It was a great privilege to sit down with Karla Phillips-Krivickas for an episode of Quality Matters. Karla is a special education policy expert, both professionally and personally (as the parent of a student with exceptional needs).
Karla reminded us that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed in 1975, was first and foremost a civil rights victory. It granted students with disabilities the right to attend public school. But access alone isn’t the finish line. Nor is compliance. Karla challenges us to move beyond compliance—endless paperwork and IEP meetings—and instead ask the most fundamental question: Are these students gaining ground academically?
In Arizona, just 14% of students with disabilities are reading at grade level by third grade. That statistic underscores a systemic failure, not of students, but of the expectations and supports they’re given. Karla believes under-challenging students is more common than we’d like to admit. Too often, she says, the default is low expectations or assumptions based on visible disabilities—while the majority of students with special needs have “invisible” ones like dyslexia or ADD.
Quality means not just meeting the legal minimum, but building systems where all kids—especially those most overlooked—can be challenged, supported, and seen.
I'd love to hear from readers: If you have experience with the federal IEP process, what’s the first thing you’d change to make the system more effective?
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