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Special Education Compliance:

Hot Topics & Best Practices

Susan Henry, Director of Compliance

Sarah Kline, Assistant Director of Compliance

June 25, 2025

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Special Education Compliance

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The adherence to federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies that govern the education of students with disabilities.

The cornerstone of these regulations in the U.S. is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

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Discrimination/Title IX Complaints

Coordinating responses to DESE Child Complaints

Coordinating DESE mediations

Coordinating district efforts responsive to due process complaints

Document collection for due process and other litigation

Local Compliance Plan Updates

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Compliance problem solving

Liaisons to SSD attorneys

Assistance with documentation/IEPs/PWNs

Responding to parent requests

Training/Professional Development

Approving Independent Educational Evaluations

Our Services

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Information we provide should not be interpreted as legal advice. For specific legal guidance or decisions, please consult with your school district’s legal counsel!

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Participant Outcomes

REVIEW

REVIEW of hot topics in special education compliance

SHARE

SHARE pressing concerns and questions to generate discussion about best practices.

LEARN

LEARN ideas to bring back to their schools and teams to improve collaboration with their special education partners.

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Which area of special education compliance feels most challenging in your role these days?

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Dispute Trends

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MEDIATION

    • Voluntary, free
    • Request to DESE
    • Neutral, 3rd party mediator helps resolve dispute between parents and schools about a student’s special education services.
    • Goal is to obtain binding agreement without having to go to a more formal legal process, like a due process hearing.
    • No attorneys

CHILD COMPLAINT

    • Allegation that a school has violated a requirement of IDEA.
    • Can be filed by anyone—not just parents—including advocates, teachers, or community members.
    • Submitted to DESE
    • Investigated by DESE and resolved within 60 calendar days.
    • Noncompliance = corrective actions

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DUE PROCESS

    • Formal legal action; triggers a legal process.
    • Filed by parent or guardian when there is a belief that the school isn’t meeting its obligations under special education law
    • A resolution meeting follows the filing to attempt to resolve
    • Hearing occurs if no resolution
    • Heard by a administrative law judge, or hearing commissioner.
    • Serious, costly and time-consuming
    • ATTORNEYS

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Common Complaint Issues

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  • Discipline
  • Placement
  • Services
  • Evaluation/Identification

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Case Examples

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Child Complaint

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ALLEGATION: Failed to provide FAPE to a student who was the target of bullying In Compliance

Failed to provide the least restrictive environment In Compliance

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-Middle school student was given a 10-day out-of-school suspension for fighting on the bus. A subsequent discipline hearing issued her an additional 30 days of out-of-school suspension. Student was assigned to the district’s alternative school to serve the suspension, access the general education curriculum and receive special education services.

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- Parent alleged that the student had been the victim of bullying that was not addressed and that her placement was unilaterally changed without parent consent.

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- No compliance violation was found because the school administration had taken appropriate steps to investigate the bullying and put staff on alert to be vigilant for any instances of bullying. These efforts were documented.

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- No violation of a change of placement was found because the team was still within the timeframe to hold a manifestation determination to determine if a change of placement had occurred.

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Child Complaint

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ALLEGATION: Failed to follow evaluation procedures Out of Compliance

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- Preschool age child referred by parent for evaluation in late November 2023; parent educator completed SSD referral packet and gave the parent questionnaires to return.

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- On January 25, 2024, the Parent hand delivered the completed questionnaires to the early childhood center and dropped them off with a secretary.

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- In August 2024, the parent notified the early childhood center that she was filing a complaint for failure to respond to her request for evaluation. This prompted a search for the referral packet, which was found in a locked cabinet

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- The districts worked to accept the referral and complete an expedited evaluation.

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  • Due Process Complaint and Hearing

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ALLEGATION: failure to meet Child Find obligations and complete an adequate evaluation

- Student diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and later, dyslexia/SLD (private evaluation)

- Parents reported significant emotional struggles at home; not observed at school

- Student performed at/above grade level with general education interventions

- Parent requested special education evaluation. Evaluation completed, student was found “not

eligible for any category of special education disability.

- Parent obtained private evaluation that found student had learning disorders in reading/dyslexia and

math; Parent requested another special education evaluation. Districts refused.

-Parent filed due process complaint. Attorney represented.

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LInk to Missouri Due Process Decisions

https://dese.mo.gov/special-education/compliance/due-processchild-complaint/due-process-decisions

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Due Process Complaint & Hearing

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Decision : In favor of Districts

    • District’s first evaluation appropriately evaluated areas of concern and found no significant discrepancies between IQ and academic achievement as required by Missouri eligibility criteria.
    • Determined that the private evaluation was not reliable and that the use of the GAI instead of a Full Scale IQ was not clinically indicated. Further, evaluator made diagnoses despite student not meeting all DSM-V criteria, nor having gathered any input from teachers or other private providers. Gave little evidentiary weight to the testimony of private providers because their diagnostic impressions were based only on input from family.
    • District was justified in refusing the second referral based on continued lack of data to suspect either a Specific Learning Disability or Other Health Impairment.
    • No significant procedural violations that denied the Student a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).
    • Parents’ request for reimbursement for tuition to a private school, private tutoring, and other relief was denied.

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Other Trends from Disputes in 2024-2025

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  • Issues related to student attendance/absence - absences related to disability, provision of services

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  • Demands for placement in private schools

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  • Disputes over progress and demands for records

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  • Incidents that may constitute a Title IX violation

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Myth or Fact?

Or, It’s Complicated!

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Emerging Issues & Impacts on Special Education

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Missouri Senate Bill 68 – Education Omnibus Bill

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1. Electronic Personal Communication Devices

- Starting with 2025-2026 school year, districts must adopt a written policy prohibiting

student use of electronic personal communication devices during school day

- Must include discipline procedures for violations

- Must include exceptions for students who need devices pursuant to their IEP or 504

Plan, emergency use, and authorized educational purposes

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2. Kindergarten Eligibility for Young Child with a Developmental Delay (YCDD)

- A child identified as having a developmental delay before attaining the age of

eligibility for kindergarten may continue such eligibility as YCDD into their

kindergarten and/or their first grade year.

- A student who turns seven before August 1 of a given school year cannot continue

to qualify for special education services under the Young Child with a

Developmental Delay (YCDD) category. However, they may still be eligible for

services under a different disability category.

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Missouri Senate Bill 68 – Education Omnibus Bill

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3. MODELS OF READING INSTRUCTION

- Phonics instruction for decoding and encoding words shall be the primary instructional strategy for teaching word reading in school districts and charter schools

- Instruction in word reading shall not rely primarily on strategies based on the three-cueing system model of reading or visual memory.

-Visual information may be used in reading instruction to improve background and add context but shall not be used to teach word reading.

4. ZERO-TOLERANCE DISCIPLINARY POLICIES

- Requires school districts to prohibit, in name and practice, any zero-tolerance

disciplinary policy that results in an automatic consequence against a pupil without

the discretion to modify such disciplinary consequence on a case-by-case basis.

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U.S. Supreme Court Decision: A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools

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- A.J.T. is a teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy that causes frequent morning

seizures, making it impossible for her to attend school before noon.

- Despite being alert and able to learn in the afternoon and evening, her new school district

in Minnesota (Osseo Area Schools) refused to include evening instruction in her

Individualized Education Program (IEP).

- From 2015 to 2018, A.J.T. received only 4.25 hours of instruction per day—much less

than the 6.5 hours her peers received.

- When the school proposed cutting her hours even more, her parents filed a due process complaint under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Hearing Officer found the district violated IDEA and ordered the district to provide additional

instruction.

- After winning under IDEA, A.J.T.'s family also sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, seeking damages and a permanent

injunction.

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U.S. Supreme Court Decision: A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools

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  • 8th Circuit courts dismissed the case, saying that to win under these laws in an education setting, families had to prove the school acted with “bad faith or gross misjudgment.”
  • Previously, for a parent to establish a Section 504 or ADA claim against a school system in the 2nd , 4th, 5th, 6th, or 8th Circuits, parents needed to establish the school system acted with bad faith or gross misjudgment.

“[s]o long as the State officials involved have exercised professional judgment, in such a way as not to depart grossly from accepted standards among educational professionals” there would be no liability under the ADA and Section 504. See Monahan v. Nebraska, 687 F.2d 1164 (8th Cir. 1982).

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U.S. Supreme Court Decision: A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools

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Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court unanimously disagreed with the lower courts. It ruled that:

- Students with disabilities do not need to prove bad faith or gross misjudgment to bring discrimination claims under the ADA or Rehabilitation Act.

- These claims should be treated like any other disability discrimination case, where the standard is typically “deliberate indifference”— meaning the school knew there was a problem and ignored it.

- The Court emphasized that the IDEA does not limit the rights students have under other federal disability laws.

What This Means

This decision makes it easier for students with disabilities to sue schools under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. They no longer have to meet a higher legal standard just because the discrimination happened in a school setting.

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Table Talk

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Talk at your table how the SCOTUS decision might impact your school’s practices.

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How will you show you were not “deliberately indifferent” ?

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Take Aways

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Best Practices

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Evaluate

    • When there is a significant change in the student’s behavior, attendance, progress, or there is a lack of progress.
    • Shows school was not indifferent to changes in student performance and investigated.
    • Rarely or never waive 3-year reevaluation
    • Child Find obligations/initiate procedures
      • Example: Student demonstrating increasing anxiety and attendance is dropping.

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Document

    • Document that you tried something different when the student’s progress is limited or regressing. You may need to propose something the parent disagrees with.
    • Close the loop on discipline, bullying, harassment, and discrimination matters. Finalize the case with a formal letter to the parent summarizing the decision.
      • Example: Parent claims student has been bullied. Conduct investigation and memorialize the findings/decision in a letter to the parent and for the student’s file.

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Monitor and Address Student Absences

    • Follow your procedures for communicating with families, reporting, and hotlining. Review your district’s Attendance Plans. Are you following the plan?
    • Alternative attendance plans should include periodic reviews and document intentions to return the student to school, if appropriate.
    • Evaluation may be needed, and IEPs may need to incorporate goals or services to address chronic nonattendance if disability-related.
    • Ensure that special education services are provided. If parent/student doesn’t access, document attempts to encourage and support.
    • Partnership between partner district and SSD staff is critical for addressing chronic nonattendance of student’s with disabilities.
      • Example: Student stops coming to school for social emotional reasons and virtual instruction is offered.

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Keep and maintain progress data

    • Help teachers and other instructional staff develop systems to maintain the classroom, assessment and intervention data they collect on students.
    • Use full names of teacher and student, day/month/year dating, and any helpful explanations on documents
    • Work samples and writing samples are increasingly being requested. Maintaining these over time can show student’s progression (or lack thereof).
      • Example: General education intervention and progress data provides basis for referrals for special education evaluation.

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Collaboration & Communication

    • Best outcomes occur when general education and special education teachers and administrators are on the same page.
    • General education teacher and administrator input at IEP meetings is critical to help parents see the whole child.
    • Immediate communication to special ed case manager and/or Special Education Coordinator when injuries, discipline, discrimination or Title IX issues arise.
      • Example: Student with a disability repeatedly is injured on the playground, brought to nurse for care, and has adult support on their IEP.

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Questions?

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Contact Information

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Susan Henry, Director of Special Education

srhenry@ssdmo.org

314-989-8143

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Sarah Kline, Assistant Director of Special Education

sekline@ssdmo.org

314-989-8135