New special education accounts draw legal challenge

Disability Rights Montana and the Montana Quality Education Coalition, two organizations that advocate for public school students, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of a new state law that grants parents of students with special needs direct access to state education funding. The Republican-sponsored law, passed on largely party lines in the 2023 Legislature, creates a system of education savings accounts parents can opt into to receive state-funded reimbursements for special education services obtained outside of Montana’s public school system. The plaintiffs’ comp