Dear Editor,
Families in Fayette County are told to “trust the school” when it comes to special education. What they are not told is how often that process is quietly weaponized against them.
Behind closed doors, the school district makes a calculated choice to protect the budget even if it means sacrificing the rights and futures of students with disabilities. The unwritten strategy is simple: delay, deny, and hope parents run out of strength and money before they run out of excuses.
District leaders know that families of children with disabilities are already draining their savings on doctors, therapies, and private supports, often spending tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket each year just to keep their children progressing. They also know that taking a district to due process hearing or court is so expensive and exhausting that only a small fraction of parents will ever be able to fight back, while everyone else quietly absorbs the denials in their children’s education, afraid of district retaliation.
In this system, information itself becomes another weapon. The district routinely keeps parents in the dark about existing programs, service models, and placement options, making sure they never hear about supports that might cost more but actually help their child succeed.
Classroom teachers who dare to speak up about these options or insist on what the student truly needs are punished with retaliation, poor evaluations, or silent blacklisting, sending a clear message: protect the district, not the child.
A disturbing pattern has emerged. Special education teachers who once fought for children in the classroom are promoted into administration with the promise of better pay—so long as they learn to say no. They sell their passion for the paycheck.
Their new job is not to make sure students receive what they need, but to hold the line on services, follow whatever the superintendent wants, and present each denial as if it were reasonable and unavoidable.
This is not a misunderstanding. It is a strategy.
When former special education teachers move into management and choose to enforce these directives, they are not caught in the middle. They are participating in a system that bets against exhausted parents and vulnerable children.
The result is a school district that congratulates itself on managing resources while students with disabilities lose services, fall further behind, and watch doors close that were supposed to be held open by law.
Our community should be ashamed that Fayette County balances its books on the backs of children with disabilities. The School Board must stop rewarding administrators who deny services and start demanding public accountability for how students with disabilities are treated, supported, and funded.
Until that happens, every time a district official talks about fiscal responsibility, families will hear the truth underneath it: your child costs more than we are willing to invest, despite receiving the federal funding to do so.
https://thecitizen.com/2026/01/14/letter-to-the-editor-fcboe-denies-special-education-services/
