{"id":848,"date":"2026-08-13T23:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:14:19","slug":"the-fight-for-special-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=848","title":{"rendered":"The Fight for Special Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In March 2020, Courtney and Spencer Morey moved to Aledo, Texas, a rapidly expanding suburb of Fort Worth, because of the stellar reputation of its schools. But about three years later, when their daughter Annie, who has Down syndrome, was supposed to start preschool, she was denied the education that is guaranteed to her by law under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), even though no one from the school had ever met her.<\/p>\n

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I met the Moreys on an unusually warm afternoon last spring. Dressed in white shorts, a sleeveless red sweater, and modest jewelry, Courtney waved me into her well-air-conditioned SUV, and she and I drove to pick up Annie from KinderFrogs, an early-intervention program for children with disabilities on the campus of nearby Texas Christian University. Annie has attended KinderFrogs ever since the district\u2019s requirements for an assessment of her special-education needs\u2014including an IQ test\u2014prevented her from enrolling in its preschool program.<\/p>\n

Like Courtney, I have a daughter with Down syndrome, and during the drive, we chatted about our children. Courtney shared the details of Annie\u2019s recent dance recital, and I told her about my daughter\u2019s upcoming eighth-grade trip to Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

When we reached the Texas Christian University campus, Courtney pulled up to KinderFrogs\u2019 beige stone building, where children sat cross-legged outside on a shaded patio as teachers helped them gather their oversize backpacks. We parked along the curb, joining a parade of parents in SUVs. Courtney hopped out of the car to scoop up Annie, who settled into the back seat and shouted a music request (\u201cPlay Frozen<\/em>!\u201d) before we set off for an ice-cream parlor with outdoor seating and dairy-free options.<\/p>\n

As we settled in at a picnic table, Annie ate a few bites of her lemon-blueberry scoop, leaving the rest to melt in the Texas sun. She started to walk around and explore the nearby benches and trees. Her mother and I both jumped up when Annie began to wander too close to the parking lot. In the brief time that I had spent with her, Annie seemed like a vivacious 5-year-old, more interested in testing boundaries than in sitting still.<\/p>\n

As Courtney tried to coax a few more bites of ice cream into Annie\u2019s mouth before it turned to soup, she told me that Annie was born with a heart defect that required complicated surgery when she was 4 months old. She went into cardiac arrest during the surgery and was without oxygen for 52 minutes. Afterward, she spent nine days on the highest form of life support. \u201cThe doctors didn\u2019t expect her to live,\u201d Courtney told me, fear still catching in her throat. The memory of those traumatic early weeks of Annie\u2019s life are why the family has brought a case against the Aledo Independent School District. \u201cAnnie didn\u2019t fight so hard to live so some school district could limit her potential,\u201d Courtney explained.<\/p>\n

Although they had moved to Aledo because of the good reputation of its schools, Courtney and Spencer were later warned about the district\u2019s approach to special education. \u201cWe started to hear from other parents who had gone before us,\u201d Courtney said. Most of them were unsuccessful at getting their children with disabilities into mainstream classrooms. \u201cInclusion was what we wanted for Annie,\u201d Courtney said, meaning that they wanted their daughter to learn in a general-education setting rather than a segregated, special-education classroom. But the Moreys knew that first they would need to work with teachers and school administrators to write an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, for Annie. The IEP would be based on an evaluation of Annie\u2019s development and provide a plan for the support and accommodation that she would need in order to learn alongside the other students in a mainstream classroom.<\/p>\n

In September 2023, Courtney called the Aledo Independent School District to request an evaluation for special-education services. Courtney discussed the required cognitive and developmental assessments with the district\u2019s diagnostician, who explained that the tests would evaluate Annie by comparing her development to what is typical for her age. \u201cMy fear is Annie being labeled,\u201d Courtney told the diagnostician over the phone. \u201cI don\u2019t want her, I guess, put in a box before we really know Annie.\u201d Courtney was fine with any evaluations that were based on play and observation, but she was concerned about what might be assumed about her daughter\u2019s potential based on an IQ score. \u201cI just knew if they gave her an IQ test, it wouldn\u2019t really reflect who Annie is,\u201d Courtney told me.<\/p>\n

The diagnostician seemed to agree, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s really hard with little bitties.\u201d Courtney felt relieved, but about a week later, the diagnostician e-mailed her the paperwork to sign, and two widely used IQ tests for children\u2014the WPPSI and the ECAD\u2014were still listed. Courtney called the diagnostician back and told her that this wasn\u2019t what they had discussed. She returned the paperwork to the diagnostician with the IQ tests crossed off and explained that she consented to the rest of the form, just not the IQ tests. A few days later, the district\u2019s assistant superintendent e-mailed the Moreys an official notice stating that they had effectively denied consent to evaluate Annie for special education and therefore their daughter would not receive services under the IDEA. At this point, the Moreys felt they faced two options: They could hire a lawyer and file for a due-process hearing, or they could provide their unconditional consent for the district to evaluate Annie however it wanted.<\/p>\n

Right after Thanksgiving, the Moreys filed a due-process claim with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) asking it to determine whether parents must consent to every aspect of a district\u2019s evaluation to allow a student to qualify for special-education services. No one at the Aledo Independent School District ever explained to Annie\u2019s parents why an IQ test was necessary to determine that she was eligible for special education. But the TEA ruled in favor of the school district and stated that the Moreys had not provided enough evidence that IQ tests were inappropriate for a 3-year-old. The Moreys appealed the decision with the help of a pro bono lawyer, and the case\u2014Annie M. v. Aledo ISD<\/em>\u2014is currently being considered by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n

Annie\u2019s case is being decided at a particularly perilous time for special education. Last October, the Trump administration took the government shutdown as an opportunity to fire nearly every remaining staff member at the Office of Special Education Programs, which monitors state regulations, administers grants to researchers, and provides support to parents. The firings are being litigated, but the office has already canceled millions of dollars in grants to train teachers in special education and to fund programs that aid parents in supporting their children through the special-education process. And on June 16, 2026, the US Department of Education announced an interagency agreement to transfer the administration of much of the IDEA to the Department of Health and Human Services\u2014a move that advocates have warned would address the needs of students with disabilities as a medical rather than an educational concern, thereby treating disability as a diagnosis to be cured rather than as a natural part of the human experience.<\/p>\n

Under the guise of eliminating paperwork, the administration has also proposed requiring states to report less data, which would make it more difficult to hold school districts to account. States would no longer have to report the percentage of school districts that have a disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education. They would also not be required to report on the timeliness of their evaluation and implementation of services or whether young children are receiving early-intervention services before kindergarten. Students like Annie Morey who are shut out of special education would go uncounted as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s actions amount to an attack on civil rights, an attack on students with disabilities, and an attack therefore on parents,\u201d said Denise Marshall, the CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a national organization that advocates for students with disabilities. \u201cA lot of it is done through gaslighting. They are trying to convince families that they are honoring the rights of parents and people with disabilities. But when you put those messages beside their actions, they don\u2019t line up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving the IDEA\u2019s oversight to Health and Human Services technically requires Congress to change the law. But if President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon succeed in dismantling the Department of Education\u2014in other words, if Congress fails to intervene\u2014the burden of holding school districts to account will fall increasingly on the shoulders of parents like the Moreys, who will be forced to make substantial financial and personal sacrifices to try to get their kids the education that the law guarantees. Parents who are unable to make those sacrifices\u2014because they do not have the financial resources or time to fight for the education their children deserve, or the means to put their children in private schools\u2014may see their children slip even further behind their peers.<\/p>\n

Since their ordeal began, the Moreys have spent about $20,000 on legal representation. And the family\u2019s education expenses have jumped significantly: Not long after the district denied services to Annie, Spencer and Courtney pulled their oldest child, Wells, from the Aledo ISD and enrolled him in a private school. They now pay a total of $18,000 a year for their two school-age children.<\/p>\n

The Moreys are aware that their family is in a privileged financial position. One reason they have chosen to fight the school district is that they believe Annie\u2019s case might be able to change things for families without the same financial resources. Still, the appeals process has taken a toll on the family, especially on Courtney, who has been the lead advocate for Annie.<\/p>\n

I drove to the Moreys\u2019 home in Aledo for dinner the evening after we picked up Annie from preschool. On the highway from Fort Worth, I sped past rusty entrances to cattle ranches, the wrought-iron fences of gated communities, and signs announcing new subdivisions with homes averaging around $540,000 that offer \u201cEverything under the sun.\u201d Spencer greeted me in the driveway in khaki shorts and flip-flops. Over aluminum trays of barbecued meat and beans from a nearby restaurant, he admitted, \u201cFor three years, it\u2019s been this draining conflict. I\u2019ve watched how much energy it has taken from her.\u201d In addition to pursuing the legal case, Courtney started the Annie Louise Foundation with another mother to help other parents who have young children with complex medical needs. But the Moreys\u2019 decision to confront the district hasn\u2019t always sat well with their neighbors.<\/p>\n

Courtney has spoken out against the Aledo ISD at school-board meetings and on social media, making it clear she believes that the district is discriminating against her daughter and other children with disabilities. \u201cDepending on who you are, we are either the most loved or the most hated family in Aledo,\u201d Courtney joked as she tried to soothe Annie, who found the barbecue too spicy. One acquaintance texted her after a school-board meeting to tell her to be quiet, otherwise their property values would go down.<\/p>\n

It might seem like the Moreys stubbornly refused to agree to some harmless evaluation for Annie, but IQ tests have historically been used to justify the low expectations for and segregation of students with intellectual disabilities. In 1910, the psychologist and eugenicist Henry Goddard declared the need for special-education classrooms to prevent the \u201cfeeble-minded\u201d from contaminating regular classrooms and wasting the time of teachers and more promising pupils. Goddard believed that students ought to be grouped in separate classrooms according to their IQ. \u201cSociety is facing a tremendous problem in this high-grade feeble-minded child,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

For decades, IQ tests have offered an efficient and convincing way to determine where students belong. They consist of a series of subtests, like fitting shapes into corresponding cutouts on a form board and stringing a set of beads into a prescribed sequential pattern. Such tests provide indications of abstract skills like working memory, pattern recognition, and processing speed\u2014all attributes that make people efficient and productive workers in the corporate world.<\/p>\n

More recently, psychologists have begun to acknowledge the roots of IQ tests in eugenics, and evaluations for special education have moved away from depending exclusively on quantitative assessment. As Robert Schalock, a psychologist and former president of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, once told me, the IQ test \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a lot to do with preparing a meal.\u201d Now psychologists and diagnosticians like Schalock rely more on lived experience: how people interact socially and accomplish basic tasks to get their needs met.<\/p>\n

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In the IDEA, IQ testing is mentioned only once. The law emphasizes that evaluation should focus on identifying the individual needs of a student and not simply rely on an IQ score. Despite the IDEA\u2019s guidance, many schools in the United States still use IQ tests to justify placing students with disabilities in segregated classrooms. The Aledo ISD maintains that if it had done what the Moreys wanted, it would have failed to complete the legally required full individual evaluation.<\/p>\n

But the Moreys\u2019 case isn\u2019t really about the basis of IQ tests in eugenics or whether they\u2019re an appropriate measure of the potential of a 3-year-old. The case presented to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals addresses whether the Aledo ISD refused to allow the Moreys to participate meaningfully in the evaluation process. On March 30, during the oral hearing in front of the court, the Moreys\u2019 lawyer, Sarah Warburg-Koechlin\u2014a senior associate with the firm King and Spalding who also has a child with Down syndrome\u2014argued that they gave consent for Annie to be tested for qualification for special-education services, just not for the IQ tests that the district demands. Further, nowhere in the IDEA is consent<\/em> defined. The school district\u2019s position, according to court documents\u2014that since Annie has not yet been determined to be eligible for services, parental input is not required at this point\u2014prioritizes its own authority over the parental involvement that the IDEA seeks to encourage. But is it really consent if the parents are forced to agree to an IQ test or lose services for their child?<\/p>\n

Until the federal government acted, children with disabilities rarely had access to formal education. When the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975, only one in five children with disabilities were educated in America\u2019s schools. Some states had laws that explicitly denied a public education to children whom schools deemed \u201cuneducable,\u201d often using IQ tests to do so. Many of those children spent their lives in institutions. Others were home-schooled or received very little formal education. Because there was no legal mandate to educate students with disabilities, parents went door-to-door searching for schools that might magnanimously enroll their child.<\/p>\n

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act improved the lives of generations of students, largely thanks to its mandate that children ages 3 to 21 with any form of disability receive a free public education and be taught alongside children without disabilities \u201cto the maximum extent appropriate.\u201d Today, 8 million public-school students are served by the legislation, which was renamed the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act in 1990.<\/p>\n

The IDEA states that parents should have \u201cmeaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children at school and at home.\u201d But as Annie\u2019s case demonstrates, school districts are not always inclined to seek or follow the parents\u2019 input.<\/p>\n

Once students are deemed eligible for special-education services, schools are required to invite their parents to an IEP meeting at least once a year to decide on which services\u2014such as speech or occupational therapy\u2014the students should receive as well as where and how often they will. When I was conducting research for my book A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother\u2019s Reckoning With the IQ Test<\/em>, I talked with dozens of parents around the country who told me how the goals and expectations described in an IEP are kept frustratingly low. For example, an IEP is supposed to modify the way grade-level instruction is given and provide accommodations so that students with disabilities can access the general-education curriculum. In 2004, in fact, Congress amended the IDEA to acknowledge that 30 years of research and experience have demonstrated that the education of students with disabilities is most effective when schools have high expectations and ensure access to the curriculum. But schools do not consistently operate in this spirit. In 2022, only about two-thirds of students with disabilities spent 80 percent or more of the school day in a general-education setting. Some students\u2019 time outside the classroom might involve 45 minutes per week with a speech therapist or an hour each afternoon with a behavioral specialist. But for students who need more support, the statistics are far worse. Only about 20 percent of students with intellectual disabilities learn in general-education settings for more than 80 percent of the school day, a statistic that has remained stagnant for decades. Most spend their day in segregated special-education classrooms. This could be for a number of reasons\u2014including budget constraints, lack of staffing, complex student needs, or entrenched bias about where students with disabilities belong\u2014depending on the school district and the state.<\/p>\n

However, these placements can have far-reaching consequences. Most concerning, students in segregated classes in some states rarely have the opportunity to earn a high-school diploma. They might leave with a certificate of completion, but many are unprepared for employment, higher education, or meaningful involvement in their communities. In other words, they are being set up to maintain the low expectations for people with disabilities that our society has internalized for more than 100 years. Some parents believe that this cycle\u2014a lack of opportunity that shapes low expectations and justifies segregation\u2014will never change unless school districts are more strongly incentivized to comply with the IDEA.<\/p>\n

I met Carol Caron for breakfast in one of the outdoor malls that line the Aledo highway after my day with the Moreys. She wore a flowing green cotton dress with a bold pattern, her graying hair pulled back with a clip. Like the Moreys, Carol and her family chose to settle in Aledo because of its reputation for high-achieving academics. Carol\u2019s daughter, Ellie, who also has Down syndrome, had been included in a mainstream classroom at her previous school in Kansas City. Before the Carons moved back to Texas, Aledo administrators assured Carol that the district practiced inclusion and educated students like Ellie alongside their peers. \u201cThey talk about inclusion and high expectations for all students,\u201d Carol told me in her no-nonsense Texas accent. \u201cWhat families experience in practice is often very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she registered Ellie at her new school, Carol assumed that her daughter would be placed in a general-education classroom. But she slowly began to realize that what the district called \u201cinclusion\u201d often felt superficial. Ellie was physically present with her peers for portions of the school day, but she was frequently excluded from the academic instruction taking place around her. She did not consistently receive modified grade-level work or meaningful access to the curriculum. Most of her academic instruction took place in a separate classroom and was not aligned with what her grade-level peers were learning.<\/p>\n

Carol brought binders of information and research to the IEP meetings to convince the Aledo ISD officials of the academic and social benefits of inclusion. But the district ultimately decided that Ellie should learn in a \u201cfunctional academic\u201d classroom, or a more restricted environment that focuses on skills, like hand-washing and toileting, that she had long since mastered.<\/p>\n

When Ellie was in second grade, the district removed her from the diploma track and insisted that she be taught with an alternative curriculum. As a result, Ellie would not be given the opportunity to work toward a traditional high-school diploma.<\/p>\n

Carol filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency alleging that the school\u2019s decision did not accurately reflect Ellie\u2019s true academic potential. The TEA validated Carol\u2019s complaint and required the Aledo ISD to review its process for qualifying students for the alternative test. But even after the TEA concluded that Ellie did not qualify for the alternative state assessment, the district continued to deny her meaningful access to the general classroom. The agency also found violations affecting 13 additional students in the district in a separate complaint.<\/p>\n

In a written statement, the district asserts that \u201cit is a privilege to serve our Bearcats who have special needs and to work in partnership with their parents to ensure that the services they receive are specifically tailored to their needs and are appropriate under the law.\u201d The district added that it \u201cvalues and supports parents\u2019 advocating for their children,\u201d including through a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Despite her efforts, Carol began to understand what Ellie\u2019s future would look like if she kept her daughter in the Aledo ISD. She chose to focus instead on securing the instruction and opportunities she believed that Ellie deserved by enrolling her in a private school for kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But as with the Moreys, there is a downside to this solution. Private schools are not required to follow IEPs or any other policies of special education mandated by the IDEA. There is little recourse\u2014such as due-process hearings\u2014for parents if they believe that a school\u2019s practices or policies are discriminatory. And Carol\u2019s choice sacrifices a consequential goal of the IDEA: Ellie is still not learning alongside her nondisabled peers. But according to Carol, Ellie is making up for lost time academically. Her reading skills have advanced steadily, and she has learned basic math concepts that were not emphasized in her former classroom. \u201cThe growth was not the result of a sudden change in Ellie\u2019s abilities,\u201d Carol told me. \u201cIt was the result of finally being given the opportunity to learn.\u201d The progress reinforced what Carol had believed all along: that her daughter\u2019s potential could not be determined by a label, a test score, or a school district\u2019s assumptions about what students with intellectual disabilities are capable of achieving.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the volume of IDEA-based dispute resolutions, including written complaints, mediations, and due-process hearings, has increased significantly in the past decade. A database maintained by the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE) indicates a 71.6 percent increase in cases from the 2012\u201313 to the 2022\u201323 school years. According to the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, the overall increase in disputes might be a result of an increase in awareness among families of their rights under the IDEA, or an increase in academic expectations for all students, or cost-cutting initiatives by school districts. Despite the increase, due-\u2028process hearings are still relatively rare. In 2025, 38 due-process claims raising IDEA violations were presented to hearing officers in Texas. Seventy-three percent of those claims were denied.<\/p>\n

Roy Atwood is a Dallas attorney who represented the Moreys and the Carons in their due-process complaints against the Aledo ISD. He consistently hears from families who are considering taking legal action against their schools because of alleged IDEA violations. Atwood, who has an adult son with Down syndrome, has helped many families resolve disputes with school districts out of court.<\/p>\n

Hearing officers give the benefit of the doubt to the school district, and the burden is on those filing the complaint to prove their case. Atwood explained that parents are often viewed by the adjudication system as wanting something special for their child, making unreasonable demands on a school district. \u201cTo hearing officers, due-process complaints often come across as whining,\u201d Atwood said.<\/p>\n

But the Moreys\u2019 case was different. It was, in Atwood\u2019s words, \u201ca rifle shot, not a shotgun blast,\u201d meaning that it was a straightforward, one-issue case rather than a list of grievances. Atwood also took Annie\u2019s age into consideration. Litigation against school districts takes years to resolve, and by that time a student can be close to aging out of the public-school system. Because Annie was only 3, she could have benefited if the hearing officer had found in her favor.<\/p>\n

But Aledo dug its heels in. The district\u2019s intransigence might be due in part to the pressures of managing resources and finances for a rapidly developing suburban district and maintaining its reputation as being worth the price that parents pay in terms of property taxes and home values. The Aledo ISD noted in its statement to The Nation<\/em> that it gave a large salary increase (6 to 12.5 percent) to all teachers, but especially its special-education staff, in 2025\u201326 to recruit and retain \u201cthe best special education teachers and staff to serve our students.\u201d But the more our public schools value markers of achievement\u2014test scores, AP classes, and college-admission rates\u2014above all else, the more students like Annie and Ellie will be segregated and ignored. The predicament of parents like the Moreys and the Carons in 2026 bears a striking similarity to what many parents faced before the IDEA became law.<\/p>\n

In his ruling in the Moreys\u2019 due-process appeal in district court, the judge mentioned a case much like theirs, in which one of his colleagues affirmed that \u201craising a child with Down Syndrome is unquestionably a tremendous burden,\u201d and then commended the Moreys \u201cfor their compassionate practical involvement.\u201d Yet the Moreys have never asked for pity; they\u2019ve never seen a reason to. But if Trump succeeds in fully dismantling the Department of Education and federal oversight of the IDEA, it is possible that the future of special education will take the form of the discrimination of the past.<\/p>\n

Read more We Can\u2019t Surrender to Climate Destruction<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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