A Closer Look at Special Education in Ohio: Insights from OCECD’s 2025 Special Education Profile
By Lisa N. Hickman, Ph.D., Executive Director of OCECD and Marbella Cáceres, Assistant Director/Statewide Accessibility Director of OCECD
How many Ohio students receive special education services? What does the data show about their academic growth and the opportunities they have to learn alongside their peers? What can we learn about attendance, graduation, discipline, and outcomes after high school? And how does funding support the services and resources students with disabilities need to succeed?
These are some of the questions explored in the 2025 Ohio Special Education Profile (Profile), released by the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD). The Profile is a retrospective look at Ohio's special education system, containing state and federal data through the 2024–2025 academic year and through the end of 2025. It reviews information about students, services, outcomes, funding, laws, placement options, regional supports, and policy developments to provide a more complete picture of special education in our state.[1]
A significant portion of Ohio’s children receive special education services. In the 2024–2025 school year, Ohio served 26,236 preschool children with disabilities and 260,441 K–12 students with disabilities. Across preschool and school-age settings, students with disabilities represented approximately 17.3% of the population served—more than one out of every six students. Ohio’s system of public education for students with disabilities ensures our eligible students receive federally mandated services required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Understanding the experiences of our children and students requires looking beyond any single statistic and going deep into the data to learn about the areas in which we are doing well and those in which we need to improve as a state. The Profile compiles information from multiple areas into one resource so that parents, families, professionals, policymakers, and other stakeholders can better understand both the strengths of Ohio's special education system and the areas where continued attention is needed.
The Profile goes beyond student statistics. It examines the history and legal foundation of special education in Ohio, IDEA law and state requirements, the IEP process, state and federal funding, student enrollment and disability categories, attendance, academic performance, juvenile justice, graduation, transition and post-school outcomes, discipline, educational placement options, regional support systems, and recent policy developments.
That broader perspective is particularly important for parents and families. Ohio offers a comprehensive system of rights, services, supports, and educational options, but navigating that system requires access to clear and accurate information. Please read and utilize the profile to educate and empower yourself, as we are ALL a part of the fabric that makes up Ohio. Whether you read the document because you are a parent, family member, or professional wanting to learn and know more, or a policymaker wanting to add depth to your knowledge base we all want good outcomes for our children in Ohio. Together, we can accomplish great things for our children with disabilities.
Who is OCECD
OCECD is a statewide nonprofit organization that serves families of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities in Ohio, educators, and the agencies who provide services to them. We work through the coalition efforts of over 40 parent and professional disability organizations and over 70 individual members which comprise the Coalition. OCECD currently employs 24 staff who are primarily parents of children or adult children with disabilities, family members of individuals with disabilities, or who themselves are persons with disabilities. We strive to ensure that every child in Ohio with special needs receives a free, appropriate, public education in the least restrictive environment to enable that child to reach his/her highest potential. Throughout Ohio, OCECD’s services reach families of children and youth, birth through 26 years of age, with all disabilities.
OCECD’s programs are in the core areas of education, empowerment, direct support, and training. We help parents and families of children and youth with disabilities become informed and effective representatives for their children in all educational settings through direct support, as well as trainings and information. Youth with disabilities are also assisted to become advocates for themselves through self-determination, self-advocacy, and self-empowerment trainings. Through knowledge about laws, systems of supports, resources, rights, and responsibilities, families are prepared and better able to work with agencies to ensure that appropriate services are received for the benefit of their children and youth. This enables them to grow in their own self-advocacy role. Our work also includes providing trainings to children with disabilities on the transition between school life and adulthood. By providing them with resources to ensure that they have the proper supports in place, they are able to have the most independent life possible. In addition, OCECD provides supports to professionals who work with parents, families, children, and youth. To this day, our Governing Board is comprised of parents and professionals all working in this space to bring good outcomes for Ohio’s children with disabilities. Below, we highlight some of the key findings from our 2025 Special Education Profile (Profile).
Nearly All Eligible Students Receive Services—and Most Learn Alongside Their Peers
The overwhelming majority of Ohio students identified as eligible for special education are receiving services. During 2024–2025, there were 294,503 eligible students who received services, representing 98.92% of those identified as eligible. Data shows that inclusion remains an important part of Ohio's special education system, with more than 66% of school-age students with disabilities spending at least 80% of their school day in regular classrooms. Under IDEA, students with disabilities should be learning alongside their peers in general education classrooms to the maximum extent appropriate. Research shows great benefits for students with disabilities, as well as for students without disabilities, when they learn together.
Nationwide, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in July of 2026 that more students with disabilities are spending at least 40% of their day in general education classrooms, while some spend 80% or more of their day in general education classrooms (two different points measured) with their peers. This is a higher number than a decade ago, which is promising movement-although there is still great variation from state to state. To be certain, there is more across the nation to be done, including in Ohio.
Specific Learning Disability remains Ohio's largest disability category that students qualify under for special education services, although large numbers of students are also served under categories including Other Health Impairment, Speech and Language Impairment, Autism, Developmental Delay (category eligibility up through age 9 in Ohio), Emotional Disturbance, and Intellectual Disability. Under IDEA, students receiving special education are not a uniform group; therefore, an Individualized Education Program (IEP) must be designed to meet the unique educational needs of each individual child with a disability. Their strengths, abilities, needs, and required supports vary considerably, and their IEP must reflect this.
Progress, but Still More Work to Do
The Profile identifies areas of progress, but it also documents substantial and persistent academic achievement gaps for students with disabilities in comparison to their peers. In 2024–2025, 21.3% of students with disabilities scored proficient or higher in English Language Arts, compared with 60.4% of students statewide, a difference of more than 39 percentage points. Reading proficiency among students with disabilities remains in the lower 20%. There has been some improvement in mathematics. Math proficiency among students with disabilities increased from 19.2% in 2022–2023 to 20.6% in 2024–2025. However, statewide math proficiency reached 55.3% in 2024–2025, leaving a gap of more than 34 percentage points. These numbers are important because access to special education services is only one part of the picture. Educational outcomes for students are equally important for every student, including students with special needs.
The Profile also indicates that school attendance for students with disabilities has improved modestly, but at the same time, chronic absenteeism remains significantly higher among students with disabilities than among their peers. Graduation rates have increased over the past five years, with the graduation gap narrowing slightly. Comparing 4-year longitudinal rates from the graduating Class of 2020 to the Class of 2024, students with disabilities improved their graduation rate by 2.5 percentage points (from 74.3% to 76.8%). Post-secondary engagement, referring to students with disabilities after high school enrolled in higher education or training programs or found to be in competitive integrative employment, continues to be an area where we must improve.
Discipline and Juvenile Justice Data Deserve Attention
The Profile calls attention to the critical function of behavior supports, given Ohio’s high rates of disciplinary removals that directly heighten juvenile justice risks. data. It is important to note that students without disabilities also experience discipline in school settings, but students with disabilities experience exclusionary discipline at higher rates than students without disabilities. Students with disabilities represented over fifty percent of all out-of-school suspensions. The most common disciplinary actions for SWD are out-of-school suspensions and in-school suspensions. Importantly, Black, Non-Hispanic students with disabilities experience the highest rates of disciplinary actions, particularly out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. Disobedient/disruptive behavior and fighting/violence are the most common reasons for disciplinary actions among students with disabilities.
The connection between disability and juvenile justice involvement is also significant. According to data cited in the Profile from the Ohio Department of Youth Services, 46% of youth in Juvenile Correction Facilities or Alternative Placements were in need of special education services as of December 2025. This rate is more than two-and-a-half times the percentage of students receiving special education services in the general school population.
Taken altogether, these findings illustrate why it is important to look at trends across multiple measures and experiences, rather than relying on a single indicator to evaluate how students with disabilities are doing. The experiences and outcomes of students with disabilities are complex and shaped by many interconnected factors, making it essential to consider a broad range of information to develop a more complete picture of their experiences, progress, and needs. Findings here highlight the importance of appropriate and early identification, effective educational supports and interventions, and continued attention to the experiences and needs of students with disabilities throughout their education and beyond.
Funding Remains One of Ohio's Central Special Education Challenges
The Profile is helpful in understanding how Ohio funds special education in public schools. The history of school funding is traced from 1998, where we moved from a classroom-based funding model to an assessment-based, per-pupil weighted system with an equity factor and three weights. By 2002, there was an evolution of the three-weight system, which included the clustering of 13 disability categories into six weights. Today, Ohio is implementing a new inputs-based funding formula, the Ohio Fair Schools Plan, over six years, projected to conclude in FY 2027. This plan, however, does not use the most recent cost data, nor does it alter special education funding directly.
While funding has increased, it has not done so in a way that fully closes the gap. Total Ohio Department of Education and Workforce special education funding grew from about $1.07 billion in FY 2015 to $1.60 billion in FY 2025, and weighted special education funding continued to rise through FY 2025, with especially strong growth in high-cost categories, scholarships, and transportation. Even so, growth has been uneven, with long periods of flat funding followed by more recent catch-up increases, that are nevertheless below cost-based realities – a situation that has resulted in the state paying a decreasing share of special education costs.
In 2022, the American Institutes for Research completed a state-mandated special education cost study, but its policy implications were not included in either the FY 2024-2025 or the current FY 2026-2027 state budget. A follow-up study, led by the Ohio Educational Service Center Association (OESCA) and funded by the Ohio Education Policy Institute (OEPI) and released in November 2024, reviews and extends the AIR study by providing estimated, best practice-based implementation costs for the state of Ohio and public school districts.
The FY 2026-2027 state budget continued special education funding with a limited number of targeted improvements, but it did not fundamentally reform the weighted funding model or address the underlying adequacy gap. As a result, funding adequacy—not the basic structure of Ohio's special education system—remains a central challenge. Growing student needs continue to outpace the share of costs covered by state and federal funding.
State Policy 2025
Rather than a large number of stand-alone disability bills, Ohio’s most important 2025 special education changes were embedded in Am. Sub. H.B. 96, the FY 2026-2027 state operating budget. The budget increased the maximum Autism and Jon Peterson scholarship amounts, expanded some eligibility categories, permitted multiple providers and virtual delivery of certain services, and continued targeted funding for transportation, preschool special education, parent mentoring, school psychology internships, and transition supports. These changes improved flexibility, but did not resolve the deeper issues. H.B. 96 moved policy forward in practical ways for some students and families, especially those using scholarship programs or facing provider shortages.
Among other changes, the budget expanded scholarship access, increased some disability-related funding streams, provided additional flexibility in how certain services may be delivered, and continued targeted support for areas including transportation, transition, parent mentoring, and workforce development.
At the same time, the budget did not resolve broader questions surrounding funding adequacy, equity, workforce shortages, preschool special education pressures, and the declining state share of costs. Concerns remain regarding preschool special education funding, the state's share of special education costs, and the pressures experienced by districts and partner agencies responsible for delivering services.
The Future: 2026 and Beyond
As a society, we will always face challenges. How we respond to those challenges, work together to address them, and move forward will play an important role in creating better outcomes for Ohio’s children. In 2026 and into the future, we identify several important items to keep on Ohioan’s radar. They include the governor’s race, Federal ESEA waiver request and ESSA amendments, the US Department of Education and its future, Ohio’s literacy reforms, the Department of Children and Youth transition, early childhood education and child care, any Administrative Rule changes, and several additional state issues that impact children receiving special education services and their families.
The 2025 Ohio Special Education Profile released by OCECD is intended to provide information, identify where Ohio is making progress, and where continued attention, collaboration, investment, and advocacy are needed. Ohio’s history of special education parallels the broader history of special education in the United States in many ways. At the same time, Ohio has developed its own policies and funding mechanisms for special education. Although some of Ohio’s funding challenges are specific to the state’s funding structure, many reflect broader challenges that states across the nation face in financing special education. Ohio’s special education data provides important insights into the diverse experiences and needs of students with disabilities, while also telling our larger story. Many students with disabilities spend most of their school day learning alongside their peers, and there has been progress in areas such as graduation. At the same time, substantial academic gaps, chronic absenteeism, disproportionate discipline, juvenile justice involvement, growing enrollment, and continuing funding pressures demonstrate that important work remains.
For parents and families, educators, professionals, policymakers, and advocates, understanding the legal history and Ohio’s place in it, as well knowledge regarding our funding structures for special education past and present is vital for clear analysis. This information must be combined with our data on our students receiving special education services and state policies for a comprehensive representation of special education in Ohio. Our report endeavors to collate all of this data in a way that helps bring understanding of where we have been, where we are going, what we need to consider, and how to move forward. Only in this way will we be able to ensure that every Ohio student with a disability has access to the educational services, experiences, and supports they need to reach their fullest potential. As always, OCECD will be here for our families and students, and continue to work to ensure that all Ohio children with special needs receive a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment.
Read the full report, OCECD 2025 Special Education Profile Report
Visit The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD)
[1] All data referenced throughout this post, excluding hyperlinked references found here, is reported on in the Special Education Profile. Please see the Profile for direct citations, references, and source information.