Temporary Public Reporting of State Complaint Data

On January 16, 2025, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) received a letter from the United States Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in response to the monitoring activities conducted by OSEP in February and March 2024. OSEP's letter and accompanying monitoring report identified certain areas of non-compliance in the state's system of general supervision and required certain corrective actions to be taken by DESE. One such action includes a requirement for the Department to temporarily publicly report the following state complaint data metrics on a quarterly basis.

As of January 16, 2026, DESE reports that:

PRS received 376 new state complaints¹ filed within the last three months.
PRS has 129 state complaints pending.
- Of the total number of state complaints pending:
  - 120 complaints are within the 60-day investigation timeline.
  - 9 complaints are beyond the 60-day investigation timeline.
    - All 9 complaints are subject to allowable extensions because of a pending Bureau of Special Education Appeals matter.
    - There are no other complaints over the 60-day investigation timeline.
PRS has 235 state complaints in the corrective action stage with open required actions.
- Of those open state complaint decisions, 5 have overdue required corrective action. Overdue corrective action is defined as corrective action that has been unresolved within one calendar year of the identified non-compliance.

DESE anticipates that it will post its next public reporting update on or about April 15, 2026, unless directed otherwise by OSEP.

Please note: DESE will continue to provide its temporary quarterly public reporting as mandated and will do so as long as the requirement remains in effect. Upon completion of the ordered corrective action, as determined by OSEP, DESE will no longer publicly report complaint metrics of this nature.

Previous Temporary Public Reports

As of October 14, 2025:

PRS received 272 new state complaints¹ filed within the last three months.
PRS has 217 state complaints pending.
- Of the total number of state complaints pending:
  - 142 complaints were within the 60-day investigation timeline.
  - 75 complaints were beyond the 60-day investigation timeline.
    - Of the complaints beyond the 60-day investigation timeline:
      - 70 complaints had Local Reports requested.
        
        60 complaints had Local Reports received.
      - 15 complaints were beyond the 60-day timeline, but subject to allowable extensions. This includes matters set aside because of a pending Bureau of Special Education Appeals matter.
PRS had 239 state complaints in the corrective action stage with open required actions.
- Of those open state complaint decisions, 8 had overdue required corrective action. Overdue corrective action is defined as corrective action that has been unresolved within one calendar year of the identified non-compliance.

As of July 15, 2025:

PRS received 371 new state complaints¹ filed within the last three months.
PRS has 414 state complaints pending.
- Of the total number of state complaints pending at the time of reporting:
  - 203 complaints were within the 60-day investigation timeline.
  - 211 complaints were beyond the 60-day investigation timeline.
    - Of the complaints beyond the 60-day investigation timeline:
      - 200 complaints had Local Reports requested.
        
        185 of the complaints had Local Reports received.
      - 10 complaints were beyond the 60-day timeline subject to allowable extensions, which includes matters set aside because of a pending Bureau of Special Education Appeals matter
PRS had 207 state complaints in the corrective action stage with open required actions.
- Of those open state complaint decisions, 9 had overdue required corrective action. Overdue corrective action is defined as corrective action that has been unresolved within one calendar year of the identified non-compliance.

PRS received 374 new state complaints¹ filed within the last three months.
PRS had 528 state complaints pending.
- Of the total number of state complaints pending at the time of reporting:
  - 195 complaints were within the 60-day investigation timeline.
  - 333 complaints were beyond the 60-day investigation timeline.
    - Of the complaints beyond the 60-day investigation timeline:
      - 310 complaints had Local Reports requested.
        
        277 complaints had Local Reports received.
      - 17 complaints were beyond the 60-day timeline, but subject to allowable extensions. This includes matters set aside because of a pending Bureau of Special Education Appeals matter.
PRS had 200 state complaints in the corrective action stage with open required actions.
- Of those open state complaint decisions, 14 had overdue required corrective action. Overdue corrective action is defined as corrective action that has been unresolved within one calendar year of the identified non-compliance.

¹ PRS handles complaints filed pursuant to the IDEA Part B, its implementing regulations, state special education laws, and state regulations ("special education complaints"), and also investigates other general education-related complaints ("general education complaints"). The data reported on this page reflect that matters that have been deemed special education complaints.

Last Updated: January 16, 2026