Hampshire County Schools serve 2,800 students. About 20% of students — or around one out of every five kids — have Individual Education Plans, or IEPs, that require special education services and staffing.

Alexandra Criner, director of the West Virginia Department of Education Office of Accountability, told school board members that the district needed ‘substantial intervention.”

There aren’t specific reasons given for the situation, but things don’t sound good.

Teachers and administrators across the district have expressed the need for help to address ongoing special education issues in eight schools, she noted, adding that one district employee supported 500 students with IEPs.

“Teachers [and] principals felt overwhelmed by the procedural aspect of special education,” Crinersaid….

An October report from the WVDE showed that 14 counties, including Hampshire, needed assistance with their special education.

The special ed numbers in West Virginia aren’t some anomaly. Lots of places are dealing with large percentages of students with special needs.

Nov 2023, My hometown of Chippewa Falls, WI: Need for SpEd Services Rises

The number of students requesting special education services has gone up in the past decade, McMasters said, leaving current special educators to manage an increasing load. In that time, the percentage of students requesting special education services rose from about 13% to 18% of the student population.

“We’re seeing a steady increase, again in 2023, of special education referrals. I would say it’s still mostly at the same rate of increase since I started in 2014, though it did dip slightly during COVID when students were online. But this trend is just this slow increase over the years. And so we’re at a point where we just needed to hire some more staff in order to meet the needs of all the kids,” McMasters said.

Nov 2023, Bridgeport, CT: (Kim Rossi lives next door)

Bridgeport Public Schools will need to come up with around $4 million in the next budget to keep more than two dozen special education teachers,…

Though the total number of students has stayed relatively stable in recent years, the amount of high-needs pupils has been on the rise, district data shows. As of this month, 3,669 of the district's more than 19,300 students [19%] are enrolled in special education services, up slightly from last year.

Sept 2023, Milwaukee, WI: 

This cost really adds up – especially at higher poverty school districts, where there tends to be even more students with special needs than in lower poverty districts. Milwaukee Public Schools has 83 percent economically disadvantaged students and 19 percent of all students are classified as having a disability…

July 2023, Massachusetts: 

In Massachusetts, mandated transition planning must begin “no later than the student’s 14th birthday. These changes are particularly relevant in Massachusetts, where more than 19% of the students across the state, have a disability.

May 2023, Marquette, MI: 

Special Education students at NICE Community Schools make up nearly 20 percent of its student population.

I have cataloged many more stories with such dire numbers over the past few years:

MAINE public schools: 18 percent SPED

Spokane, WA: 18 percent SPED

Dallastown, PA: 18 percent SPED

PENNSYLVANIA public schools: 18 percent SPED

Del Norte, CA: 18-29 percent SPED

Vernon, NJ: 19 percent SPED

Yonkers, NY: 19 percent SPED

Brooklyn, NY: 19 percent SPED

Reading, PA: 19 percent SPED

Hays, KS 19 percent SPED

Ashland, NE: 20 percent SPED

Lafayette, IN: 20 percent SPED

Mars Hill, ME: 20 percent SPED

Norwin, PA: 20 percent SPED

DELAWARE public schools: 20 percent SPED

Dayton, OH: 20 percent SPED

Oakland, CA: 20 percent SPED

Wahkiakum, WA: 20 percent SPED

Rochester, NY:  20 percent SPED

New Haven, CT: 20 percent SPED

Muncie, IN: More than 20 percent SPED

New Jersey: 20 percent SPED

Fort Wayne, IN: 20 percent SPED

Bemidji, MN: 20 percent SPED

Lewiston, ME: 20 percent SPED

Glen Falls, NY: 21 percent SPED

Racine, WI: 22 percent SPED

Princeton, NJ: 22 percent SPED

Ellsworth, ME: 22 percent SPED

Brainerd, MN: 22 percent SPED

Humboldt Co, CA: 22 percent SPED

Muncie, IN: 22 percent SPED

Racine, WI: 22 percent SPED

Bloomington, IN: 22 percent SPED

The Bronx, NY: 23 percent SPED

Hanover, VA: 23 percent SPED

Waterville, ME: 23 percent SPED

Staten Island, NY: 24 percent SPED

Albuquerque, NM: 23.3 percent SPED

Leominster, MA: 23.4 percent SPED

Fitchburg, MA: 23.5 percent SPED

Rockland, ME: 24 percent SPED

West Canaan, NH: 24 percent SPED

Ridgefield, CT: More than 25 percent SPED

Rumford, ME: More than 25 percent SPED

Springfield, VT: 27 percent SPED

Commercial Township, NJ: 27 percent SPED

Clark County, KY: 30 percent of students SPED

Somehow all this is normal and acceptable. Somehow, despite huge numbers of special needs students in so many places, the national average is still only 15 percent.

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The Spellers Guidebook by Dawnmarie Gavin and Dana Johnson with foreword by J.B. Handley

A means by which thousands, and soon millions, of people are being freed from their lives of silence.
 
The Spellers Guidebook is the first of its kind—a comprehensive guidebook that every family should take along for their Spelling journey. From the moment you first learn about spelled communication through working with a practitioner, developing fluency, and everything in between, this book serves as a blueprint to follow while you build the skills to spell openly with your child.
 
The Spellers Guidebook is informative not only for parents and caregivers but for practitioners and professionals as well.