Georgia: More parents suing DofE over lack of SPED support

Mar 23, 2026, Atlanta News First: Georgia special education disputes surge as parents take legal action against school districts

Due process hearing requests jump as families fight for resources required under federal law.

More parents are taking legal action against Georgia school districts over special education disputes, with cases often involving school officials accused of not following the law by allegedly failing to provide necessary resources for children.

The numbers tell the story. According to the Georgia Department of Education, due process hearing requests — which ask a mediator to formally decide whether a school violated special education law — have surged 141% over the past five years. The first two months of 2026 alone saw 111 hearings requested, nearly double all of 2021, which had 73 total. . . .

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“There has been a significant increase in the number of complaints and the number of due process hearings, because we’re in a perfect storm of more students needing help and less people to be able to provide it due to staffing shortages,” Tanner said.

“I knew that they would probably trend in this direction, but I am surprised about the magnitude of it,” she said.

According to the Georgia Department of Education presentation from December 2025, due process hearings are the most adversarial dispute resolution process available under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. They can be filed by parents or school districts and are heard before an administrative law judge.

The hearings are related to the identification, evaluation or educational placement of a child with a disability or the provision of a free appropriate public education to the child.

Formal complaints are more common than due process hearings. The Georgia Department of Education said formal complaints can be filed on behalf of a single student or a group of students by anyone, including parents, advocates and attorneys. The state conducts an investigation and issues a final decision. If a district is found out of compliance with federal special education law or state rules, corrective action is required.

As of December 2025, the state had 180 formal complaints filed for fiscal year 2026 to date. The most common findings of non-compliance in formal complaints for fiscal year 2025 to date involved failure to provide a free appropriate public education, failure to implement individualized education programs and failure to properly develop, review and revise individualized education programs.

The presentation noted that more complaints are being filed by current school staff and more complaints are being filed in districts that have not historically had complaints.

After two years fighting with Fayette County School District, Kinsinger said she settled the score. The district paid her family $332,000, money she said barely covered moving her three children out of the district.

She also received an apology from Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Patterson, who wrote: “I am sorry this situation caused your family distress. I also regret that you felt that the district did not serve your children’s education needs.”

Kinsinger demanded the letter after declining to sign a confidentiality agreement, a rare move in education litigation.

“Here’s the bottom line: they were looking for a way to shut us up,” Kinsinger, who today helps other parents navigate similar problems, said. “We are not people who shut up.”

Kinsinger is not the only parent who claims the district retaliated against them after aggressively advocating for their children. Atlanta News First Investigates spoke to at least four other parents who made similar claims.