Idaho
In Idaho, special education departments face parent complaints, staff shortages and budget gaps – East Idaho News
(Idaho Ed News) — School districts statewide are facing a bevy of challenges as they strive to provide a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities.
Special education staffing shortages and turnover are perennial issues. An $80 million special education budget deficit means schools have unmet needs. And complaints from parents about districts’ special education programs are on the rise.
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Still, schools must provide an equitable education — and that’s according to federal law. When they fall short of their duties — or when parents allege they have — it can lead to state and federal inquiries and lawsuits, which further drain school resources.
State education leaders have a few solutions in mind to ease staffing and financial hurdles — like an apprenticeship program for special education teachers-to-be, and a proposal to rethink school funding with special education students in mind. They’re also building up resources to help school leaders and parents become better partners.
It’s too early to say how helpful those initiatives will be. For now, schools are left to grapple with the status quo — and recruiting and retaining special education staff is among the most pressing problems.
Special education staffing woes persist at district and state levels
Idaho has faced special education staffing shortages every year since 2002, according to federal data.
Look on any given school district’s job openings page, or on the state’s edjobsidaho, and there will most likely be one or more special education vacancies.
That’s the trend nationally, too. Special education teachers make up 12% of the teaching workforce but amount to 24% of all teacher job postings, according to Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab research center.
In Idaho, districts are hiring special education teachers with alternative authorizations in order to fill vacancies; they comprise 11% of special education teachers statewide.
To help with staff shortages, the state department has developed a special education teacher apprenticeship program that aims to ease the path to teacher certification for those who already work with students, like paraprofessionals. But so far, only one district has hired a special education apprentice, according to Mike Keckler, the spokesperson for the State Board of Education.
Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab, said another way to boost recruitment and retention is with salary increases. In Hawaii, for example, special education teachers are paid an additional $10,000 on top of their base salaries.
But in Idaho, where districts are already strapped for cash, that may not be a feasible solution.
In the meantime, Idaho’s special education staffers tend to have higher student caseloads than their peers in other states. Only Idaho and Ohio have fewer than 20 special education staffers per 200 students — as compared to more than 60 in some states, according to Edunomics Lab research.
Idaho is also facing a high rate of shortages and turnover at the state level. There are 10 special education staff members at the Idaho Department of Education, and nine of them are new within the last five years, according to Scott Graf, the IDE communications director. Four are new in the past two years.
And the IDE’s special education department’s turnover rates have more than doubled in the last two fiscal years.

At the local level, Julian Duffey, the special education director at Jefferson County School district, said positions like his are known for “high burnout” and turnover as well.
On top of staffing shortages and turnover, districts are also navigating budgetary gaps that might increase as more students qualify for special education services.
Special education enrollment and costs are linked. In Idaho, that could soon lead to greater budget shortfalls
Nationally, special education enrollment is trending up, even as overall student enrollment trends down. That means on average, schools are identifying more kids as qualifying for special education, according to Edunomics Lab research.
In some states, more than 20% of students qualify for special education. Idaho and Hawaii are outliers for having the lowest special education enrollment rates in the nation, with just 12% of students qualifying for services.

The varying rates call into question whether disability diagnoses are objective or subjective, which could mean schools are over or under-diagnosing students in need, Roza said in a webinar presentation.
And Idaho falls into the latter category, according to the results of a federal inquiry. For years, Idaho was setting too high of a bar for which students could qualify as having a “specific learning disability,” a category of disorders including dyslexia.
That tracks with national research from the Edunomics Lab, which singled Idaho out for having one of the lowest qualifying rates for specific learning disability in the nation.

The state has now changed its special education manual to address the issue — making a minor but significant tweak that could lead to thousands more Idaho students receiving special education services.
That means special education enrollment will tick up — and so will costs.
Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report.
Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on November 19, 2024
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Idaho
Interstate 84 near Mountain Home back open after utility work
MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Interstate 84 near Mountain Home is back open after crews closed the freeway due to utility work.
Crews closed westbound and eastbound lanes on Saturday morning from milepost 90 to milepost 95 due to Idaho Power working on power lines in the area, according to the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office. All lanes are now back open in both directions.
The sheriff’s office and the Mountain Home Police Department apologized for the inconvenience, saying they were just informed of the closure on Saturday morning.
More information regarding road closures and traffic conditions can be found at the Idaho Transportation Department’s 511 map.
Copyright 2026 KMVT. All rights reserved.
Idaho
Idaho murder victims’ families file wrongful death lawsuit against Washington State University
The families of the four University of Idaho students killed in a brutal 2022 stabbing attack have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Washington State University (WSU), alleging the school ignored repeated warning signs about Bryan Kohberger.
The civil complaint, filed Jan. 7 in Skagit County Superior Court, was brought by Steve Goncalves, father of Kaylee Goncalves; Karen Laramie, mother of Madison Mogen; Jeffrey Kernodle, father of Xana Kernodle; and Stacy Chapin, mother of Ethan Chapin.
The lawsuit accuses WSU of gross negligence, wrongful death and violations of federal education laws, including Title IX. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Attorney Robert Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, said that the decision to leave damages “unspecified” is a strategic norm in high-stakes litigation because it prevents the focus from shifting towards sensationalism and keeps the decision firmly in the hands of the jury.
“Ultimately, that’s to be determined and answered by the jury,” said Clifford, who is not involved in the lawsuit. “But you have some compelling facts and the liability is going to depend on the strength of what the school knew.”
Despite Kohberger’s guilty plea in the murders, Clifford explained the civil case remains strong because the families face a lower burden of proof – requiring only a preponderance of evidence to establish the university’s liability.
“The mere fact that he pled guilty might not even be admissible in the civil proceeding because he’s not the defendant, right? If he is a defendant in the civil proceeding, then his plea of guilty will be important. And indeed, this school might try to use that to say, ‘See, it wasn’t our fault. He admits that it was his fault.’ But the bar is different for someone in a criminal proceeding than it is in a civil proceeding.”
According to the lawsuit, WSU hired Kohberger as a teaching assistant in its criminal justice and criminology department and provided him with a salary, tuition benefits, health insurance and on-campus housing.
The victims’ families allege the university had extensive authority over Kohberger’s conduct but failed to act despite mounting concerns.
Here’s the latest coverage on Bryan Kohberger:
The complaint says WSU received at least 13 formal reports accusing Kohberger of threatening, stalking, harassing or predatory behavior toward female students and staff during the fall 2022 semester. The families argue university officials did not meaningfully investigate those complaints or remove Kohberger from campus before the murders – even though they had the authority to do so.
The lawsuit also alleges that the university failed to use its own threat-assessment systems designed to identify individuals who pose a risk of violence, even as concerns about Kohberger escalated. Instead, the families claim, the university continued to employ him, house him and give him access to students.
“The murders were foreseeable and preventable,” the complaint states, alleging WSU prioritized avoiding legal and reputational risk over student safety.
The lawsuit also alleges broad failures within the public university, including alleged dysfunction within campus police and compliance officers who are responsible for handling accusations of misconduct, including sexual harassment and stalking.
Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors said Kohberger stabbed the four students in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, inside an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, just miles from the WSU campus in Pullman, Washington.
Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania in December 2022 following a multi-state investigation.
Authorities linked him to the crime through DNA evidence, surveillance video and cellphone data showing repeated late-night trips near the victims’ home.
WSU has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. Fox News Digital has reached out to WSU for comment.
Idaho
Turkey Town Hall to be held at the end of January to discuss North End nuisance
BOISE, Idaho — At the end of January, Boise City Councilmember Jimmy Hallyburton will hold a town hall meeting to discuss the growing population of wild turkeys in the North End. The meeting, which is set to take place at Lowell Elementary School on January 29 at 7 p.m., will center around education and how to treat wildlife in an urban setting.
The public meeting will feature speakers from the Boise Parks and Recreation Department, Idaho Fish & Game, and Councilmember Hallyburton.
Hallyburton told Idaho News 6 over the phone that the meeting was prompted by damaging and, in some cases, violent behavior by wild turkeys in the North End. Residents in the area have reported turkeys scratching cars with their talons, ruining vegetable gardens, sparring with domesticated dogs & cats, and even becoming aggressive towards human beings.
A viewer in the North End recently shared a video with Idaho News 6 that shows a flock of turkeys accosting a postal service worker. Thankfully, a dog intervened and saved the USPS worker from further harm.
See the video of the attack below
Hallyburton said that the North End community needs to take a focused approach to how it deals with the turkeys. “We’re making it too easy for them to live in the North End,” Hallyburton said. “We need to make our urban areas less habitable for the turkeys.”
The North End councilmember goes on to explain that residents who are feeding or treating the turkeys as pets are creating an environment in which human vs. wildlife conflict is more likely. “You might think that you’re helping the turkeys, but you’re actually causing them harm over the long term,” said Hallyburton.
Hallyburton added that the population of turkeys in the area has ballooned from a single flock of around a dozen turkeys to multiple flocks and roughly 40 turkeys. They are mostly located in the residential area of the North End between 18th and 28th streets.
Idaho Fish & Game recommends “gentle hazing” to keep turkeys from roosting in urban areas. This can include squirting turkeys with water when they approach one’s property.
Since transplanting wildlife has become more difficult in recent years due to new laws, the only other option for the turkeys would be extermination, which Hallyburton said he would like to avoid at all costs.
WATCH: Wild turkeys take over Boise’s North End
Wild turkeys turn Boise’s North End into their new roost
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