How Often Families Challenge a School District, and What Happens When They Do
In the 2023-24 school year, families filed 37,448 due process complaints against American school districts, plus 9,882 formal state complaints and 12,319 requests for mediation. Due process filings have grown 2.5 times over since 2009-10. But the number that matters most to a parent is this one: whether you can realistically use any of it depends enormously on the state you live in. Families in New York filed 575.53 due process complaints for every 10,000 students with disabilities. In Montana the figure was 0.5. That is a 1,151-fold difference, and it is not because schools in one state are 1,151 times worse.
Every parent of a child with an IEP eventually hears the phrase “due process.” Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, families have three formal ways to challenge a school district: a state complaint, which asks the state education agency to investigate; mediation, which is voluntary and confidential; and a due process complaint, which is the legal route and can end in a hearing before an impartial officer. This page shows how often each is actually used in every state, using the U.S. Department of Education’s own data.
What the national numbers show
Two things stand out. Formal disputes have risen sharply since 2009. And in most years, only a small minority of due process complaints ever reach a hearing; the rest are settled, withdrawn, or dismissed.
| School year | State complaints | Mediation requests | Due process complaints | Hearings held | Share reaching a hearing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | 4,793 | 7,695 | 15,137 | 1,170 | 7.7% |
| 2010-11 | 4,934 | 8,093 | 15,441 | 1,097 | 7.1% |
| 2011-12 | 4,927 | 8,560 | 15,328 | 1,374 | 9.0% |
| 2012-13 | 4,972 | 8,789 | 14,737 | 1,362 | 9.2% |
| 2013-14 | 4,950 | 8,807 | 15,579 | 1,466 | 9.4% |
| 2014-15 | 4,932 | 9,511 | 14,740 | 943 | 6.4% |
| 2015-16 | 5,319 | 8,251 | 17,668 | 934 | 5.3% |
| 2016-17 | 5,210 | 10,668 | 16,498 | 1,197 | 7.3% |
| 2017-18 | 5,211 | 11,253 | 18,127 | 1,374 | 7.6% |
| 2018-19 | 5,558 | 11,096 | 19,570 | 1,897 | 9.7% |
| 2019-20 | 5,318 | 10,007 | 21,155 | 1,426 | 6.7% |
| 2020-21 | 4,174 | 8,576 | 22,949 | 1,095 | 4.8% |
| 2021-22 | 6,114 | 10,497 | 28,432 | 2,345 | 8.2% |
| 2022-23 | 8,093 | 11,505 | 32,810 | 3,766 | 11.5% |
| 2023-24 | 9,882 | 12,319 | 37,448 | 8,117 | 21.7% |
Counts are the sum of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Years before 2009-10 use a different reporting format and are excluded rather than shown as estimates. The share reaching a hearing rose noticeably in 2023-24; the federal data records the counts but does not explain year-to-year changes.
Dispute resolution by state (2023-24)
Sorted by due process complaints per 10,000 students with disabilities, which is the only way to compare a state the size of California with one the size of Vermont. The final column shows the share of students who spend most of the school day in a regular classroom, from the same federal collection.
| State | Students with disabilities (6-21) | State complaints | Mediation requests | Due process complaints | Per 10,000 students | Share reaching a hearing | In regular class 80%+ of day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 464,057 | 417 | 455 | 26,708 | 575.53 | 28.6% | 58.6% |
| District of Columbia | 13,658 | 25 | 36 | 250 | 183.04 | 28.8% | 60.7% |
| California | 753,485 | 1,273 | 4,682 | 4,555 | 60.45 | 1.1% | 62.6% |
| New Jersey | 229,661 | 227 | 951 | 909 | 39.58 | 6.7% | 44.8% |
| Maryland | 101,418 | 279 | 392 | 360 | 35.5 | 5.6% | 72.4% |
| Connecticut | 80,189 | 206 | 377 | 259 | 32.3 | 1.2% | 65.7% |
| Pennsylvania | 328,727 | 253 | 526 | 942 | 28.66 | 5.6% | 61.4% |
| Massachusetts | 169,318 | 1,360 | 1,275 | 416 | 24.57 | 1.7% | 67.5% |
| Hawaii | 17,504 | 47 | 23 | 39 | 22.28 | 17.9% | 53.0% |
| Alabama | 95,015 | 30 | 85 | 205 | 21.58 | 0.5% | 83.0% |
| Nevada | 58,955 | 42 | 20 | 95 | 16.11 | 3.2% | 59.8% |
| Washington | 140,971 | 186 | 86 | 197 | 13.97 | 5.1% | 64.6% |
| Vermont | 14,058 | 78 | 75 | 15 | 10.67 | 0.0% | 81.4% |
| Illinois | 265,578 | 262 | 500 | 254 | 9.56 | 10.2% | 52.8% |
| Rhode Island | 22,227 | 19 | 46 | 21 | 9.45 | 0.0% | 71.9% |
| Delaware | 25,010 | 16 | 26 | 23 | 9.2 | 4.3% | 65.1% |
| Missouri | 113,331 | 112 | 55 | 104 | 9.18 | 5.8% | 56.1% |
| Maine | 32,733 | 61 | 100 | 28 | 8.55 | 0.0% | 55.4% |
| New Hampshire | 28,257 | 62 | 47 | 24 | 8.49 | 50.0% | 80.0% |
| Virginia | 163,770 | 297 | 209 | 137 | 8.37 | 10.2% | 70.6% |
| Arkansas | 68,366 | 66 | 62 | 51 | 7.46 | 27.5% | 70.7% |
| Florida | 400,233 | 251 | 95 | 285 | 7.12 | 6.3% | 78.9% |
| Tennessee | 120,436 | 143 | 43 | 83 | 6.89 | 7.2% | 75.1% |
| North Carolina | 190,813 | 224 | 153 | 126 | 6.6 | 2.4% | 70.7% |
| Colorado | 103,256 | 143 | 157 | 68 | 6.59 | 5.9% | 80.4% |
| Michigan | 184,503 | 248 | 240 | 113 | 6.12 | 4.4% | 72.2% |
| Alaska | 18,219 | 23 | 3 | 11 | 6.04 | 18.2% | 69.2% |
| Texas | 704,648 | 1,193 | 429 | 424 | 6.02 | 3.8% | 74.7% |
| Indiana | 172,943 | 321 | 86 | 104 | 6.01 | 3.8% | 77.6% |
| Georgia | 217,446 | 320 | 157 | 130 | 5.98 | 10.0% | 62.3% |
| South Carolina | 102,398 | 157 | 5 | 58 | 5.66 | 8.6% | 64.4% |
| Mississippi | 64,176 | 69 | 22 | 34 | 5.3 | 50.0% | 79.0% |
| Arizona | 137,948 | 169 | 133 | 72 | 5.22 | 5.6% | 69.3% |
| West Virginia | 44,456 | 35 | 4 | 19 | 4.27 | 0.0% | 63.7% |
| South Dakota | 21,134 | 19 | 12 | 9 | 4.26 | 44.4% | 76.7% |
| Louisiana | 79,024 | 59 | 45 | 29 | 3.67 | 0.0% | 67.8% |
| Kansas | 70,042 | 115 | 15 | 24 | 3.43 | 4.2% | 71.8% |
| Idaho | 35,899 | 53 | 27 | 12 | 3.34 | 25.0% | 66.3% |
| Ohio | 254,898 | 209 | 192 | 84 | 3.3 | 3.6% | 66.5% |
| Wisconsin | 109,945 | 125 | 138 | 36 | 3.27 | 8.3% | 78.1% |
| Wyoming | 13,581 | 39 | 13 | 4 | 2.95 | 0.0% | 77.7% |
| Kentucky | 96,583 | 47 | 20 | 27 | 2.8 | 0.0% | 76.3% |
| Iowa | 64,762 | 29 | 26 | 17 | 2.62 | 0.0% | 78.0% |
| Oregon | 78,869 | 64 | 53 | 16 | 2.03 | 0.0% | 77.6% |
| Nebraska | 48,695 | 42 | 14 | 8 | 1.64 | 0.0% | 81.6% |
| Oklahoma | 115,786 | 71 | 32 | 17 | 1.47 | 11.8% | 74.4% |
| Minnesota | 138,303 | 236 | 78 | 14 | 1.01 | 7.1% | 62.5% |
| North Dakota | 15,797 | 19 | 4 | 1 | 0.63 | 0.0% | 72.8% |
| Utah | 83,977 | 36 | 27 | 5 | 0.6 | 20.0% | 73.9% |
| Montana | 20,111 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0% | 58.9% |
| New Mexico | – | 94 | 66 | 25 | – | 12.0% | – |
A high filing rate does not mean a state’s schools are worse, and a low one does not mean families are satisfied. Filing a due process complaint in most states effectively requires an attorney who practices special education law. Where those attorneys are concentrated, filings are high. Where families have no realistic access to one, filings approach zero. New York alone accounts for about 71% of every due process complaint filed in the United States, a concentration that reflects how that state’s hearing system is structured and used rather than the quality of instruction in its classrooms.
Read the low numbers with that in mind. When a state reports one or two due process complaints in an entire year across tens of thousands of students with disabilities, the useful question is not whether anything went wrong that year. It is whether families there have any practical way to raise it.
What this means if you are the parent
- A state complaint is the accessible option. It does not require a lawyer, it is filed with your state education agency, and the state must investigate and issue a written decision, normally within 60 days. Nationally families filed 9,882 of them in 2023-24.
- Mediation is voluntary and free to you. The state pays for the mediator. It cannot be used to deny or delay your right to a hearing. Roughly 12,319 requests were made in 2023-24.
- Most due process complaints never reach a hearing. They settle at the required resolution meeting, or they are withdrawn. Filing is often what moves a district, which is worth knowing before you assume a hearing is inevitable.
- Deadlines are short. In most states you have two years from when you knew about the problem to file. Check your own state, because a few are shorter.
- None of this survives the school years. IDEA protections end when your child exits school, which is why the planning covered on this site matters. See our transition cliff database for how many students leave school each year in your state.
About this data
Source. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, IDEA Section 618 Part B Dispute Resolution collection, school years 2009-10 through 2023-24, retrieved from data.ed.gov in August 2026. Student counts used as denominators come from the same section’s Child Count and Educational Environments collection for 2023-24, using the school-age total for all disabilities.
Definitions. A state complaint is a written, signed allegation filed with the state education agency. Mediation requests counts requests, not agreements reached. A due process complaint initiates the formal legal process; hearings counts only those fully adjudicated, so a complaint that settles is not counted as a hearing. The inclusion column is the share of school-age students with disabilities served inside a regular class 80 percent or more of the day.
Limitations. States differ in how they classify and report these events, so cross-state comparisons show how each system is used rather than how well students are served. Small states produce volatile rates from year to year because the underlying counts are tiny. School years before 2009-10 use an incompatible reporting format and are excluded. Where the Department suppressed or did not receive a figure, this page shows a dash rather than a zero.
Use this data. Journalists, researchers, and advocates are welcome to cite this page with attribution and a link. For the compiled tables or the underlying federal files, contact us.