, Kimberly Richey, OCR assistant secretary, said that while the Education Department is "completely committed to reducing and breaking up the federal bureaucracy," it is "equally committed to bolstering federal oversight where it's essential," especially as it relates to civil rights.
"There's a clear federal role here that will not be impacted, so the kiddos, the parents, the individuals who have filed complaints with OCR, they are not going to be impacted" by the OCR-DOJ interagency agreement, Richey said.
"We're going to continue to prioritize complaint resolution moving forward," Richey said.
Staffing shortages and turnover add to challenges
The number of special education written state complaints has been on the rise for several years. For instance, there was a 22% increase in the number of written state complaints between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to an analysis of federal data conducted by the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education, a federal technical assistance center.
CADRE promotes early dispute resolution approaches and prevention strategies.
States are required to address a written state complaint within 60 days of receiving the complaint. While CADRE found that most (81%) of written state complaints were addressed within the 60-day timeframe, there was an 11% decrease in the number of on-time complaint resolutions in 2023-24 when compared to the previous 10-year average.
Special education staff shortages and turnover are making it extremely difficult to provide timely resolutions, said CEC and NASDSE.
“Schools, districts and states want to ensure that FAPE [free and appropriate public education in special education] is provided and ensure that parents are being heard, but when Federal support is waning causing an increase in workload on districts and states, something has to give," Rummel said.
“The data clearly show that State Education Agencies have an increase in work load enforcing the federal law, so now is not the time to slow on any of that federal support in monitoring compliance" with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Rummel said.
The CEC and NASDSE survey also found that due process hearing requests increased slightly from 2024-25 to 2025-26. Due process complaints in special education are filed by families of students with disabilities or districts and typically involve an impartial hearing officer who helps resolve a disagreement between families and a school system.
Due process complaints are the most contentious and adversarial of the required dispute resolution processes under IDEA, according to CADRE.
The 31 state survey respondents reported a small increase in the number of mediation requests — a positive sign that families wanted to voluntarily work through a mediator to help them and a school system communicate and resolve their differences.
