When a government fails its most vulnerable citizens, that failure is not a clerical error — it’s a moral indictment.
Across this nation, and right here in North Carolina, students with disabilities — whom we call exceptional scholars — are being left behind by the very systems sworn to protect them. Their exclusion is not new. It is the predictable result of decades of policy neglect, funding shortfalls, and leadership that has treated their needs as secondary — or optional.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just a North Carolina story. It’s a national crisis rooted in the federal government’s long-standing refusal to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). When IDEA was passed in 1975, Congress promised to cover up to 40% of the additional cost of special education services. Nearly 50 years later, that promise remains broken. The federal government typically funds barely 13–15%. The 2024 education spending bill, branded as a win for families, fails to change that reality — offering symbolic funding while special education classrooms across the country go understaffed, under-resourced, and unsupported.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 7.5 million students, or 15% of all public school students, receive services under IDEA. Yet across the United States, special education teacher shortages are at crisis levels — with some states reporting vacancy rates of 20–30% in high-need districts. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed in its 2023 report that inadequate staffing, insufficient training, and a lack of collaboration between general and special education teams have created a “snowball effect” — compounding inequities year after year.
The result? Students with disabilities are less likely to graduate, more likely to be suspended, and disproportionately funneled into underfunded programs that don’t meet their needs. For Black and Brown students with disabilities, the crisis deepens: they are suspended at rates two to three times higher than their white peers, often for behaviors linked to unaddressed learning or emotional needs. This is not inclusion — it’s systemic abandonment.
North Carolina’s Broken Promise
Here at home, North Carolina continues to trail its own goals — even after years of warnings from federal monitors. The FFY 2023 Special Education Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR Part B) from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) lays bare the truth behind the rhetoric:
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Compliance Indicators: Across several benchmarks — from evaluation timelines to IEP implementation — the state “did not meet” federal standards.
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Dropout (Indicator 2): 15.66% of students with disabilities dropped out — far above the state’s target of 10.84%.
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Graduation (Indicator 1): Only 75.73% of students with disabilities in North Carolina graduated with a regular high school diploma — falling short of the state’s target of 80.77%.
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Postsecondary Outcomes (Indicator 14): Of students exiting special education, only 58% were enrolled in higher education or competitively employed within one year — missing the state’s goal by over 10 percentage points.
The report also notes that North Carolina remains in the “needs assistance” category for federal compliance. That designation has followed the state for multiple years. And while officials point to the “teacher shortage” as the root cause, that’s an explanation — not an excuse.
How can we call this an inclusive education system when the very educators responsible for delivering individualized instruction are vanishing from classrooms? Across the state, 1,500 special education positions remain vacant, leaving entire classrooms without certified instructors. Many schools fill the gap with substitutes or general education teachers with no special education training — a dangerous practice that violates both IDEA and the basic principles of equity.
The Federal Failure
This problem doesn’t stop at the state line. It begins in Washington. For decades, the U.S. Department of Education has watched states fail students with disabilities and done little more than write polite letters of concern. States that repeatedly fall short face little consequence beyond “technical assistance” or paperwork remediation. Meanwhile, Congress continues to underfund the mandate, choosing austerity over obligation.
In his May 2024 testimony before the House Education and Workforce Committee, Secretary Miguel Cardona admitted that the federal government currently covers less than 13 percent of the additional costs promised under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — far below the 40 percent commitment Congress made nearly half a century ago. The rest is left to states and local districts already struggling to fill teacher vacancies and comply with federal timelines. Even Cardona’s request for increased IDEA funding in the FY2025 budget was characterized as a modest step toward “addressing persistent shortages,” not a transformational fix.
Even worse, the recent federal spending bill — dismissed by advocates as a “big ugly bill” — stripped away key protections for students with disabilities. While the bill boosts defense and infrastructure, it leaves special education effectively flat-funded in real terms, ignoring inflation, staffing costs, and the rising number of students in need. Advocacy groups estimate that over $20 billion more each year would be required just to meet IDEA’s original promise. Without that funding, local districts are left to cannibalize their own budgets — robbing general education to patch special education shortfalls. The consequence is predictable: resentment, competition for limited resources, and a cycle that pits equity against equity.
The Invisible Scholars
But beyond budgets and reports, this crisis has a deeper moral core: exceptional scholars have been excluded from the table altogether. They are not present in the rooms where education policy is crafted, where budgets are written, or where legislation is debated. They are talked about, not talked with. Their caregivers and educators — those who carry the daily weight of advocacy and adaptation — are rarely invited into decision-making spaces.
It’s a pattern of erasure with roots as deep as segregation itself. For decades, disabled scholars — especially Black, Indigenous, and students of color — have been tracked into isolated classrooms, labeled as “behavioral,” or denied opportunities for advanced coursework. Their experiences sit at the intersection of race, ability, and class — and yet they remain largely invisible in public education debates.
A Call to Reimagine Equity
The time for polite reports and technical adjustments is over. We must demand a new framework — one grounded in justice, accountability, and inclusion:
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Empower Lived Voices. Students with disabilities, their caregivers, and their educators must have permanent seats on decision-making bodies — from local boards to the U.S. Department of Education.
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End the Silence. Newsrooms, policymakers, and communities must amplify the stories of exceptional scholars — not as statistics, but as citizens deserving full dignity and opportunity.
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Fully Fund IDEA. The federal government must meet its 40% funding promise. Anything less is legalized discrimination.
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Invest in Educators. Pay special education teachers a living wage. Build robust recruitment pipelines. Provide trauma-informed training and sustainable caseloads.
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Strengthen Enforcement. States that consistently fail to meet IDEA standards should face financial penalties, mandatory corrective plans, and transparent public reporting.
The Moral Imperative
This is not charity. It’s not reform for reform’s sake. This is justice work. Because a nation that cannot or will not educate its most vulnerable children is a nation in moral decline.
North Carolina — and the country — can no longer hide behind excuses. Our exceptional scholars deserve more than bureaucratic lip service and empty compliance plans. They deserve classrooms with certified teachers, individualized supports, and systems that believe in their boundless potential.
And until that promise is kept, we will not be silent. We will name them, name their systems, and demand our justice — in every boardroom, every legislature, and every district that continues to fail the very scholars it claims to serve.