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Thirty-one state education agencies recently reported a 46% increase in the number of written state complaints for special education, according to K-12 Dive.
The self-reported survey responses, collected by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, included 7,907 written state complaints during the 2024-25 school year. That figure jumped to 11,523 complaints in the 2025-26 school year, K-12 Dive reported.
Anyone, including parents and community members, can file a written state complaint, which triggers a state-led investigation.
The council and national association collecting the data said reduced capacity at the federal Office for Civil Rights may be contributing to the increase.
During the second Trump administration, the federal office has reduced its workforce and closed seven of 12 regional offices that assisted with reviewing and investigating K-12 and higher education discrimination complaints, including the California office.
Families are also losing faith in the federal civil rights office to resolve concerns, which could be another reason for the increase, K-12 Dive reported.
“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 U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights are less responsive to parents,” said Chad Rummel, executive director of the Council of Exceptional Children, in an early August email.
Between March and September 2025, the federal civil rights office received more than 9,000 complaints and resolved 7,072 of those complaints, mainly by dismissing 90% of them, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report in February found.
