What do I do if my child's special education school placement is not working?

If your child's special education school placement is not working, compare the school's specialist staffing, credential quality, and program fit against other schools in your area. iepguide.org provides free nationwide school ratings that show specialist staffing depth, staff credential levels, program fit, and caseload adequacy — giving you the data to ask better questions at your next IEP meeting and evaluate alternative placements.

How do I find a better school for my child with an IEP?

Use iepguide.org to search public schools by address, city, district, or state across all 50 states. Schools are rated on specialist staff presence, credential quality, program fit for the student's intensity level, and specialist-to-student caseload adequacy. Enter your home address to find and compare schools near you, sorted by distance.

What does SWD mean in education?

SWD stands for Students With Disabilities. In education, SWD refers to students who receive special education services under IDEA. iepguide.org displays SWD enrollment percentage for context but rates schools on specialist staffing, credential quality, and program fit — not on SWD percentage alone.

How do I know if a school has good special education services?

Look for four key factors: specialist presence (SLPs, OTs, school psychologists, nurses, and BCBAs physically at the school), staff credentials (CCC-SLP, BCBA, OTR/L), program fit (right program type for the child's needs), and caseload adequacy (how many students each specialist serves). iepguide.org rates every public school on all four factors using federal data.

Special education placement not working?

Looking for Best Schools for Child with Autism/ADHD/Disability

Find IEP Schools Near You — Nationwide Special Education Ratings

Search public schools for children with IEPs across all 50 states. California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois & Pennsylvania featured as the top six SWD-serving states.

All 50 states covered7.5M+ SWD studentsSWD = Students With DisabilitiesIEP = Individualized Education Program

Top SWD School Districts by State

Ranked by SWD Support Score — staffing depth, academic performance, composite rating.

California

Texas

Florida

New York

Illinois

Pennsylvania

To get started: enter your address below, or select a state above to search by school, district, city, or county.

State

County

District

Level

Intensity

Select a state to explore schools.

How to Read the Scores

SWD Support and IEP Ready scores range from 0–100. Color shows the rating level.

055657585100

85–100 Excellent75–84 Good65–74 Moderate55–64 Low0–54 Critical

Applies to both SWD Support Rating and IEP Ready Rating. Higher is better.

📘 IEP Guides & Checklists →Tools to prepare for upcoming IEP meetings

Free printable PDFs — sign up free to view or download:

IEP Meeting Checklist IEP School Placement Guide IEP Process Guide California Texas Florida New York Illinois Pennsylvania

Child profiles and school updates

New

Create a private profile for each child and keep your school research, IEP meetings, and notes organized in one place. Use a nickname or initials — you never need to enter your child's full name.

• A profile per child: nickname, grade, program intensity (T1–T4), color + icon
• Child workspace tabs: Overview · Schools · Calendar · Notes
• Save school comparisons to a child and reopen them any time
• Service highlights grid: OT · Speech · Nurse · Psychologist · RSP · SDC
• Export all data for a child as a PDF, any time
• Delete a profile permanently — no ads or tracking on account pages

1. Search schoolsUse your location, ZIP, address, or state above to find schools near you.
2. Compare side by sideTick up to 3 schools, then open Compare to see scores and the service highlights grid.
3. Save it to a childChoose a child profile and save — it appears in that child's Schools tab with a snapshot date and a refresh button.

Sign in to set up child profilesFree for your first month with any account. Your data is never sold or used for advertising.

How to use this site

1Pick a state, then narrow by county, district, or school level to see every public school we cover.
2Enter your home address to sort schools nearest-first and see exact distance (in miles) on each tile — your address stays in your browser and is never saved.
3Open any school to view its IEP Ready Score, SWD Support Score, specialist staffing, program intensity (T1–T4), and any open special-education vacancies in the district.
4Compare schools side-by-side, then use the findings as a starting point for conversations with the school, district, IEP team, or an advocate.
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How school scores are calculated
Each school shows two presentation-only scores derived from public data. They reflect special-education service capacity alongside academic performance — not a single measure of overall school quality.
- SWD Support Score — combines four factors: specialist presence, staff credential quality (board-certified vs. clinical fellow), program & intensity fit (T1 Mild → T4 Severe), and caseload adequacy relative to the school's SWD population.
- IEP Ready Score — overall rating for IEP families, blending academic performance with the SWD Support Score above.
- Vacancy signals — when EdJoin or Indeed list open special-education roles in the district, we surface that as context (not a standalone judgment).
Scores reflect special-education service capacity alongside academic performance. Always verify current programs and services directly with the school or district. Full details on the About page.

Important disclaimer

IEP Guide does not provide legal, medical, educational, or IEP placement advice. The site uses public, aggregated education data to help families, educators, and advocates explore patterns and ask better questions. Placement and service decisions should be made through the appropriate school, district, and IEP process.

IEP Guide does not publish individual student records and does not collect or display student-level personal information.

About iepguide.org

Is your child's special education school placement not working? You are not alone. iepguide.org is a nationwide platform built specifically for families of children with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Search public schools across all 50 states, compare special education support side by side, and organize everything that happens between IEP meetings — all in one account.

Our school ratings look beyond test scores. We measure the four factors that matter most when an IEP placement is not working: specialist staff presence, staff credential quality, program fit for the student's intensity level, and specialist-to-student caseload adequacy. Search by address, city, district, ZIP code, or state to find IEP schools near you and see which schools report on-site or shared support for speech, occupational therapy, school psychology, nursing, RSP, and SDC programs.

A free family account includes one child profile, the full school search, and the IEP calendar. Upgrade to Base or Plus to add more child profiles, save unlimited school comparisons, log daily check-ins and trends, and use AI meeting notes that transcribe and summarize in real time. Notes are stored only on your device or your own cloud account — never on iepguide.org servers.

We do not serve ads and we do not run third-party tracking scripts. Family pages are kept private, and we never sell or use family data for advertising. Daily check-in logs stay on your device; meeting notes stay in your browser session until you export them. iepguide.org is also available as a mobile app experience for iOS and Android through your browser's add-to-home-screen option, with native app builds in progress.

Data sourced from the U.S. Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22 and IDEA Section 618 federal education reports. Ratings are for informational purposes only and do not constitute placement advice. Always verify current programs and staffing directly with the school or district.

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