Data report · federal figures, school year 2023-24
Special education complaints by state
Parents filed 9,919 written special education complaints with their states in 2023-24, up 86% from 5,326 in 2019-20. Here is every state's number, how fast each one decided its complaints, and how often it found the school district broke the rules.
What the numbers show
- Complaints almost doubled in five years. 5,326 written complaints in 2019-20, 9,919 in 2023-24. Due process complaints rose from 22,350 to 39,146 over the same years.
- 33 states decided every complaint on time. The rest did not.
The slowest:
- Louisiana: 0% of 23 decisions on time
- Massachusetts: 32.7% of 513 decisions on time
- Washington: 66.2% of 145 decisions on time
- Rhode Island: 70.6% of 17 decisions on time
- Oregon: 71.7% of 53 decisions on time
- Arkansas: 73.5% of 49 decisions on time
- Massachusetts has by far the most complaints for its size: 71.4 for every 10,000 students served under IDEA, against a national rate of 12.6. The fewest: Alabama, at 2.9.
- The fastest growth since 2019-20 (states with at least 20 complaints then):
- New York alone accounts for 68% of all due process complaints (26,708 of 39,146).
Every state, 2023-24
Tap a column heading to sort. Tap a state for its five-year trend and where to file there. * Fewer than 10 decisions, so not ranked.
| State | Complaints | Per 10,000 students | Change since 2019-20 | Decided on time | Found a violation | Due process |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 30 | 2.9 | +173% | 100% | 50% | 205 |
| Alaska | 23 | 11.4 | +283% | 100% | 69.6% | 11 |
| Arizona | 169 | 11 | +43% | 100% | 55.1% | 72 |
| Arkansas | 66 | 8.1 | +247% | 73.5% | 67.3% | 51 |
| California | 1,273 | 15.1 | +42% | 77.3% | 59.5% | 4,555 |
| Colorado | 143 | 12.1 | +198% | 98.3% | 78% | 68 |
| Connecticut | 206 | 22.4 | +60% | 98.7% | 62.7% | 259 |
| Delaware | 16 | 5.6 | +33% | 100% | 50% | 23 |
| District of Columbia | 25 | 15.2 | +19% | 100% | 57.9% | 250 |
| Florida | 251 | 5.7 | +33% | 100% | 71.3% | 285 |
| Georgia | 320 | 13.5 | +122% | 92.5% | 62.4% | 130 |
| Hawaii | 47 | 23.2 | +571% | 100% | 71.4% | 39 |
| Idaho | 53 | 13.3 | +77% | 100% | 82.1% | 12 |
| Illinois | 262 | 8.5 | +132% | 92.7% | 70% | 254 |
| Indiana | 321 | 16.6 | +170% | 99.4% | 100% | 104 |
| Iowa | 29 | 4 | +38% | 100%* | 57.1% | 17 |
| Kansas | 115 | 14 | +174% | 100% | 46.9% | 24 |
| Kentucky | 47 | 4.1 | +62% | 100% | 59.4% | 27 |
| Louisiana | 59 | 6.7 | +84% | 0% | 39.1% | 29 |
| Maine | 61 | 16.4 | +56% | 86.4% | 59.1% | 28 |
| Maryland | 279 | 23.4 | +96% | 98.3% | 79.6% | 360 |
| Massachusetts | 1,360 | 71.4 | +69% | 32.7% | 64.7% | 416 |
| Michigan | 248 | 12 | +19% | 100% | 61.6% | 113 |
| Minnesota | 236 | 14.9 | +103% | 83.6% | 64.8% | 14 |
| Mississippi | 69 | 9.7 | -16% | 100% | 46.9% | 34 |
| Missouri | 112 | 8.6 | +29% | 100% | 42.5% | 104 |
| Montana | 11 | 5.1 | +120% | 100%* | 55.6% | 1 |
| Nebraska | 42 | 7.5 | +425% | 100% | 67.6% | 8 |
| Nevada | 42 | 6.2 | +425% | 100% | 55.6% | 95 |
| New Hampshire | 62 | 19.4 | +63% | 100% | 79.5% | 24 |
| New Jersey | 227 | 8.9 | +60% | 100% | 54.5% | 909 |
| New Mexico | 94 | n/a | +161% | 100% | 57.9% | 25 |
| New York | 417 | 7.6 | +58% | 100% | 79.1% | 26,708 |
| North Carolina | 224 | 10.5 | +88% | 96.4% | 74.5% | 126 |
| North Dakota | 19 | 10.4 | +90% | 100% | 53.8% | 1 |
| Ohio | 209 | 7.3 | +73% | 100% | 29.6% | 84 |
| Oklahoma | 71 | 5.6 | +196% | 100% | 82.2% | 17 |
| Oregon | 64 | 7.1 | +121% | 71.7% | 34% | 16 |
| Pennsylvania | 253 | 6.8 | +79% | 100% | 62.5% | 942 |
| Puerto Rico | 37 | 3.8 | +362% | 96% | 4% | 1,698 |
| Rhode Island | 19 | 7.3 | +6% | 70.6% | 35.3% | 21 |
| South Carolina | 157 | 13.7 | +138% | 100% | 62% | 58 |
| South Dakota | 19 | 8 | +36% | 100% | 75% | 9 |
| Tennessee | 143 | 10.5 | +107% | 100% | 44.6% | 83 |
| Texas | 1,193 | 15.4 | +255% | 100% | 59.4% | 424 |
| Utah | 36 | 3.8 | +29% | 100% | 79.3% | 5 |
| Vermont | 78 | 48.3 | +420% | 100% | 65.4% | 15 |
| Virginia | 297 | 16.1 | +128% | 100% | 48.1% | 137 |
| Washington | 186 | 11.6 | +52% | 66.2% | 66.2% | 197 |
| West Virginia | 35 | 7 | +600% | 100% | 81.2% | 19 |
| Wisconsin | 125 | 9.9 | +21% | 100% | 57.8% | 36 |
| Wyoming | 39 | 23.5 | +1200% | 100% | 67.7% | 4 |
National trend
| School year | Written complaints | Due process complaints |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | 5,326 | 22,350 |
| 2020-21 | 4,179 | 23,563 |
| 2021-22 | 6,153 | 29,487 |
| 2022-23 | 8,141 | 34,333 |
| 2023-24 | 9,919 | 39,146 |
How to read it
Decided on time is the share of complaint decisions issued within the 60-day limit, or within an extension the regulation allows. Found a violation is the share of decisions where the state found the district at fault. Per 10,000 students divides complaints by the number of children aged 3 to 21 served under IDEA in the same year. States report all of these themselves.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, IDEA Section 618 State Part B Dispute Resolution (2019-20 to 2023-24) and State Part B Child Count and Educational Environments (2023-24).
Serenido (2026). Special Education Complaints by State, 2023-24. Data: U.S. Department of Education, IDEA Section 618 State Part B Dispute Resolution and Child Count, 2023-24. https://serenido.com/special-education-complaints-by-state/
Free to quote and republish with a link back. The full table is a CSV download.
Questions people actually ask
What is a written state complaint?
It is a signed letter to the state education agency saying a school district broke a rule of special education law, for example by not delivering services in a child's IEP. It is free, needs no lawyer, and the state must investigate and issue a written decision within 60 days unless an extension is allowed (34 CFR 300.152). This report counts those complaints and how states handled them.
Where do these numbers come from?
Every state reports its dispute-resolution figures to the U.S. Department of Education each year under Section 618 of IDEA, and the Department publishes them on data.ed.gov. Complaints per 10,000 uses the same year's federal child count of students aged 3 to 21 served under IDEA. Nothing is estimated or modelled. The source files are linked below and the full table is a CSV download.
Why is 2023-24 the latest year?
States submit each year's figures the following November and the Department finalises them the May after, so federal data always runs about two years behind. This page will be updated when the next federal year is published.
Does a high number of complaints mean a state is worse?
Not on its own. More complaints can mean more problems, or better-informed parents and an easier process. That is why the report shows several measures side by side: how many complaints there are for the number of students, how fast they are decided, and how often the state found a violation.
Can I republish this?
Yes. The underlying figures are public federal data, and the tables and write-up here can be quoted or republished with a link back to this page. The CSV is there so you do not have to copy numbers by hand.