EdWeek's Shah Reflects on the IDEA

Nirvi Shah, over at EdWeek's On Special Education blog, has this post reflecting on the current state of the IDEA, prompted by a talk she gave to visitors from Kazakhstan.  An excerpt:

And here are a few things that have crossed my computer screen lately: 

• In Seattle, formal complaints on behalf of the school district's 7,000 students with disabilities have doubled over the past two years, the Seattle Times reports. 

• In San Francisco, the state education department is investigating whether the school district violated federal regulations by improperly denying summer school services to special education students to cut costs, the Bay Citizen writes. 

• In Clinton, Tenn., the school district is accused of isolating and secluding special education students in ways that violate state laws, the Knoxville News Sentinel says. 

• In Jackson, Miss., the school board actually wrestled with a decision to keep its accreditation and lose some of its autonomy in working with students with disabilities. Already, Jackson has been found not to be complying with IDEA for nearly two years. The state education department is giving it another eight months to do so, the Clarion Ledger reports.

 And I could keep going.