Special education advocates from organizations such as Equip for Equality, Access Living, and Legal Council for Health Justice are pushing the Illinois General Assembly to pass House Bill (HB) 2337 to protect the educational rights of children with disabilities. Representative Laura Faver Dias introduced HB 2337 to amend the Children with Disabilities Article of the Illinois School Code. The bill is designed to prevent parents of students with disabilities from being forced to waive their rights to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) as part of any mediation, resolution, or settlement agreement.

More specifically, HB 2337 would require school districts to limit waivers to students with disabilities involved in the mediation process, which may occur when a school cannot provide services in a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Additionally, all waivers must be “limited in scope and duration and narrowly tailored to the nature and intent of the settlement.”

Mediation is a voluntary process for students and school districts engaged in a dispute over a child’s IEP. In the 2025 fiscal year, the Illinois State Board of Education (the Board) received 413 mediation requests, but not all of those requests resulted in mediation. Medication can be a cost-effective way to resolve these disputes, and the Board reports that 71% of mediations result in agreements.

Mediation agreements typically contain standard waiver provisions. These provisions require parents to waive their rights to bring further claims or complaints about the issues resolved through mediation. However, the Board doesn’t track how many mediation agreements contain waivers.

In the past, some school districts inserted waiver language in agreements with the parents of children with disabilities. For instance, a waiver might require parents to waive all rights to file legal claims against a school district regarding their child’s education. Another school district asked parents to waive all legal claims for ten years in exchange for the district providing certain services for their child.

Waivers such as these prevent parents from filing complaints with the Illinois State Board of Education. Parents also may sign away their right to file claims against their school districts under the Illinois School Code, Title IX, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and other state and federal laws. These waivers often affect not only the children at issue but also their siblings, who may need special education services. In some cases, the waivers may be overreaching or even illegal.

Parents typically have no legal representation in their dealings with school districts over the educational needs of their children with disabilities. Waiver provisions may be complex and difficult for unrepresented parents to understand. Furthermore, once parents sign waivers, they rarely can contest them. Even if a waiver is illegal, contesting is impossible without taking legal action, which requires money to pay a lawyer.  

Other states have increasingly been grappling with waiver issues, as well. For instance, the New York City education department has offered vouchers for students with disabilities attending private schools. However, the vouchers require the students’ families to waive their legal claims against the city department.

The waiver issue may be even more important in the coming months as the U.S. Department of Education has transferred services for students with disabilities to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mass layoffs also have occurred at the U.S. Department of Education, including its entire Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR previously was responsible for investigating claims concerning the provision of special education services.

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