Are Native American students with disabilities getting the services they need? Some in Bureau of Indian Education schools may not be. Each of these students has an individualized education plan outlining the type, frequency, and duration of services the school is legally required to provide—e.g., physical therapy. Schools must log when and for how long the services in each plan are provided to...

The Department of Education requires public school districts to biennially report incidents of restraint (restricting a student’s movement) and seclusion (confining a student to a space alone). Education’s data quality checks may not catch misreporting or statistical outliers: 70% of districts reported 0 incidents of restraint and seclusion, but Education’s quality check only applies to fe...

American Indian and Alaska Native students enrolled in public schools have consistently performed below other students on national tests. The Bureau of Indian Education’s Johnson-O’Malley program provides these students with academic support and enrichment activities, such as Native language classes. The Bureau needs to improve how it manages the program by: having key information such as an...

Alternative schools may offer a different educational approach to serve expelled students or others whose needs typically can’t be met in a regular school. We looked at how 15 states hold alternative schools accountable for academic performance. All 15 states used at least one indicator that researchers and studies consider useful for assessing alternative schools. For example, 11 states used c...

If parents and school districts disagree over special education services provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, either party has options to resolve the dispute, such as mediation or filing a due process complaint. We found variations by income and race on the types of resolutions sought in 5 states. For example Nearly half of high-income districts had at least 1 mediatio...

Environmental justice seeks to address the disproportionately high health and environmental risks found among low-income and minority communities by seeking their fair treatment and involvement in environmental policy. California's mostly minority and low-income community of West Oakland, for example, is surrounded by 3 freeways and a port. Its residents are exposed to diesel air pollution 3 times...

Of the 74 state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies that responded to GAO's survey, most reported expanding services to help students with disabilities transition from school to work as required under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), enacted in July 2014. Most state agencies reported serving more students and providing work-based learning experiences and other activities, r...

State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies reported expanding services for employers in order to promote hiring individuals with disabilities in mainstream employment (where they are integrated with employees without disabilities and earn competitive wages), but the Department of Education (Education) has not fully addressed related challenges. Most VR agencies in GAO's survey reported providin...

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), stakeholders, and planning documents identified extensive and diverse capital project needs at HBCUs and GAO found HBCUs rely on a few funding sources—such as state appropriations and tuition and fees—to address those needs. HBCUs responding to GAO's survey reported that 46 percent of their building space, on average, needs repair or replac...

According to GAO's nationally generalizable survey of athletics administrators, public high schools recently took various measures to encourage equal opportunities for boys and girls in sports. For example, a majority assessed resources such as equipment, travel opportunities, and facilities that they provided to girls' and boys' teams and some schools took steps to gauge student interest in speci...