Abstract
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted to guarantee children with disabilities the right to a free appropriate public education. In practice, that promise is too often broken. Students, especially those from low-income families and communities of color, wait months or years for evaluations, attend underfunded schools that lack qualified staff, and face systemic barriers to enforcing their rights. Meanwhile, families with resources can sidestep delays through private testing, attorneys, and advocacy, leaving others behind. This Note examines how systemic delays, underfunding, and inequities in special education services undermine children’s rights under the statute. It argues that these disparities are not incidental; they reflect structural failures in funding, enforcement, and equity under IDEA. Drawing on case law, policy analysis, and empirical data, this Note highlights how delays in evaluations, disparities in service delivery, and uneven enforcement perpetuate educational inequities. Finally, it calls for reforms that prioritize timely evaluations, expand access to advocacy, and ensure equitable resource distribution so that the statute delivers on its original guarantee. By addressing the structural shortcomings, IDEA can better fulfill its original purpose: to provide all children with disabilities a meaningful and equal educational opportunity.
Recommended Citation
Silvia C. Montiel Morales,
The Broken Promise of the IDEA: How Delays and Disparities Undermine Special Education Rights,
32 Wash. & Lee J. Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just. 335
(2026).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol32/iss1/8
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Disability Law Commons, Education Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Legislation Commons, Special Education and Teaching Commons