As special education students return to school, what are they owed?

While the agency’s attempt to differentiate between compensatory and “Covid recovery services” might be well-intentioned, the “differentiation is not all that clear,” said Perry Zirkel, a professor emeritus of education and law at Lehigh University, who frequently blogs about special education.

“The calculation of (Covid recovery services) can eventually cause even more litigation in terms of not only whether the determination is appropriate, but also whether or to what extent it fulfills any entitlement to compensatory education,” he wrote in an email.

And if neither the federal government nor the state ponies up additional money for these services, schools could be left in the lurch.

“Without extra funding, (Covid recovery services) ultimately allocates local school resources, which are already reduced due to added expenditures for technology and safety equipment/services and lower tax revenue, from future to past needs,” Zirkel wrote.