from “le détroit” · the strait
Detroit's district told its board that of 1,680 special education evaluation referrals this school year, 72 finished past the legal deadline and 728 are still in process.
From the start of the 2025-26 school year through March, Detroit Public Schools Community District received 1,680 special education evaluation referrals. Of the 811 initial evaluations the district has completed, 637 finished on time and 102 used extensions parents agreed to in writing. Seventy-two were completed past the legal deadline. Another 728 are still in process. Administrators presented the figures to the school board during a study session, and the numbers put hard counts behind years of complaints from parents and advocates.
State and federal law requires districts to complete an initial special education evaluation within 30 school days of a referral. The clock can run longer only when a parent agrees in writing before the original deadline passes. An initial evaluation determines whether a child qualifies for an individualized education program, or IEP, the plan that sets out the services, goals, and accommodations a school provides to a student with a disability. A late evaluation pushes back the IEP, and the IEP is what unlocks the services.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told the board the district has raised its on-time rate and credited hiring more school psychologists and speech language pathologists earlier this school year. "The standard is 100%," he said of the legal requirement. He added that the district still needs to build a "no-excuse culture" around evaluation timelines.
Administrators pointed to factors they say sit outside the district's control: conflicting parent schedules, families that are hard to reach, and students who move often between schools or homes. Board chair LaTrice McClendon asked for a breakdown of the pending cases, including how long individual students have been waiting, whether six months, a year, or two years. Administrators said they did not have that detail at the meeting and would follow up.
Corletta Vaughn, the board's vice chair, said parents tell her the district stops following up on pending evaluations. Lohren Nzoma, assistant superintendent of the Division of Exceptional Student Education, said communication with families would improve.
The money frames the rest. DPSCD projects special education costs of about $214 million this school year. Roughly $179 million comes from local, state, and federal grants, leaving about $34.9 million the district pulls from its general fund to close the gap. Vitti said Michigan does not fund special education adequately, and that national shortages of school psychologists and speech pathologists make hiring harder.
The story was originally reported by Chalkbeat Detroit. The board did not vote on a corrective plan, and no date was set for the follow-up breakdown it requested.
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