A new analysis of special education data hopes to advance understanding and solutions for students with the greatest need.
During the past five years, enrollment in West Virginia’s public schools has declined by nearly 10 percent. In 2017, 270,613 students were enrolled in West Virginia public schools. By the fall of 2023, that number had dropped to 245,047.
However, educators like Rachel Brown say during the same period the numbers of special education students have gone up.
“Everyone’s overworked because our numbers keep rising,” she said. “And our county has done a lot of cuts this year, because our enrollment numbers have gone down, but we couldn’t cut. Our numbers have gone up.”
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Brown is the intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/AU) special education curriculum specialist for Kanawha County Schools. She oversees more than 60 self-contained classrooms across the county, where students with the most complex needs, who require the most support, are placed.
The increase is not unique to Kanawha County, the state’s largest school district.
“It’s increasing everywhere,” Brown said. “I was discussing with a specialist yesterday. Ten years ago, she was in a rural part of the county. And I was like, I bet you had a sweet, tiny little classroom of like, five, because our maximum self-contained is 12. And now in the same location, we have two self-contained classrooms at this school, and they’re both full. So that’s a huge change in over a decade.”
A new analysis from the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics is quantifying some of those changes.
“In West Virginia, it is a problem of some magnitude,” said Samuel Workman, director of the institute. “We’re talking between, depending on the year you look, anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 students. So it constitutes about one in five in the current year of students, 20 percent of our students. That’s a great number of our young folks who are on independent educational plans.”
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Graphs display the increase in IDEA plans in West Virginia over the past five years.
Credit: Samuel Workman/West Virginia University
Workman and his team analyzed the last five years of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act data (IDEA), from the West Virginia Department of Education. The report compiled a data set from 2017 to 2023 addressing the demographics, geography and trends in independent educational plans (IEP), in the state.
“States will monitor things like how often these kids are in normal classrooms, or standard classrooms, I should say, any disciplinary actions taken against these children, and sort of assessing performance over time, both for their sake and relative to other students,” Workman said.
Workman’s study shows the breadth of conditions – both physical and developmental – covered by IEPs. They run the gamut from difficulty with vision or hearing, to psychological issues.
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The largest category is now “specific learning disabilities,” which Workman said the federal government defines as psychological problems with processing language. But categories like autism and developmental delay have witnessed increases, especially in recent years.
“Which I understand to be associated with a whole host of environmental problems in children, substance abuse in a home being one,” Workman said. “But those are the sorts of things we are seeing at least at present time, explosion is probably too strong of a word, but certainly sharp upticks in the number of children categorized within those disability categories versus the traditional sort of hearing disabilities.”
The analysis also reveals interesting demographic distributions, including the fact that a near two-thirds majority of students on IEPs are male.
Brown said her experience aligns with that finding, as does research into the diagnosing of the condition.
“We do have a higher rate of boys in our autism classrooms,” Brown said. “The research [shows] females are able to mask better, so they’re not identified as frequently or as often early on. Even with ADHD, boys are often identified before girls.”
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A graph from Workman’s IDEA data analysis shows the discrepancy in IEPs between male and female students.
Credit: Samuel Workman/West Virginia University
More data and study is needed to better understand such discrepancies, as well as the relationship between the various factors driving the trends, including the opioid crisis and lack of access to resources like early childhood interventions.
Workman credits the state’s Department of Education for making the data easier to access. He hopes his study helps to make it easier to use and understand and ultimately bring more eyes to the issue.
“The way I organize data is not the way a public health person would organize the data, it’s not the way an education professional organizers data,” Workman said. “Continuing to work to make that data as integratable as possible with our public health systems and our education systems will work wonders in understanding the nature of the problem, what we’re dealing with.”
Workman said with one in five students having IEPs, the far-reaching impact of education – from the immediate impact of each student to the broader implications for workforce development and businesses – makes a better understanding of special education needs imperative.
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“The degree to which we can better understand these children, help them to the extent possible to lead sort of productive, rich lives, both at home and at their place of work and all this sort of stuff, the better off the state’s going to be. So it’s a real problem with a real need for lots of eyes,” he said.
Brown agrees.
“I always have hope, that’s the best part of being a special educator, you always have to hope,” she said. “I’m hoping that this will help make special education a priority, and just education in general a priority in our state.”
West Virginia is looking to flip the decision of 2025 defensive back Carson Lawrence (Chattanooga, TN) who is currently committed to Vanderbilt. The Mountaineers have secured an official visit with the four-star recruit while Ole Miss and Virginia Tech are also in the mix. Lawrence will be in Morgantown from May 31st-June 2nd.
“I’ve built some great relationships with the staff over there (at WVU),” Lawrence told FanNation. “I have a great connection with ShaDon Brown. He just lets me know how they love me as a player and he thinks I can be a great player for them.”
Although Lawrence is leaving his options open, he’s been committed to Vanderbilt since last June so it’s not a guarantee that he’ll eventually flip his decision. “I would just say it has to definitely feel like home with me and my family,” he responded when asked what it would take to move off of Vandy.
As a junior, Lawrence notched 40 total tackles, nine passes defended, four interceptions, two forced fumbles, two tackles for loss, and a pair of touchdowns.
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He tells me that he expects to make his final decision sometime in July.
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West Virginia became the first power program to extend a scholarship offer to Portsmouth (Va.) Norcom 2025 running back Nakeem Jones during the evaluation period.
Jones, 6-foot-0, 215-pounds, found out about the news from his head coach who had met with wide receivers coach Bilal Marshall earlier that day.
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Ft. Worth, TX – West Virginia senior Reed Chumley went 2-4 at the plate with a home run and raked in four RBIs to guide the Mountaineers (33-20, 19-11) to a series decisive game three win over the TCU Horned Frogs (31-19, 14-16) Sunday evening 6-5.
West Virginia jumped out to an early advantage in the top of the first inning when sophomore Sam White was beaned by the 1-2 pitch, then back-to-back two-out RBI doubles from Reed Chumley and Grant Hussey gave the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead.
TCU loaded the bases in the third, and placed a runner in scoring position in the fifth but left-hander Tyler Switalski came out of both jams unscathed. The junior tossed five scoreless innings, allowed four hits, and struck out two.
The Horned Frogs got on the board in the sixth after redshirt senior Kurtis Byrne reached after a slow ground ball to reliever Maxx Yehl threw high and wide of first baseman Grant Hussey, allowing Byrne to take second. A wild pitch gave Byrne third before a check swing from freshman Chase Brunson resulted in a sacrifice RBI back to Yehl to cut the WVU lead in half 2-1.
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West Virginia sophomore reliever Carson Estridge took the mound in the seventh with two outs and the bases loaded and on the 1-1 pitch, Byrne flied out in foul territory in right field to get out of the inning.
The Mountaineers broke the game in the eighth. Sophomore Benjamin Lumsden ripped a leadoff double to left field. Sophomore Logan Sauve took first with a one-out walk. TCU head coach Kirk Saarloos opted to load the bases after intentionally walking junior JJ Wetherhold. Sophomore Sam White hit an RBI sacrifice fly to centerfield. Then, Chumley lifted the 1-0 pitch well over the left field wall for a three-run home run to give WVU a 6-1 lead.
Cole Estridge loaded the bases in the eighth before head coach Randy Mazey called in senior Hambleton Oliver. Tolle came in to pinch-hit and flied out to left field for a sacrifice RBI and that’s all the Mountaineers relinquished to hold onto a 6-2 advantage.
In the bottom of the ninth, TCU loaded the bases after a leadoff single, a walk and a one single to set up a two-RBI double from freshman Chase Brunson to cut the lead to two, 6-4. Mazey turned the game to Joseph Fredericks. The freshman walked the bases loaded and Mazey, again, went to his bullpen.
Sophomore right-hander Robby Porco took the mound and with the count full, Brunson lined an RBI double and, on the play, senior Peyton Chatagnier was caught in a run down and tagged out at the plate.
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Right-handed Luke Lyman came into the game, making his second appearance of the series and his fifth of the season. The sophomore ended the game with three-straight pitches for the strikeout as the Mountaineers held on for the 6-5 decision.