Performance Audit of Special Education: Service Delivery and Access
25-02 final report | January 2025
Casey Radostitz, Vivien Chen, Francisco Santamarina, research analysts
Stephanie Hoffman, deputy legislative auditor; Eric Thomas, legislative auditor
Legislative Auditor's conclusion
Districts meet state and federal timelines for deciding whether students qualify for special education. Coordinated implementation of six strategies across all school districts could increase inclusion for students receiving special education.
Key points
- Federal law and state rules dictate how school districts decide whether students qualify for special education.
- Special education enrollment has grown faster than general education. It has approached pre-pandemic figures.
- Once parents give consent, districts complete 92% of evaluations for special education within the state requirement of 35 school days.
- In 2022-23, two-thirds of students who received special education were served in general education classrooms at least 80% of the time.
- National experts identify six strategies to increase the number of students served in general education classrooms. Washington uses elements of these strategies, but implementation is not coordinated across all districts statewide.
- The Legislature has not explicitly set a public policy objective for inclusion.
Legislative Auditor’s recommendations
The Legislative Auditor makes one recommendation.
Recommendation #1
If the Legislature wants to improve inclusion, it should state its public policy objective.
Improving or increasing inclusion is a policy decision for the Legislature. The Legislature has not stated its policy objective, although some parts of the funding formula imply that inclusion is a priority.
If the Legislature sets an objective for inclusion, it could direct OSPI to set performance metrics, develop a plan, and identify resource needs and options to achieve the objective. The plan could specify how OSPI and the districts can implement the six strategies in a coordinated way across all districts.
Legislation required: Depends on legislative decision regarding policy.
Fiscal impact: OSPI may need additional resources to develop a plan, depending on legislative direction. Implementation costs should be included in the plan.
Agency response: OSPI concurs.
Video summary
Read the full report
Performance Audit of Special Education: Service Delivery and Access (HTML)