As the number of special education complaints increases, some experts in the field and educators are wondering if artificial intelligence is playing a role in helping more families express their dissatisfaction with the services provided by their child's school.

Though the evidence is more anecdotal than empirical, this concern has led one technical assistance center to issue guides on ethical and practical ways AI can help parents advocate for their children with disabilities.

In July, the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education — a technical assistance center funded by the U.S.  Department of Education — published a parents' guide for using AI in special education advocacy. The group developed the guide, which is available in multiple languages, after conversations with people at parent centers and state dispute resolution agencies, according to Melanie Reese, CADRE's director. Representatives of both talked about how much AI was impacting their caseloads, Reese said in an email to K-12 Dive. 

State dispute resolution agencies said that not only have written state complaints and due process complaints increased, but AI has affected both the quality and complexity of those filings. The parent centers, meanwhile, said they are educating families to be critical consumers of the information AI provides, Reese said.

Reese said the agencies report it is not unusual now to have complaints with hundreds of pages attached, inaccurate interpretations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and even due process filings with AI-hallucinated case law cited. They also said there are reports of AI providing inaccurate requirements for how to file complaints and what issues can be resolved under IDEA dispute resolution options.

CADRE's guide emphasizes to parents that AI can make mistakes, has affirmation biases and won't know a child's specific circumstances. It also cautions that a child's personal data is exposed if parents provide an AI tool with identifying information, unredacted documents or reports, or confidential case details.

But the guide also shares AI activities that can be helpful to parents, such as defining common IDEA terms, generating a list of questions to ask teachers and administrators, and practicing what to say before a child's individualized education program meeting. 

CADRE is urging state dispute resolution agencies, parent centers and districts to share the resource with parents. 

"The responsible use of AI requires review, verification, and if necessary, expert assessment," Reese said. "AI cannot determine if the information it provides is appropriate for a particular situation or child — only a human can make that call." 

'Human-centered' AI integration

The Center for Innovation, Design and Digital Learning —  an Education Department-funded technical assistance and professional learning center housed at the University of Kansas — has issued an AI ethics guide for educators and framework for adopting AI tools in schools, among other resources. 

James Basham, the center's director and principal investigator, said he began getting phone calls from school districts in the past two years informally seeking advice in responding to special education complaints that the districts suspected were written with the help of AI.

In some cases, the districts said parents had even included in their complaints the prompts they had entered in an AI tool, said Basham, adding that he has not conducted formal research into AI's influence in the special education complaint process.

Some experts also worry that using AI may be leading parents toward a more formal complaint process, which includes specific steps that districts and parents must follow. An adversarial and formal dispute resolution procedure can be financially and emotionally draining for both parents and schools. 

In many cases, disputes could be resolved through less formal avenues, including discussions with school administrators and school-family mediation, Basham said. Districts can support this through intentional relationship building with parents, he said.

"Our systems should be set up to where a parent feels safe enough, or feels that they can contact someone without actually sending a formalized complaint," said Basham, who is also a professor of special education at the University of Kansas.

Another Center for Innovation, Design and Digital Learning resource, published in 2024, discusses how AI might be introduced to parents to build collaborative relationships.

"Obviously, we want to empower parents to advocate for their kids," said Basham. "And AI, by and large, can be a great empowering sort of technology."

For example, AI tools can help parents understand their child's rights under IDEA, as well as state policies. The technology can also help parents understand how they can best participate in their child's IEP and advocate for appropriate services for their child, Basham said. 

At the Arizona Department of Education's 2026 IDEA Conference in August, Basham said in his presentation that AI's role in the special education complaint process is likely here to stay. "It's a durable shift in how families will engage you going forward," according to a slide he shared with educators, administrators, service providers, families and community partners at the conference.

Basham's presentation also pointed to data from the Center for Democracy and Technology that shows a significant jump in school staff using AI to help write IEPs and Section 504 plans. CDT reported that share at 57% in 2025, up 18 percentage points from the year before.

Amid these shifts, he said, a "more human-centered integration of AI" that prioritizes personal relationships is needed in education.

Callie Oettinger, a Virginia parent of a child with dyslexia, told K-12 Dive in an email that while more parents may be using AI tools to write state complaints, she's not convinced this is responsible for an increase in state complaints.

Rather, she points to other explanations, including COVID-19-era school closures and district failures to provide special education supports or follow-up compensatory services. 

"COVID-era issues continue to play out in schools nationwide," said Oettinger, who founded the Special Education Action website that tracks due process and written state complaints. "Today's high schoolers were in elementary school during COVID. I can tell you with 100% certainty that many of them fell through the cracks and are just now receiving supports for disabilities that should have been identified and addressed years ago."

Complaints are on the rise

With about 8.2 million students ages 3-21 qualifying for services under IDEA in 2024, most families of children with disabilities do not have disputes with their school district. 

Still, the number of special education written state complaints nationwide rose 56% between the 2023-24 and 2025-26 school years, according to survey responses from 35 states. The survey was conducted by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education. 

Written state complaints can be submitted by anyone, including parents and community members, and they trigger a state-led investigation into a special education-related concern. There is no cost for filing a written state complaint. 

Special education due process complaints, on the other hand, typically require an attorney's assistance. CEC and NASDSE's state survey found that due process complaints increased 7% over those two school years.

CEC and NASDSE said that while there's no single reason for the increased rate of written state complaints, many families have reported doubts that the current Office for Civil Rights has the capacity to resolve their concerns. 

OCR has significantly reduced its workforce and closed seven of its 12 regional offices during the second Trump administration. OCR also announced in June that it entered into an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to move many of its activities, including investigations and enforcement, to that agency. 

OCR reviews and investigates K-12 and higher education discrimination complaints filed with the Education Department. There is no cost to filing an OCR complaint.