Vermont is not complying with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to a U.S. Department of Education assessment, and is at risk of losing millions in federal funding if it doesn’t correct course.

The Education Department in its assessment said Vermont “needs intervention” to come into compliance with the law — a worse status than the state had received in recent years. Vermont was one of four states that last week received that rating, joining New York, Maine and New Mexico. States that receive a “needs intervention” rating for three consecutive years may lose a portion of annual funding.

The assessment was based on reading and math proficiency data from the 2023-24 school year, as well as graduation and dropout rates among children with disabilities.

According to the assessment, the state’s public schools were meeting fewer than 60% of accountability measures required under federal law. Vermont risks losing up to $2.4 million annually if the state doesn’t improve its score over the next two years.

In a press release last week, Vermont Agency of Education officials pointed to “extensive improvement efforts” launched last year, aimed at overhauling special education delivery in Vermont.

“The Agency has initiated a comprehensive review of decade-long compliance issues and elevated special education as a core priority to strengthen how we support students with disabilities,” Education Secretary Zoie Saunders said in the press release. “The structural reforms currently underway reflect that commitment.”

Toren Ballard, the Agency of Education’s director of policy and communications, said the state has begun work on a strategic plan to overhaul the system.

He added that the agency has established a working group to work directly with local social service practitioners and special education professionals and has “proactively enhanced its oversight” of noncompliant school districts and supervisory unions.

For local experts working with students with disabilities, the designation, albeit alarming, comes as no surprise. Vermont last met federal requirements under IDEA in 2018, based on data from the 2015-16 school year, according to the Vermont Agency of Education press release. The state had been rated as “needs assistance” for several years since then. 

The agency has been without a state director of special education since January and has seen high turnover in the position since the pandemic.

This lack of leadership has left schools without guidance, experts said.

“It is a weakness for us not to have that expertise at the state level when it is needed,” said Karen Price, the executive director of the Vermont Family Network, a nonprofit advocating for families of children with special needs and disabilities.

The designation comes as Vermont has seen an increase in the percentage of students with disabilities in its public education system, despite a decline in overall enrollment, according to a report completed by the Vermont Agency of Education in September.

Many school districts say they lack the capacity to meet the needs of students with disabilities, and, according to the same report, those students have substantially lower academic achievement than their peers.

The four-year graduation rate for students with individualized education programs, called IEPs, was 67% during the 2023-24 school year, compared with 86% for all other students, according to the report.

“Advocates have been concerned for years about reading and math proficiency in Vermont, and especially the significant disparities in proficiency for IDEA Eligible Students,” Cammie Naylor, an attorney with the Disability Law Project of Vermont Legal Aid, said in a statement. “The proficiency gaps are nothing short of alarming, even if they are not surprising.”

Naylor noted that districts across the state use different methodologies for their data collection and reporting, making assessing the problem far more challenging.

“This essentially means that there is a lack of certainty that data presented may actually represent the current challenges or strengths within the systems,” she said.

“It remains to be seen whether the (U.S. Department of Education’s) designation will finally give the state the impetus to thoughtfully and carefully address the way we deliver education services statewide,” Naylor said.