Johnson Co, NC: 4 autistic students restricted to reduced school day
- The end of childhood
- Oct 4
- 4 min read
Sept 29, 2025, Raleigh, NC, WRAL: Group files complaint over JCPS' reduced schoolday for student with autism
Disability Rights of North Carolina believes the matter is part of a larger pattern of mishandling the education of students with autism in the Johnston County school district, though the state disagreed earlier this year.
State officials are investigating a complaint from a legal nonprofit that Johnston County Public Schools kept a high school student with autism out of school or away from their peers in violation of federal law.
Disability Rights of North Carolina believes the matter is part of a larger pattern of mishandling the education of students with autism in the Johnston County school district, though the state disagreed earlier this year and is declining to investigate whether the district has a systemic problem.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction investigated the group's claim of systemic issues earlier this year, when the group filed complaints on behalf of three other students at other schools. The department confirmed violations related to two of those three students, though it's unclear what those violations were.
The department told WRAL News that it is investigating the group's newest complaint, but is not opening up an investigation into system issues because the complaint fails to demonstrate a "policy, practice or procedure" that resulted in similar issues across the district.
Johnston County Public Schools hasn't responded to WRAL News' requests for comment.
The state has a formal complaint process by which families can ask the state to investigate whether their school has violated the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in regards to their child's education. The state receives a couple of hundred each year, and most result in findings of some violation.
Disability Rights filed another complaint on Sept. 16 on behalf of a student, referred to as "KS," who alleged systemic issues once again.
"It's a part of a trend that we're seeing," Disability Rights attorney Glynnis Hagins told WRAL News. Hagins is representing KS's family. "We had several clients reach out to us about issues of modified, forced, modified day and forced virtual learning settings, that is just alarming and that the parents didn't feel like they had a voice in the situation. It felt like they were kind of required to place their child on a modified day or in a virtual setting without any input for meaningful participation."
The complaints state that the high school student has a moderate intellectual disability and autism. The student also has limited verbal speech and a history of trauma.
Because of behavioral issues, KS has been moved to a modified day schedule -- attending for only a couple of hours per day -- and restricted to a self-contained special education classroom, Hagins said. The student has a behavior intervention plan in their previous school district that had helped to keep behavior issues at bay -- so much so that Hagins said the plan was removed.
But KS was placed on a modified schedule when they transferred to the Johnston County high school, according to the complaint, and the school removed the student's access to their communication device, then to direct speech services. The student's behavior deteriorated, the complaint states, and the student was regularly suspended.
The complaint contends that the school and the student's grandmother disagreed on how to help KS, with the student's grandmother wanting KS to be in school for the full day when they did not have afternoon therapy sessions. The grandmother also wanted new evaluations done on KS and updates to the student's behavior analysis and intervention plan, requests that the complaint says were delayed for months.
The student was suspended for 33 days during the 2023-24 school year and for 40 days during the 2024-25 school year -- absences from school that further hurt the student's academic and social progress, Hagins said. That's on top of the student's already shortened school day, Hagins noted.
"He not only misses critical instructional time needed to learn in a diverse educational environment and take a diverse array of courses like art, physical education, and music, but he also misses critical nonacademic periods like lunch," the complaint states. "KS is not at school long enough to engage in any of these critical periods of the school day. He leaves school just after second period begins."
Instead, KS is regressing academically, the complaint states. The student did not receive sufficient instruction in reading, math, writing, or daily living, social, communication, and behavior skills. He also did not receive many therapies while out of school.
The removal of KS's communication device and then services and then the shortening of KS's school day "catapulted" KS "into regression and behavioral challenges," Hagins told WRAL News.
The student had successfully attended general education classes for the majority of the school day in their prior school district, but that hasn't happened in Johnston County, Hagins said.
The case of KS is further evidence that Johnston County Public Schools has a larger issue of keeping students with autism out of the "least restrictive environment," based on the other cases Disability Rights has taken up, the complaint states. The "least restrictive environment" (LRE) is a term established under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The law requires schools to educate students with disabilities as much as possible alongside their nondisabled peers -- in the "least restrictive environment."
Disability Rights is asking DPI to review the records of other students with autism who are enrolled in Johnston County Public Schools for other violations of the "least restrictive environment" requirement due to the nature of the allegations in the instant complaint that so closely resemble the allegations in our previously filed complaint." . . .
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