04/02/2026
15% of students in California have IEPs.
Fifteen percent.
In some of our highest-performing, best-resourced districts, where parents are engaged, and schools have every advantage, we're still hitting and exceeding that number.
That's not a disability crisis. That's a systems crisis.
When 1 in 7 students can't access their education through the instruction we're providing, the question we have to ask isn't "what's wrong with these students?" It's "what's wrong with what we've built?"
In my April blog post, I address what's driving this—the Tier 1 failures we won't name out loud, the teacher preparation gaps we don't want to own, and the way we've made special education the only robust intervention system in too many schools—and what it would actually take to fix it.
Tag an advocate, educator, or administrator who needs to read this. This conversation is overdue. 👇
https://www.dhbconsult.com/sped-advocacy-blog/15percent