While national debates fixate on “wokeness” in education, here in Berkeley and Jefferson counties, we’re facing something far more pressing: collapse. Our public schools are being pushed past their limits—not by ideology, but by underfunding, understaffing and the impossible gap between legal obligations and actual capacity.

In May 2025, the federal government canceled nearly $1 billion in school-based mental health grants, funding that had helped schools nationwide—including here in West Virginia—hire school psychologists, social workers and crisis response staff. These professionals were essential. Without them, teachers are now left to manage trauma, behavioral escalation and mental health crises alone, while also trying to teach. Add to that a projected $400 million state budget deficit, and it’s no surprise that educators are fleeing across the border to Maryland and Virginia—where they’re paid $15,000 to $30,000 more per year, with better insurance and more support.

In Berkeley and Jefferson counties, where commuters can work just minutes away for dramatically better pay, the pipeline of special education staff and mental health professionals is bleeding dry. This is especially dangerous for students with disabilities. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools are legally required to provide individualized mental health and behavioral supports. But without staffing, that obligation becomes symbolic—and students suffer the consequences.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a battle over ideology. It’s a system unraveling in real time. And we need to be clear on one more thing: this is not the fault of our teachers. It’s not the fault of parents. And most importantly, it is absolutely not the fault of our students. The tendency to look for someone to blame—teachers, families, administrators—has only deepened the crisis. As long as we’re pointing fingers at each other, we’re not focusing on the coordinated steps that need to be taken by the federal government, the state, and local districts to fix what’s broken. We are not failing to comply with IDEA because we don’t care. We are failing because the numbers simply don’t add up. The will remains. The resources do not.

What Can Be Done?

At the national level, Congress and federal education leaders must:

● Fully fund IDEA: Congress has never met its promise to cover 40% of the cost of special education services. Currently, the federal government pays less than 15%. Fully funding IDEA would alleviate local budget pressures and ensure that schools have the means to comply with federal law.

● Restore and protect mental health funding: Reestablish the grants eliminated in 2025 and explicitly separate school-based mental health support from culture war politics. These supports are not ideological—they are essential.

● Expand Medicaid flexibility for school-based services: Streamline approval processes and increase federal matching funds for services delivered in schools. This would allow districts to recover more funding for behavioral and therapeutic supports already being provided.

● Launch a national special education compliance task force: Create a bipartisan body to examine where the delivery gaps are, how funding can be better aligned, and how states can be held accountable in a shifting political climate.

● Invest in the educator workforce pipeline: Provide federal student loan forgiveness, tuition incentives, and paid residencies for aspiring special educators, school psychologists, and related service providers to rebuild the national pipeline.

At the state level, lawmakers must:

● Implement regional pay differentials in border counties to retain teachers and service providers.

● Invest in Medicaid billing infrastructure so schools can sustainably fund eligible behavioral and therapeutic services.

● Mandate a statewide special education funding audit to identify the shortfalls between IDEA mandates and actual delivery. At the district level, superintendents and school boards should:

● Hire special education secretaries or compliance clerks to handle IEP scheduling, paperwork, report collection, and file maintenance. This would lift the clerical burden off teachers, giving them the time and bandwidth to focus on instruction, modify general education content, and collaborate with families and team members more effectively.

● When teachers aren’t drowning in documentation, they have the capacity to develop creative, student-centered strategies—meeting learners where they are and designing instruction that truly works for them.

● Use existing administrative support funding to create these roles without displacing classroom resources. Across our local communities, we must:

● Pursue public-private partnerships to expand school-based services and leverage nonprofit and healthcare collaboration models that can bring mental health and disability supports into schools in more flexible and cost-effective ways. For example, districts could partner with regional hospitals or university-based psychology clinics to embed part-time counselors and interns directly into school buildings at a shared cost.

● Enact a temporary moratorium on new home construction until school staffing, compliance, and behavioral supports catch up with enrollment growth.

● Require developer impact fees to help fund special education services, behavior teams, and educator training.

● Demand public transparency around staffing shortages, federal IDEA compliance, and the district’s actual capacity to meet student needs. This is not sustainable. We cannot continue to welcome more families into our counties while pretending our schools aren’t already breaking under the weight of unfunded mandates. If we can’t meet our obligations to current students—especially those with disabilities—we must stop expanding and start rebuilding

Jennifer Dotson is a non-partisan national special education policy expert and the founder of CoEqual, a West Virginia–based advocacy and consulting platform with national reach. A former special educator in Berkeley County, licensed social worker, and legislative lobbyist, she works at the intersection of education, disability, and public policy to help families, educators and agencies fulfill the promise of IDEA. CoEqual launched this month in response to growing political uncertainty, with a mission to impact the tone and tenor of the conversations by insisting on true collaboration. She can be reached at jhdotson@comcast.net.