Several states in recent years have raised the maximum age at which students with disabilities are eligible to receive special education services from their schools.
The changes, often driven by a shifting legal understanding of what federal special education law requires, can offer a lifeline for families whose children can benefit from additional time in school, often to learn more tangible life skills before the next step or even as a stopgap between school and adult services for which wait lists are the norm.
But some states have experienced particularly complicated situations with regard to special education eligibility, with several changes in the span of just a few months.
For example, Pennsylvania in August 2023 announced that schools must extend services to students until their 22nd birthday. A few weeks later, three school districts challenged the change, and a court sided with the districts in May, temporarily halting the new eligibility rules. Four days later, the age-22 eligibility rule was reinstated after the state education department appealed the court ruling.
The back-and-forth highlighted how tricky it can be for districts and families to try to navigate a complicated and shifting special education eligibility-policy landscape.
Given the complications, what is a school district to do?
Here are a few tips from district leaders who have been dealing with such situations on what schools should do to help students and families stay abreast of changing special education policies and minimize disruption.
Be transparent about what you know—and what you don’t
The toughest part of quickly changing policies is that school staff don’t really know what will happen until it’s happening, said Audrey Trainor, a professor of special education at New York University who studies the transition from childhood to adulthood for people with disabilities.
As soon as districts become aware of potential changes to the cutoff age for services or available offerings, staff should communicate with the families that could be affected, said Kirsten Scheurech, director of special education services for the Derry Township district in Pennsylvania.
District leaders should tell families what they know—and what they don’t, Scheurech said, and let families know when they might expect some resolution. That could include information such as when new legislation is proposed or when a lawsuit is pending.
“We were preparing families that we’re kind of at the mercy of these court cases,” Scheurech said. “By doing that, we had to call families and say, ‘You are coming back,’ and then, ‘You’re not coming back.’ Families kind of laughed with us to a degree because we prepared them for that possibility.”
Establishing those relationships and a sense of trust and prioritizing transparency can ease families’ frustrations during a period of uncertainty. Still, districts should be prepared for some blowback, and understand it’s usually more about the impact of the change than actual anger with the district, Scheurech said.
“Depending on the family and the situation and the relationship you might have, sometimes families blame the messenger,” she said. “We’ve tried to be as proactive as possible, but there’s always going to be those cases where families don’t want to hear the message. You still have to navigate it.”
Start planning early for the transition to life after school
Trainor recommended that educators managing a student’s individualized education program, or IEP, meet with the student and their family to discuss life after the traditional four-year high school track long before graduation.
Oftentimes, parents don’t know their child can continue to receive services past the time their peers have graduated, and that can make all the difference.
School representatives should come to these meetings prepared with materials about services they’re prepared to offer, as well as other options like state-funded disability services or vocational programs geared toward acclimating adults with disabilities to the working world.
During these meetings, school representatives should detail how long students with disabilities can remain in the public education system.
Such transition meetings can help build a bridge between families and the school system, making any future policy changes or disruptions more manageable by cultivating an environment in which parents feel comfortable asking questions and for help understanding new concepts, Trainor said.
Consider the impact
Even the best-laid plans can be uprooted by state-level policy changes.
If a state policy only allows students with disabilities to stay in the public education system until their 21st birthday, and it changes midyear to allow students to stay until they turn 22, for example, it would be understandable for families to want to take advantage of that extra time, Trainor said.
For some families and students, that is the best choice. But school staff should also help families understand the potential psychological impact that changing course could have on students who have gone through school with a particular post-graduation plan in mind.
Moving on from high school is a big milestone for students with disabilities—one they often look forward to and equate with graduating from high school or college.
Moving the goal post to have them stay in a program longer, especially if they’re close to aging out when a policy changes, could do more harm than good, Trainor said.
“That’s the kind of thing policymakers don’t always think about,” she said. “These are kids’ lives we’re talking about.”
